A Ticking Bomb
Re: “Bad Boy Marketing” (March, 2007)
Disaster doesn’t only happen in guerrilla marketing.
Promotional products manufactured in a hazardous manner can also lead to serious mishaps — like the recent death of a four-year old who died from lead poisoning after eating a charm bracelet Reebok gave out as a premium.
The issue of product liability is much larger than most people might realize. The promotional item industry is a $23 billion industry with 18,000 companies in it.
The reality is that most companies in the field — and those who purchase promotional items — have little understanding of the severe problems that have been occurring. These include hazardous promotional products and factories using underage workers to make these products.
Any company that purchases a promotional item legally assumes a responsibility to the recipients. However, due to the widespread lack of knowledge on the part of promo product buyers about the testing of these items, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has been forced to recall several promotional products from the market in the past 12 months.
The buyer’s lack of knowledge about the work conditions has also resulted in several PR nightmares in which promo products bearing a brand logo were being made by children as young as three years old.
At this point, a small minority of major corporations have begun to pay attention to the liabilities involved with distributing branded products. Why have they done this? Because they have observed a number of the damaging lawsuits, recalls and PR nightmares resulting from hazardous promotional products or child labor in the factories where these items are made.
Reebok, a responsible corporate citizen, is one of those that has actively sought out solutions to this growing problem. Hopefully, others will start to follow their lead.
Can other companies follow the lead of Reebok? Yes they can.
Companies need to make sure their vendors are producing these items in socially compliant factories (child free, sweatshop free), and they also need to make sure the items are being tested by legit laboratories to comply with the CPSC and American Society for Testing and Materials standards.
Brett Marz
CEO
Bamko Promotional Items
Los Angeles
