When the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood called Disney out for its bogus Baby Einstein videos, it drew more than the ire of few executives. The children's advocacy group was successful in getting full refunds for parents, but not long after, it got the boot. Talk about cold-blooded.
Understandably, Disney — which acquired Baby Einstein Co. in 2001 — wasn’t happy to be viewed as acknowledging that its products were scholastically worthless. (For its part, Disney says the money-back guarantee demonstrates the degree to which it stands behind the videos.) Apparently the Burbank-based media behemoth has responded by pressuring the Campaign’s landlords to evict the tiny children’s advocacy group from its Boston office.
The New York Times reports that the Campaign's director, Susan Linn, and the head of its Media Center, Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, were contacted by their landlord a few weeks after the refund offer was publicized last fall. The landlord, a Harvard-affiliated children’s mental health center called Judge Baker Children’s Center, made an unusual request.
According to the New York Times:
“The Judge Baker staff informed us they didn’t want us to talk to the press, or to say anything about Baby Einstein,” Poussaint said. “They suggested to me that Disney was threatening to sue Judge Baker.”
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times