GoodGuide has serious ethical issues

December 8, 2009 · Posted in Commentary 

Maybe your life has been really hectic over the last few days and you missed the media frenzy that GoodGuide, the consumer watchdog group, created over its assertion that the white hot Zhu Zhu Pets were unsafe.  Unfortunately, the mass media did not cover GoodGuide’s subsequent correction with quite the same fervor.

We all want our consumer watchdog groups to be both competent and ethical.  GoodGuide has proven otherwise.  There was a clear lapse in the group’s testing methods in determining that Zhu Zhu Pets had high levels of antimony.  By posting affiliate links for the Zhu Zhu Pets, GoodGuide attempts to make money from referral fees from their sales.  The Buy Now logo on the individual reviews will take you to the affiliate links.   The Search on Amazon.com link near the top of the review pages is an Amazon affiliate link.

Zhu Zhu Pets aren’t the only alleged hazardous toys that GoodGuide provides referral links for in an effort to profit from their sales.  Here’s a partial list that I found by perusing their site:

Does an ethical consumer watchdog group attempt to profit from the sales of toys they deem dangerous to children?  It should be noted that GoodGuide is a for profit organization.

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2 Responses to “GoodGuide has serious ethical issues”

  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Victoria, Dan Spencer. Dan Spencer said: Christmas shopping? Don't trust GoodGuide's ethics. It goes beyond Zhu Zhu Pets. http://bit.ly/8bJ4ja […]

  2. uberVU - social comments on December 8th, 2009 7:20 pm

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by dspenc1: Christmas shopping? Don’t trust GoodGuide’s ethics. It goes beyond Zhu Zhu Pets. http://bit.ly/8bJ4ja

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