Bloggers vs. American Girl Place
Can you handle a little heartbreak? Don’t worry, there’s a happy ending.
This Brooklyn mother’s blog tells the tale of her six-year-old daughter Etta saving up to buy a doll named Gracie from Target. Sweet, right?
What happened when Etta had the nerve to bring Gracie to uber-doll HQ American Girl Place for a “doll hairstyling”? She was refused service. Gracie, it turns out, wasn’t “good enough” for the American Girl treatment.
The story has caught fire in the blogosphere and has American Girl blushing big time. Check out the blog comments—one upstart home-based doll company generously offered Etta free shipping on any order.
Real World Company Reputation: 0
Blogging Community Impact: 1
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Chris Ammon said,
on March 26th, 2007 at 7:53 am
You have to love a company that preaches elitism to grade-schoolers. My niece was invited to an “American Girl”-themed birthday party to which all invites were expected to bring their $100 doll to an American Girl Place bash. As Etta’s story proves, no doll, no party, right? Shame on the American Girl company (and on the birthday girl’s parents) for fueling that fire.
Jay Ferrari said,
on March 26th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Part of me can understand where AG is coming from — like you can’t bring your Ford to the Chevy dealer for service (though a lot of times you can but let’s let the symbolism work for a second). They obviously need to give their employees some heavy training in tact, or they need to just accept all dolls and be done with it and bask in the good word of mouth. Now, they have to go on doll damage control. I know what my daughter is NOT getting for her birthday, that’s for sure.
Jill said,
on March 27th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
I was bothered by the refusal of service but I was also rolled my eyes to find out that there exists a hair salon for dolls. What happened to fixing your own doll’s hair? I made clothes and furniture and props for my Barbie dolls and fixed their hair myself. $20 to have a doll’s hair styled? That sounds stupid to me no matter how much or how little the original doll costs.
Ann Marie said,
on March 28th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I’m a working class mother living in a borough of New York City. My daughters and I have been to AG Place a few times, with dolls and without dolls, dressed nicely and dressed not so nicely, and we’ve always been treated very well. Most of the customers seem to be tourists, and the employees are a mix of different ages and ethnicities. I doubt any of them would be this rude to a customer, especially a six-year-old customer.
If you read the whole blog, it clearly states that Etta is the one who chose to buy the Target doll rather than the American Girl doll. The stylist, even if she was rude, wasn’t telling Etta anything she didn’t already know…her doll is not a real American Girl doll! And honestly, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with AG refusing to style other doll brands. It seems pretty obvious to me that if you’re going to the American Girl Doll Hair Salon, they will only be styling American Girl Doll Hair. If they damage the hair of their own brand of doll, they can easily replace it. But can you imagine the outrage of a parent/child whose non-AG doll’s hair has been ruined by the styling treatment? Then there would be a whole big deal about replacing it, etc.
This morning I decided to read some of the mother’s other blog entries. She talks about her cleaning lady, sending her kids to expensive summer camps, the VCR in her minivan, the kitchen and facade renovations on the Brooklyn brownstone that she purchased, a 3-day trip to a spa, trips to Ireland and Italy with the kids, and the expensive nit-picker she hired when her kids got lice. Yet her letter to AG Place implies that her family is impoverished and that her kids dress in thrift store clothing. Yeah, right.
My vision of what really happened: the stylist told the woman that she couldn’t style the doll’s hair because it’s not a real American Girl doll. The woman got mad and argued with the stylist while the kid cried. The other moms got annoyed because the woman was causing a scene and holding up the line, and so they made some rude comments to the woman. The woman writes this melodramatic, embellished blog in order to gain sympathy and attention and maybe some free stuff.
It amazes me that people are saying boycotting AG and throwing away their daughters’ AG dolls, just because of this story.
Jeannette said,
on March 29th, 2007 at 8:52 am
As a corporate crisis-control consultant, my BS detectors went off the charts after reading the incredibly well-crafted American Girl defense posted in that last comment by “Ann Marie”.
Ann Marie? I have my doubts. This post is FAR more likely part of a large scale recovery effort by the nice folks from American Girl–fighting blog post with blog post.
Consider the clues. Look at the comment’s first sentence, “I’m a working class mother living in a borough of New York City.” Does anyone really describe themselves as “working class”? “A middle class mother”, or “a blue collar mother” living in “Brooklyn” or “Queens” or even just “New York” would be far more natural.
Then look at the open to the second paragraph, “My vision of what really happened:”. “My vision”? Seriously? Again, people just don’t describe things like this.”Here’s what I think happened” or “Here’s how I see it” would be a far more common response. And just look at that excellent colon use!
Speaking of the excellent colon use, check out the high-level use of punctuation, grammar, and transitions throughout. I wish I could get the professional, experienced writers in my office to use colons and hyphens as properly as “Anne Marie” uses them. Hey Ann Marie, are you looking for a job?
And my final argument for why this post is far more likely a corporate crisis control effort than a sincere response from an AG-loving mother is: why would a “working class mother from a borough outside of New York City” be reading a DC-based marketing company’s corporate blog?
So Ann Marie, consider yourself officially called-out.
Jay Ferrari said,
on March 29th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Wow, Jeanette, getting all kinds of playground on us. If you’re right, I have to give those American Girls some credit for trying to keep up with what people are saying about them, and participating in the chatter. That said, Anne Marie, if Jeanette is right, you do need to work on a little linguistic authenticity. If not, working class mother you may be, but you can sure string a sentence together. Send me a resume! We’re always looking for good freelancers, and you have some chops.
Ann Marie said,
on March 29th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Wow, I didn’t expect that kind of response. Well, I’ll thank Jay and Jeanette for their compliments, since I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I won my first award for writing in fifth grade, and I’m a former NY State spelling bee champion. I got married and had kids right out of college, so I’ve never actually had a job that utilized my skills! I’d love to be considered for some freelance work.
That said, Jeanette, I am working-class. My husband works two jobs while I stay home with the kids. I live in Staten Island, which is a borough of New York City, in a crappy bungalow with not enough bedrooms. But I won’t dumb-down my writing because it’s a blog and not the New York Times.
Ann Marie said,
on March 29th, 2007 at 10:25 am
…and the reason why I’m reading this blog is because I did a Google search for “American Girl Etta” and this was one of the search results!
Ann Marie said,
on March 29th, 2007 at 10:43 am
I’m surprised that you haven’t questioned the writing style of the mother. She claims to live in “impoverished brownstone Brooklyn.”
Jeannette said,
on March 29th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Oh my. I must have been mista—–You almost had me there. Almost. But then I noticed that you were doing a search for “American Girl and Etta”. “Etta”. Not a usual name. Not one of the corporately-assigned names given to American Girl dolls. But the name of the daughter in this whole saga.
No one would plug in the search words “American Girl Etta” unless they were looking for content related to this specific story. And clearly, based on your first comment, your goal in finding content related to this story was to defend AG, which is EXACTLY what people in our profession (crisis communications) do.
And while I appreciate your efforts to seem more authentic by inserting a more colloquial-tone into your follow up comments, you already blew your cover in your first post.
Ann Marie said,
on March 29th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I belong to an American Girl message board, and this story came to our attention. I read the mother’s blog entry and the comments stereotyping AG doll owners as wealthy elitists. I also took the time to read the mother’s other blog entries. She is trying to gain sympathy by giving the impression that her “impoverished” daughter was treated badly by the rich snobs who own AG dolls. That angers me on many levels. I decided to do a specific search for this story in order to share my feelings with as many people as I could. My intentions were to encourage people to do some research instead of jumping to conclusions.
I’m not sure what more I can do to convince you that I’m not an American Girl employee. What proof do you need?
Heather said,
on March 29th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Wow. I thought sports were considered the opiate of the masses…
I doubt the American Girl company hired someone to write a stealth defense. This would be the same company that sent identical canned responses to the two or three people who wrote to them threatening to boycott because of the Etta situation.
Does the story sound fake? Heck, yeah. If you want something to be outraged about, how about the fact that this woman’s blog post about a doll has elicited well over 100 responses on her site alone.
Come on, write your congressperson about something…ANYTHING!
Garry said,
on March 30th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Well, I’m a toy collector from Australia and I regretably stumbled across this sorry little state of affairs while searching for a remedy for heat damaged doll hair, nothing whatsoever to do with Big-Bad-And-Naughty-American-Girl-Smack, or poor-little-heartbroken-and-in-tears-etta-sob. I admit I’ve never heard of American Girl Dolls, but I most certainly have no intentions of buying one, if they’re anything like the old American Girl Barbie they must be God-awful!, I mean, who in their right mind, would wish any doll to look like that?
Actually the AG staff aren’t to blame for the brooha, it’s the American Girl Management’s fault, they should have ensured correct signage was in place explaining that ” We do apologize but due to unforeseen variations in manufacturing standards, materials and methods, we only give AG dolls the ugly treatment… blah blah”. And they should adopt it as Store Policy, that way the uppity staff needed only to look down their nose at Etta and point at the sign as they scoffed and tended to the customer standing behind poor litle Etta, as the tears welled, unsolicited from any malcontent, surly shopgirl, wishing it was the weekend and SHE was already at the 43rd Annual Bikers Convention in Vegas.
But it’s always so simple in hindsight.
Natalie said,
on November 6th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
I would just like to comment on a post by Ann Marie. This woman/person has posted the same comment on numerous other website changing her name. My guest is that she either works for American Girl or is a very rude heartless woman. That little girl saved her money to buy the doll herself. What child could afford a $100 doll? And should they really be indulged? What kind of world are we bringing our children up in. It’s one thing to buy your child an expensive toy but to judge others because they cannot afford the same for their child, maybe you should spend more time in church and less in chat rooms.
Alecia said,
on November 16th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Heather commented on the absurdity of wasting good outrage on a story about a mere doll. While I can certainly appreciate her perspective, I think there’s a larger issue at play here. These dolls are all the rage with our daughters but the prohibitive price of the dolls, not to mention the myriad of costly accessories, encourages a debate on exclusivity. The very idea of a hair salon for dolls is self-indulgent. I don’t pay $20 to get my own hair done! The original concept of the American Girl was of an age appropriate, semi-educational answer to Barbie. Sadly, the existence of these dolls has now spawned a brand of class division in our elementary schools. There are the “haves” on one side with the legitimate AGs and the “have-nots” on the other with the cheaper Target models. Let’s face it; children can be vicious, especially if their mothers are modeling elitist behaviors. This story is representative of an ugly trend and that’s what hit a nerve with most people posting here. I hate to sound trite, but the value of a doll lies only in whether or not it is loved. I coddled a rubber mouse for years as a child and wretched was the fool who pointed out its worthlessness. My six-year-old daughter was desperate to have an AG like her best friend’s. Luckily, she adores the Springfield Collection knock off I managed to find for $15 and seems blessedly unaware that her precious dolly might be considered second rate by some pretentious nouveau riche half-wit.
Brenda said,
on July 21st, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I have read several of the comments and responses. I, like Ann Marie, think that the problem seems to lie with the customer. I would think that the parents would have discussed the probability of the company refusing the hair styling for the doll, since they may not be familiar with the type of material used for the hair. Although the company is ultimately responsible for its employees, these hair stylists are not well-trained professional hair dressers. I have visited the American Girl Place in New York with my grandnieces and have been surprised at the differences in the skills of the various hair dressers. Some were exceedingly rough, producing hair loss and applying undue pressure on the neck area. Others were gentle with the dolls, producing smooth, elegant hair styles (not unlike our own stylists).
As far as the dolls are concerned, I do not think they are terribly over-priced. Twenty-five years ago, I paid as much, and could afford it much less, for a large baby doll for my daughter. Since then I have purchased several American Girl dolls, first for my granddaughters and now for my grandnieces and myself..
However, I digress. The main point is that is is a profit-making business, and I am a customer. I need not praise nor condemn the company; I need only to purchase or not purchase their products.