Ebola plush toys fly off the shelf for Connecticut company

[ellenrr]

This is sick.
4500 Africans (probably a lot more) dead. and people find this funny.
It's odd bec. if one white person dies, you better not make fun of it.

"Since its discovery in 1976, Ebola has become the T. Rex of microbes," says the Stamford, Connecticut-based maker of the "uniquely contagious toy" on its website, which promotes them as gag gifts that also have educational value.

http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-plush-toys-fly-off-shelf-connecticut-company-202208936.html

[KittyWampus]

1. Read the article before you get outraged, please. The WHO buys them

Giantmicrobes Inc., which makes a line of plush toys based on viruses and other microscopic organisms, has sold out its entire Ebola stock, including the small Ebola doll for $9.95, a Gigantic Ebola doll for $29.95 and an Ebola Petri Dish toy for $14.95, according to the company's website.

"Since its discovery in 1976, Ebola has become the T. Rex of microbes," says the Stamford, Connecticut-based maker of the "uniquely contagious toy" on its website, which promotes them as gag gifts that also have educational value.

snip
"You do not want to get Ebola," warns the website. "A short incubation period of 2 to 21 days presages symptoms which include fever, aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhea, stomach pain, vomiting, and both internal and external bleeding. And then, for between 50-90 percent of victims, death."

Giantmicrobes lists the World Health Organization as one of its largest customers, along with pharmaceutical companies and the American Red Cross.

snip


http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/BjkntRXBpSzmBUtzldH8EQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQwMDtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz02NTA-/

[shenmue]

2. Well, if they're giving something to support the medical organizations,

even though it's a weird toy, it'll get something done.

[KittyWampus]

3. I've no idea if they give anything to support anyone. But they make microbe shaped plushies

It's not like they just saw Ebola and decided to exploit the current media frenzy.

[shenmue]

13. Well, maybe it makes little kids less afraid

"I've got to get a shot. I'm kind of scared. Wait, now I've got this cute little whatsis to hug."

Just a thought.

[Stargazer09]

17. The cold microbe was a favorite here

The kids would throw it against the wall whenever they got sick. Helped them feel more in control.

[KittyWampus]

20. Doing that might even help their immune systems. After a car accident that broke the bottom half of

my legs bones into tiny pieces I spent a lot of time knitting a bone colored wool sweater and thinking of my bones knitting themselves back together.

[Stargazer09]

23. Ouch!

Just thinking of bones broken that way hurts. I hope they healed and left you good as new.

I'm a knitter, too. Wonderful therapy for all of life's ills.

[ellenrr]

4. read the article yourself: "gag gifts"

[KittyWampus]

6. WHO, Red Cross buy them as gag gifts. So? They make other microbe plushies too.

"Giantmicrobes lists the World Health Organization as one of its largest customers, along with pharmaceutical companies and the American Red Cross."

It might help nurses and other health care workers deal with a difficult situation.

Health care professionals often use gallows humor. Many of them have said so here on DU.

[NutmegYankee]

14. If their gallows humor is anything like Naval Engineering's

They would glue them to a poster board right above a wash sink with the words "wash up or I'll get you". We have something similar now for cold and flu season.

[KittyWampus]

16. I make Plushies & Soft Sculpture/Art Dolls. Never saw these before. Think they are brilliant>

and I may actually do what you suggest… Make my own cold virus plushie and putting it up in the bathroom here (small family business).

[dixiegrrrrl]

28. It does not say WHO buys the Ebola ones specifically.

Just says WHO is one of the companies biggest customers. (overall).

[KittyWampus]

35. From their "About Us" page:

We have worked with numerous pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Merck, and Astrazeneca on corporate promotional programs. Major charitable organizations such as the American Red Cross have used our products for consumer outreach.

[Cal Carpenter]

37. I've also seen this brand of toys in use in food safety courses

FWIW, to add more examples of why this is not just some twisted opportunistic thing or whatever.

About 10 years ago I had to take a food safety class (ServSafe) for a job I had, and the instructor had a couple of these, maybe for e.coli and salmonella, or some other food-borne illness.

[ellenrr]

5. any idiot should be able to see that this is an idea to exploit a horrible disease which targets

Africans - if you don't see that, why do I bother?

[KittyWampus]

8. Any idiot (your words) could go to the company's website & see they make MANY microbe/bug plushies

ANTHRAX, for instance:




H5N1 Influenza



Typhoid Fever


Cancer



Candida


Chicken Pox

[PeaceNikki]

11. And Ebola isn't a new product for them. Newly popular, but not new.

[Stargazer09]

25. The chicken pox one makes me laugh

I like the white and black color scheme for the mad cow prion, too.

[TwilightGardener]

27. I like 'em.

[MFM008]

57. I'm sorry

I can't help but laugh maybe that's a good thing.

[IVoteDFL]

19. They sell over 150+ different plush Microbes

everything from "bad breath" to "Cancer" and "Anthrax" (My fav is Candida). I'm sure there was some kind of marketing push because Ebola is the hot topic right now, but I would probably do the same if I was in charge of their company. They really don't come off as racist or exploitative to me, just greedy.

[joeglow3]

44. I really hope you are joking with your double down

If not, you are example number 1 of what people mean when they say insane claims of racism diminish actual racism.

[spanone]

7. it is sick. people lie dying in the streets from this heinous disease and we have a 'gag gift'

personally, it gags me

[NutmegYankee]

9. Having read the article, it appears the company made them long before the current outbreak.

And that health organizations are the main customers, probably for children's education.

[spanone]

18. having read the article, they are 'promoted as gag gifts'. doesn't sound too educational.

[NutmegYankee]

21. Fine. Be outraged.

The rest of us will just laugh. I see nothing wrong with what this company is selling.

[spanone]

32. not outraged...laugh on.

[Stargazer09]

10. They have been making Ebola toys for a long time

Long before this outbreak. The company has been in business for 12 years, and Ebola was one of their earlier models.

I don't think the company is sick. They came up with an unusual source for stuffed animal ideas, but I've always liked their work. Showing my kids a stuffed version of a cold virus helped them understand what was making them feel so miserable. Besides, anything that brings science to kids is a good thing.

[PeaceNikki]

12. I agree.

[Throd]

15. No, you have to be outraged, or something.

[PeaceNikki]

24. I'm outraged that pharmaceutical companies and the health care industry reap billions in profit

due to disease and illness.

Not this. This is harmless and often educational.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

59. Bazinga!

to the 100000000th power.


I had Chlamydia...but I gave it to a Professor I really liked.

[Stargazer09]

40. Fine

I'll be outraged that someone is attacking a stuffed animal maker for daring to make toys that resemble microbes.

Happy now?

(And yes, I'm joking, in case there's any doubt.)

[ZombieHorde]

22. Not as sick as some of the Ebola articles I have read, in my opinion. nt

[immoderate]

26. Next they'll be making plush toys of man-eating animals...

... like lions, and bears! Oh my!

--imm

[Coventina]

30. You forgot tigers!

[immoderate]

36. I imagined that to be ... unimaginable!

I mean ... really ... a toy tiger? They are fierce!

--imm

[Coventina]

29. I have one of their brain cells on top of my computer monitor right now.

I've purchased many of their products.

They've been making them for years.

Last year, I gave one to my husband. He's never had chicken pox, so I "gave" him chicken pox.

I guess that makes me Hitler, or something.

[GoCubsGo]

38. I would love to have the aquatic-related ones.

That was my field of study before Dumbya's toadies killed my career. I know lots of people in science who'd love to have some of those plushies.

[chrisa]

45. You Monster!

[fizzgig]

31. i gave one of my friends the clap for v-day some years ago

i love that web site.

[PeaceNikki]

33. Prostate Cancer is a new item of theirs. That killed 40,000 in 2013.

And a lot of those were white men.

[pinboy3niner]

34. In a similar vein, there's the costumed character Senhor Testiculo

For public education about testicular cancer...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023921229

[beam me up scottie]

48. um...

Yay Senhor Testiculo?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

39. Back in nursing school, during a semester in which we had microbiology

I seem to recall buying a handful of similar microbe plushies as presents. Not ebola, but several others that certainly aren't fun if they're not toys.

[VScott]

42. Oh fer Christs sake!

Just pretend it's a "snake charming" plushie and flush your hair on fire outrage...

[IMG][/IMG]

[Warren DeMontague]

47. Then there's always the award-winner that can clog the toilet with no toilet paper, even.

Not that I would know.

[VScott]

52. That would be a Moby Turd.

The Great Brown Log/Clog

[beam me up scottie]

51. LOL! Ninja:

"30 points if pooping actually took place"



I love DU!

[gollygee]

43. I have Stomach Bug, Common Cold, and Mad Cow Disease at home

I don't think I knew what ebola was when I bought those three.

[beam me up scottie]

49. Rats! I wanted to order Mad Cow.

Had to add to wish list.

As a militant vegetarian I will use anything to further our agenda.

[Warren DeMontague]

46. wait a minute... they FLY off the shelf?

WE TOLD YOU IT WAS AIRBORNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MFM008]

58. lol

Roflmfao

[KittyWampus]

60. DUZY

[dembotoz]

50. god lord that is creative

only wish i had thought of it

[logosoco]

53. I hope they don't sell out by Christmas! That's some one stop shopping right there.

But the chicken pox one is interesting. Now I have to go see if it really does look like a chicken.

[countryjake]

54. I don't agree. We got our friend one of their Swine Flu toys...

back in 2009, when her life was permanently changed by that particular virus.

She keeps her little pink H1N1 Microbe (faintly resembles a pig) dangling from the wheelchair that she's been confined to, ever since she recovered after three months in hospitals and six long months in a life-care center.

Nothing funny about Ebola or any other serious disease, but creating educational toys, such as that company has done for years, can be both useful and a comfort to anyone who may have been stricken by one of their "microbes".

[TDale313]

55. I think they're pretty creative, actually...

Ebola is just one of many microbe-themed toys this company makes. It's certainly a niche market, but I can see where they'd be popular amongst teachers, health care professionals, other scientists.

[Initech]

56. A fool and his money are soon.... Ah, fuck it.

Somewhere even PT Barnum himself is face palming this one.

[MissB]

61. I have several of their plushies pinned to my wall.

I'm employed in a public health field. Several times a year, I take them off the wall. They travel with me when I go talk to kids about public health.

Their products are great. They are (mostly) the appropriate shape for the organism and give kids an idea of what the microscopic version looks like.

Because it would simply be wrong of me to schlep a microscope and some non-dead organisms with me for kids to look at. Oh, I suppose I could bore them to freaking tears with power point, but tossing the plushies around the room tends to keep their attention much better.

Try to think better of people's motives.

[TeeYiYi]

62. It's a little weird but I'm not outraged.

I think it's meant to be educational.

The cancer one is a little unsettling but I'm ok with it. It's oddly mesmerizing...

My sister died of brain cancer.

TYY