Suppose you’re a high-ranking official in China’s Communist Party and it’s your job to worry about improving the nation’s global image. Should you be pleased or dismayed by Mattel (MAT) executive vice president Thomas Debrowski’s September 21 apology “to the Chinese people”?
Odds are you’re tickled to death. And therein lies a problem, Cnn.com reports.
It’s easy to see why a Chinese official might celebrate Mattel’s apology as a PR coup. After all, Debrowski did the full kowtow. He flew to Beijing, prostrated himself before China’s product safety chief and the Chinese press, and acknowledged unreservedly what Chinese officials have been saying for weeks: that the vast majority of the recalls were the result of a Mattel design flaw, not substandard production by Chinese suppliers; that China has been blamed unfairly for Mattel’s mistakes; that Mattel’s handling of the recall sullied the reputation of all Chinese manufacturers.
As the flashbulbs popped, Debrowski told product safety boss Li Changjiang that “Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people and all of our customers who received the toys.”
That same day, Mattel headquarters issued a statement affirming that 17 million toys were recalled for Mattel design flaws, far outnumbering the 2 million recalled because of concerns about toxic paint from Chinese suppliers.
Moreover, the statement regretted the paint-related recalls as “overly inclusive, including toys that may not have had lead in paint in excess of US standards.” That admission seemed to repudiate an earlier declaration by Mattel CEO Bob Eckert that the US toy maker had been “betrayed” by trusted Chinese suppliers.
For China , what could be more gratifying? Chortled the official English-language China Daily: “The apology, though delayed, should help dispel the suspicion American customers harbor against Chinese-made products.”
Would it were so. An enlightened steward of China’s global reputation would see the US toy maker’s reversal for what it was: a PR fiasco not just for Mattel, but China too. The problem with Mattel’s elaborately staged about-face is that it was just that: staged, and almost entirely about ‘face.’
