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Fathers Tell Hasbro: Don't Sell Stripper Dolls to Six Year Olds
Wednesday, 24 May 2006
News
(Pawtucket, RI) Fathers nationwide are skeptical that Hasbro, Inc. President CEO Alfred J. Verrecchia encourages his six-year-old granddaughter to engage in eroticized play.
That's why these fathers are part of a campaign urging Verrecchia to halt Hasbro's plan to start marketing-to girls as young as six-a line of dolls based on "The Pussycat Dolls," a six-woman music group that performs highly eroticized dance routines and songs, and helped launch a sexual cabaret show in Los Angeles. The grassroots online and letter-writing campaign was launched today by the national nonprofit Dads & Daughters and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC).
"It's a simple thing," Dads & Daughters President Joe Kelly says. "We want Mr. Verrecchia and Chief Operating Officer Brian Goldner to put their own children's faces in this picture. As fathers, they know that six-year-olds are nowhere close to the developmental stage where it is appropriate or healthy for them to begin acting out their sexuality. Yet girls exactly like Mr. Verrecchia's granddaughter make up the target market for Hasbro's Pussycat Dolls."
Hasbro is one of the country's largest toymakers; manufacturing familiar names like Playskool, Milton-Bradley, Play-Doh, My Little Pony, and TONKA.
Recently Hasbro signed a licensing agreement with The Pussycat Dolls to manufacture a line of dolls based on the group's six eroticized characters. To see images of The Pussycat Dolls and to read lyrics of their best-selling songs, visit http://www.dadsanddaughters.org/action/PussycatDolls.html
"It's irresponsible for Hasbro to target little girls with such blatantly eroticized dolls," said Harvard University's Dr. Susan Linn, CCFC's co-founder and author of Consuming Kids. "To make matters worse, the dolls are linked to music, videos and other products that send terrible messages to young children."
Dads & Daughters (http://www.dadanddaughters.org/) is the national nonprofit working to make the world safer and fairer for daughters. Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (http://www.commercialexploitation.com/) is a national coalition countering the harmful effects of marketing to children through action, advocacy, education, research, and collaboration.
Contact: Melody Morrell E-mail :
Tel : 218-722-3942 ext 33
