The Big, Bad World of Mattel
Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 576 g
ISBN: 978-0-470-37126-8
Verlag: WILEY
Now, in this intriguing and entertaining exposé, New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer places the world's largest toy company under a journalistic microscope, uncovering the dark side of toy land, and exploring Mattel's oddball corporate culture and eccentric, often bizarre, cast of characters.
Based on exclusive interviews and an exhaustive review of public and private records, Toy Monster exposes Mattel's take-no-prisoners, shark-infested corporate style. Throughout this scrupulously reported, unauthorized portrait, you'll discover how dangerous toys are actually nothing new to Mattel, and why its fearsomely litigious approach within the brutal toy business has helped their products dominate over potential rivals such as Bratz.
But this is only part of the story. Along the way, you'll also become familiar with the larger-than-life personalities that have shaped Mattel's eccentric world. There's cofounder Ruth Handler, a "one-woman sales-merchandising-promotion-administrative force, a sort of industrial Orson Welles," who becomes a white-collar criminal. There's Jack Ryan, the "Father of Barbie," whose second of five wives calls him "a full-blown seventies-style swinger into wife-swapping and sundry sexual pursuits as a way of life." And don't forget CEO Robert Eckert, who came from the worlds of processed cheese and hot dogs to lead Mattel-only to get grilled by the U.S. Congress, and the world press, in the lead-paint-and-dangerous-magnets cause célèbre.
The phenomenal Barbie brand's 50th anniversary arrives in 2009, hot on the heels of the China Toy Terror recall scandal that has tarnished Mattel's image in the hearts and minds of millions of people worldwide. Toy Monster takes you inside the scandals that have been a part of this company, and shows you why today's toy business isn't always fun and games.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
Weitere Infos & Material
Part One: The Barbie War and the Handler-Ryan Era.
Chapter 1: Barbie's Untold Heritage.
Chapter 2: A Shocking Cover-up.
Chapter 3: From Weapons of Mass Destruction to Barbie, and the Knocking Off of a German Doll.
Chapter 4: Putting the "Matt" in Mattel, and How the Toymaker Became a Hotbed of Aggressive Hotheads.
Chapter 5: Real-Life Barbie Dolls.
Chapter 6: Horrific Scandal, Controversy and Indictments.
Chapter 7: A Civil War and a Hollywood Romance.
Chapter 8: A Bloody Tragic Ending.
Part Two: A Drama Princess and the Barad Era.
Chapter 9: "Miss Italian America".
Chapter 10: From "He-Man" to Home Depot.
Chapter 11: A Fearsome and Firing Diva and the Great Whistleblower Debacle.
Chapter 12: The Princess Diana Fiasco, Praying for Success, and Demi Plays Barad.
Chapter 13: Another Whistleblower in the Ranks, Toyland's Worst Acquisition and the End of a Reign.
Part Three: Toy Terror, the Bratz Attack, and the Eckert Era.
Chapter 14: The Processed Cheese Savior.
Chapter 15: Barbie's Aging, Eckert's Making Excuses, and the Bratz Pack Is Booming.
Chapter 16: Toy Terror 2007.
Chapter 17: An Outrageous Apology.
Chapter 18: "Like Something Out of The Exorcist".
Chapter 19: Keep It Out of the News!
Chapter 20: Don't Diss Barbie, and the Toy Trial of the Century - Bratz vs. Barbie.
Author's Notes on Sources.
Selected Bibliography.
Acknowledgments.
Index.
