With so many Baby Einstein videos on the market today, you’d think that our society would be over-run with geniuses…not so. Even Walt Disney, the distributors of the popular baby videos, seems to implicitly agree – the videos do nothing to improve the brain power of your baby. They are even offering a refund. Yep, your money back!
Not only is the refund a startling admission that the videos won’t improve your baby’s intellect, it speaks to the lack of educational value of the videos. Of course, they are good for “electronic babysitting,” but that’s a whole different story.
The reason for the refund, it seems, is that Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood threatened the Walt Disney Company (who acquired the original makers of Baby Einstein in 2001) with a class action lawsuit, claiming that not only were the videos not educational (as Disney had stated in their marketing of the videos and books, flashcards, clothes and DVDs, too), but that Disney had engaged in unfair and deceptive practices. You can read much more detail in the New York Times article published last week.
That’s taking “truth in advertising” pretty far, don’t you think? I mean, I’m all for refunds if a product is defective and doesn’t perform as promised, but is this overkill? Maybe.
Anyway, if you have any videos, you can get your money (or exchange the DVD for a differently titled video, or a coupon for additional DVDs) by contacting Baby Einstein directly.
And for what it’s worth, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no time in front of the screen at all for children under 2.
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