Posted by Krista Rogers

As a little girl I was captivated by the American Girl book series and the accompanying dolls. The books presented a great platform to educate pre-teen girls on diverse lifestyles and challenges and allow them to relate across time to people living in dissimilar situations. The dolls tied into those same periods of history and provided a tangible link to the pre-teen girls living those lives.

After I read a series of books, my parents would reward me with the overpriced doll that I now had a literary connection with. At $95 a pop, these dolls were more than just plastic play figures. In contrast to headless Barbies soon housed in the ice-chest in the garage, my American Girl dolls had personalities. I developed a relationship with them and learned to relate to the various trials and tribulations they faced.

Enter American Doll’s newest addition: Gwen Thompson, the homeless pre-teen whose back story includes being abandoned by her father and living out of a car with her mother. Still priced at $95 for the doll itself, homeless Gwen is causing quite the controversy.

The reason: homelessness is a serious social issue. With over 10 percent of the U.S. categorized as homeless, the new American Doll does embrace an aspect of our culture that needs to be communicated. Gwen’s story allows girls of higher socioeconomic status (read: who’s parents are willing to fork up $95 for a doll) to relate to and understand the lives of the less-fortunate. Gwen can give perspective to privileged pre-teens and help them develop empathy.

However, capitalizing on the unfortunate circumstances of transients without any type of give-back to the homeless community is as the Huffington Post puts it, in bad taste. The Huffington Post article triggered pages of angry comments. Public outrage then went viral. The Twitterverse trended hot and heavy on the topic. Here are a few examples:

Going Viral

Two comments left on a CBS article echoes the general publics’ sentiment on the issue, “Greedy capitalists will go to any lengths to make money! $95.00 for a homeless doll? The wonderful results of a Sick Society!” and “At $95 it’s nice to know that American Girl, LLC can make money off of the homeless children of America. How about giving a few of these dolls out for Christmas. If they get a letter from a shelter from a family a doll goes there. Someone from the American doll company needs to do some goodwill. I won’t be buying an American doll for little girl this year because I am unemployed.”

It may be too late for American Girl to reclaim some of the goodwill lost in what many viewed as a cynical attempt to capitalize on a tragic situation. Something they should have before launching Gwen was to develop a cause marketing program where 10 percent or more of all Gwen sales would go to a national shelter program for the homeless, or some other relevant initiative.

To take it to a higher level and one that built reputation over time, American Girl could have launched an integrated, strategic program to educate more Americans about the homeless issue and generate new sources of income, much as 7-Eleven did for so many years in supporting Jerry Lewis and his annual telethon for muscular dystrophy. All Gwen promotional efforts, materials, social media blitzes and public relations outreach could have supported the effort, providing links to relevant agencies where the pre-teen girls and their families could step forward with their own contributions. The America Girl web site could have added a special educational page on the homeless issue and encouraged visitors to become activists in a national cause and donate online.

Cause-marketing is a proven way for building reputation and goodwill among different target audiences. Studies show consumers support companies that give back to the community. American Girl has a history of connecting positively with their target audiences (and parents!). Perhaps it is time to start connecting in new and more meaningful ways.

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Tags: branding, cause marketing, Crisis PR, issues management, media, news, positioning, reputation, social media

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Client Service Results, Crisis PR, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.