Parisian Halts Sale of Dolls to 'Adopt'
In October, I wrote about a toy-marketing campaign that urged girls to "adopt" lifelike baby dolls. The gist of the marketing was that children (and their parents) would browse through "Newborn Nursery Adoption Centers" to choose one of 22 models of dolls to "adopt."
I learned today that the Parisian Division of Saks Incorporated halted the sale of the dolls.
Late last year, the Evan B. Donaldson
Adoption institute spearheaded an effort to end the doll "adoption" campaign by the manufacturer and the retailers who participated in it, saying that the campaign was "based on antiquated, discredited perceptions of adoption."
Pertman argued that the campaign:
- Implicitly eliminates key participants in the adoption process -- i.e., the women and men who give life to the babies, and who in infant adoption today typicaly choose the new parents for their children.
- Suggests adoptive parents shop for babies as they do for products and perpetuates damaging myths about how adoption works, including a notion that adopted children are commodities.
- Futhers an inaccurate portrayal of adoption, which risks formenting another generation of negative, uninformed attitudestoward adopted people, their parents by birth and adoption, and adoption per se.
Parisian is the only company to date to respond to the Institute's initiative.
A letter from Parisian to Executive Director Adam Pertman said, "We have decided to remove references to adoption from our process...we never intended to offend or demean the seriousness of adoption."
Pertman said he was heartened by and grateful for Parisian's action. "It shows two things: that people in business aren't always concerned with only the bottom line, but can also show their regard for deeply important issues; and that advocates for families and children can have a real, on-the-ground impact."
For more articles about adoption, please visit my Web site, www.laurachristianson.com and my Christian Adoption blog at adoption.com.
