US company sells out of Ebola-themed toys
Promotional blurb on the website advertising the educational toys reads: 'Ebola has become the T. Rex of microbes. Share the love!'
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Your support makes all the difference.An American company has sold out of Ebola-themed toys following a huge surge of interest in the deadly virus as it spreads across the globe.
Giant Microbes advertises three Ebola-themed toys, marketing them as “a uniquely contagious gift” that can help you learn “all about his fearsome frontpage disease.”
The Ebola virus has so far killed 4,555 people, with over 9,000 confirmed cases across seven different countries.
“Since its discovery in 1976, Ebola has become the T. Rex of microbes. Share the love!” reads the promotional blurb on the website.
Laura Sullivan, vice president of marketing at the company, said to the Toronto Star they had completely sold out worldwide.
“We get it in and sell out in a few days,” she claimed, before reassuring potential customers the company were making more as “fast as we can” to keep up with demand.
“Sales are exceptionally high now because so many more people want to learn about it,” she said.
The Conneticut-based company has made the Ebola-themed toys, which include two sizes of doll, a mock ‘Ebola Petri Dish’ and range in price from $9.95 to $29.95, for five years.
“With Ebola and everything that is going on, people are interested about learning more and this product provides a way for people to learn about it,” Ms Sullivan said.
She also claimed the company had never received any negative feedback or complaints about its toys.
“I think that we have a responsibility to market Ebola very responsibly. Anyone putting out a product around sensitive issues has a responsibility to market the product sensitively and responsibly,” she said.
“People are buying it to talk about it and if we ever felt it was being used inappropriately, we would reconsider it.”
The company was originally established in order to encourage education surrounding diseases and to “bring the invisible microscopic world to life.”
However, they now stock over a 100 different toys including HIV, herpes and breast cancer.
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