Mattel Corporation, known as the world's largest toy company, is a publicly traded organization with a market capitalization of more than $6.5 billion. With approximately 36,000 employees worldwide in 43 countries, their products are well known and sold in over 150 nations (Mattel.com). With the odds of winning mentioned, it is difficult to imagine that a company easily known by children and adults around the world would become even better known for the company that produced toys made from lead-based products. In this assignment we will discuss whether or not Mattel acted in an ethical and socially responsible manner in their decision to recall the defective toys, what perhaps they could have done differently to avoid this problem, and the best way in which society can continue to protect children from potentially harmful toys. Even though Mattel is considered the largest toy company in the world, it has faced stormy challenges due to safety concerns surrounding designing and manufacturing toys in China. In August 2007, Mattel voluntarily recalled 1.5 million toys made in China because they contained too much lead paint (Lawrence & Weber, 2011). These recalls included popular items such as Fisher Price's Elmo, Big Bird and Dora the Explorer. These toys were products of a contract manufacturer owned by Mattel but produced in China. Under normal operating conditions, Mattel requires its manufacturing partners to use paint from approved and certified suppliers with specific procedures to test and verify the validity of the products; in this particular case, however, the procedures were not followed. It would appear that Mattel's code of conduct is called the “Global Manufacturing Principles” which requires that all activities...... middle of paper ......rd.History of Mattel. (ND). Retrieved March 3, 2012, from http://corporate.mattel.com/about-us/history/default.aspxEdmonson, R. G. (2009, February). Burden of proof. Commercial journal, page 1. Retrieved March 4, 2012 from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1641146871). Lawrence, A. T., Weber, J. (2011). Business and society, thirteenth ed. (VitalSource Bookshelf). Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781121130074/pages/561-570Lipton, E. (2007, September 13). Senators call for stricter toy safety rules. New York Times (latest edition (East Coast)), p. C.1. Retrieved March 4, 2012, from Banking Information Source. (Document ID: 1334887001).Toy Industry Association, (2012). Retrieved March 3, 2012, from http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Toy_Safety&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=56&ContentID=1840