Booooo GoldieBlox

I have been sitting back quietly biting my tongue since I watched the GoldieBlox Kickstarter campaign last year. I was slightly annoyed by their marketing, but not enough to really even comment on the issue.

And then the new video came out and went viral (which happened to have a sound track parody from one of my all-time fave bands, the Beastie Boys)



and my friends were posting the video on Facebook with such comments as "I have never believed in "girls toys" and "boys toys." Girls need to have fun "thinking" toys too, and they don't need to be pink : )"

Weird. Because, not only is this product clearly marketed as a "girl" toy... it freakin' pink!

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Great brainwashing, GoldieBlox. You know what? My girls like pink (as much as their father and I have tried to discourage that), but they also enjoy primary colored match box cars, wood blocks... Legos upon Legos:

Oh... and they do have the pink set of Legos mixed in there. (Oh, shit, how did that baby doll and pink crib sneak into my house? How dare my daughters aspire to be nurturing mommies and play with god forsaken pink baby dolls!)

And, also, there are already oodles of fantastic engineering toys out there for little girls:

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However... I was willing to overlook all of this crap and keep my mouth shut about GoldieBlox questionable marketing... UNTIL they turned into litigious thieves.

When I heard the Beastie Boys song on the video... I had to assumed they had paid for the rights to it... right??? I mean, who in this world does not understand the concept of copyright? 

Nope.

The used the song WITHOUT permission. And, to add insult to injury, when MCA passed away last year, he specifically forbade his music from being used in this manner. The will reads (in part): 

"in no event may my image or name or any music or any artistic property created by me be used for advertising purposes,"

Oh, wait... it gets better. The Beastie Boys did not even sue this company yet... but GoldieBlox SUED them! Bizarro, right?

And now I know I will never buy anything from this company. Shame on you for disrespecting this mans wishes. Shame on you for pretending to "empower" girls by stealing and misusing another's property.

Shame on you.