Profiting from crime

[Accountable]

Toys "R" Us Reverses Decision on Baby Prize

WNYC Newsroom







NEW YORK, NY January 07, 2007 —Toys "R" Us has reversed its decision to deny a Chinese-American infant a prize in a contest honoring the first baby of the 2007.

REPORTER: The Wayne, New Jersey-based company now says all three babies in a grand prize pool will get $25,000 savings bonds. Toys "R" Us came under fire when it denied Yuki Lin the award after learning that the child's mother is not a legal U.S. resident. The move infuriated Chinese-American advocacy groups.

Yuki Lin was born at the stroke of midnight at New York Downtown Hospital. After the company disqualified Yuki, it gave the prize to a runner-up from Georgia. The third baby in the running was born in Bay Shore, New York.

Toys "R" Us says it regrets that the contest turned into a controversy. The company recently opened its first store in mainland China.

[Accountable]

Yup. $50K extra is pretty cheap. A lawsuit could've cost ten times that.

[valerie]

Beat me to this one, Acc... saw it this morning.



The article I read said that the rules stated that the baby be born of

legal US residents. A lot of these "contests" are in fact, worded that

way.



I think it's wrong, but then again, ToysRUs gets easily $50,000 more

worth of publicity...



:-1

[Accountable]

That's right. The letter is more important than the spirit.

[JacksDad]

How bout's Toys give 25k to the Georgia and the Bayshore families and gives Yuki's family a $25,000 all expense paid one way ticket back to China.

It's this kind of crap that will have me buying toys at KayBee from now on.