Michelle Obama thinks her two daughters are dolls, but she doesn’t want the rest of the world to see them that way.
In one of her first official moves, President Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle went public denouncing a popular toy maker for marketing dolls with the same names as her children, Malia and Sasha. Not only do the dolls share the same names as the young Obama offspring, but they also look remarkably similar to the first daughters as well.
(See for yourself by clicking here.)
The resemblance didn’t sit well with the new first lady, who took a swing at Ty Inc. (the same company that created and distributes those uber-popular Beanie Babies) last week. According to news reports, the Illinois company received a terse letter from the desk of Michelle Obama saying that the dolls, which feature dark complexions and dark hair — one is named “Marvelous Malia” and the other named “Sweet Sasha”– should be yanked from store shelves.
“We believe it is inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes,” a spokeswoman for the first lady told news reporters.
A short time later a Ty spokeswoman issued this response:
“There’s nothing on the dolls that refers to the Obama girls. It would not be fair to say they are exact replications of these girls. They are not. The dolls have bronze skin and real doll hair.”
As opposed to darker skin and real human hair?
In regards to the dolls’ names, Ty execs maintain that the company chose the names because “they are beautiful names.”
Ty goes on to say that the dolls were not designed to “look like any living person.” In fact, as of Friday Ty execs were calling the doll brouhaha a “misunderstanding.”
I guess they misunderstood the negative reaction they would receive from the first family.
What do you make of the controversy? Is it really a coincidence as Ty would like people to believe?