American Girls vs. Bratz

Posted Jan 3rd 2007 11:39AM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Products and Services, Consumer Experience

The new American Girl Doll, Nicki, costs $86, by far the priciest doll in the collection. Her dog will set you back $24. The horse is $62, but its accessories are another $34. So all told, you're talking about spending over $150 on a doll for a girl.

One of the the hottest items in the doll category is the Bratz doll, which costs around $9. Which would you rather see on your daughter's wish list?

According to a Wall Street Journal article [subscription], American Girl Nicki is athletic and loves animals. "She skis like a demon, rides horses, trains guide dogs, plans school parties, washes the dishes, battles popularity crises, and helps her little brother with his math homework."

Over at the Bratz webpage, we see Sasha: "My friends call me 'Bunny Boo' because I love the hip-hop thang."

A look at pictures of the dolls is also very revealing. While Nicki is dressed ready for activity and fun, Bratz Megan, Roxxi, and Sasha are dressed like ... well, let's just say they are dressed in a way that very few parents would want their eight-year-olds to dress.

So, if the maker of Bratz were a public company (American Girl is owned by Mattel, which is public), which one should you invest in? The answer is that you should invest in whatever stock will make you money. It might be tempting to "invest with your conscience" and go with the one making a product you support. But intellectually, that makes no sense. When you're buying shares on the secondary market (i.e. anytime other than the IPO), you are not giving a dime to the company.

And therein lies the problem with socially responsible investing. A few funds (like Paxworld) actively campaign for socially responsible changes in company operations, but most simply screen out companies that do harm. They wouldn't buy a cigarette company for example. But Jim Cramer and I don't think that makes sense. As Jim Cramer has said, buy a company that trashes the environment, make money, and then donate some of the money to the World Wildlife Fund. That will do the planet a lot more good than a meaningless boycott of already issued shares.

One of my favorite stocks right now is affiliated with a man who I think is a charlatan, and it manufactures a product that ruins lives. I'll let you know about that company I'm talking about in a few days.

Tags: American Girl, AmericanGirl, Bratz, Dolls, Jim Cramer, JimCramer, Mattel, Paxworld, socially reponsible investing, SociallyReponsibleInvesting