Mrs. Obama: Don't exploit my daughters with dolls
TY STORY | Company now claims dolls aren't based on Obama kids
Here's one mom who won't be buying those new Sasha and Malia dolls produced by Westmont-based Ty, Inc.:
First lady Michelle Obama.
(AP)
On Thursday, her office gave the toys the raspberry.
"We believe it is inappropriate to use young, private citizens for marketing purposes,'' Katie McCormick Lelyveld, the first lady's press spokeswomen said in an e-mail to the Sun-Times.
A spokeswoman for Ty did not return a call Thursday.
On Wednesday, company spokeswoman Tania Lundeen told the paper that Ty, Inc. founder H. Ty Warner was inspired by the Obama daughters.
"How can we resist?" she said.
Crain's Chicago Business quoted an unnamed company official saying that "we certainly hope that [the Obama girls] like them."
But Lundeen told the Associated Press that the doll names -- "Sweet Sasha" and "Marvelous Malia" -- were chosen because "they are beautiful names," not because of any resemblance to first kids Malia and Sasha Obama.
"It would not be fair to say they are exact replications of these girls. They are not,'' she told the AP.
The 12-inch tall, $9.99 dolls, with bronze skin and soft hair, were released as a pair earlier this month ahead of the inauguration of President Obama.
They are part of the company's "TyGirlz Collection" and include a password to enter a company Web site where children can play in a virtual world.
Ty is best known for its successful Beanie Babies line of toys, which built a fortune estimated by Forbes to be $4.4 billion for Warner.