Gift Guide: Toothpick Crossbow

It’s just a matter of time until the current fad in Chinese school classrooms makes it over here, so get your order form ready. This is going to be HUUUUUUGEEEE for holiday gift-giving. Toothpick crossbows are just what you would expect, small plastic launchers with a metal grooved track ready to unleash toothpicks, nails, and needles on unsuspecting targets. What client wouldn’t want their brand on this, and in the hands of young children?! This makes fidget spinners look like a great idea – and I can’t make this stuff up.

“These tiny crossbows can launch sharp projectiles that can cause bodily harm to others, especially injury to the eye. These are not appropriate to be marketed as toys for children and should be banned,” Dr. Gary Smith, president of the Child Injury Prevention Alliance, told Live Science.

Being banned is like a badge of courage for the folks at toothpickcrossbows.com. “Powerful enough to break paper cartons, cans and even fight cockroaches” claims the manufacturer. Capable of traveling 30-40 feet, “those wussies in China have already banned it.” A site update claims the product has been banned in New Zealand, too. Best reason of all to buy one? You can load it with cotton buds for a “softer playtime.” What? The manufacturer claims that putting cotton buds on your toothpick crossbow is safer than putting them in your ear. “It's a projectile. Any type of projectile can cause a problem,” said Dr. Mike Gittelman, a professor of pediatrics at the Division of Emergency Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

I would hope that our industry would turn away from something so obviously dangerous. But, as I’m sure you’ve seen, we have colleagues in the industry who still will take basically about any order they can get. Let’s decide together to not do this!

Being interested in product safety shouldn’t turn you into a spam target. But, that’s exactly what happened to Kashmir Hill, a contributor to Gizmodo Media Group, when she returned what she thought was a stroller safety postcard to Mattel. The postcard was supposed to provide contact information should a recall on the stroller she bought become necessary later. Hill also began receiving marketing emails from Fisher-Price shortly after returning another product safety card marked “product registration for safety alert or recall only” that was packaged with a swing purchase.

Have you had your email address spammed by a manufacturer after you provided information for “product safety info only?” Hill says there’s a trick to keep track of what a company does with your address. If you use Gmail, you can add an identifying word or phrase to your usual Gmail address, with a “+” sign in front of it. So if your address is “DontBotherMe@gmail.com,” and you’re sending it off to BabyCorp, Inc., give them the address “DontBotherMe+BabyCorp@gmail.com.” Messages will get to you as usual, but if you check the “to” line on them, you’ll see “+BabyCorp” in there and know they used that address.

So, how about you? Do you think you can stay away from crossbows, but take aim using this email hack against spam? That just seems like a much better target to us.

Jeff Jacobs has been an expert in building brands and brand stewardship for 40 years, working in commercial television, Hollywood film and home video, publishing, and promotional brand merchandise. He’s a staunch advocate of consumer product safety and has a deep passion and belief regarding the issues surrounding compliance and corporate social responsibility. He retired as executive director of Quality Certification Alliance, the only non-profit dedicated to helping suppliers provide safe and compliant promotional products. Before that, he was director of brand merchandise for Michelin. You can find him still advising Global 500 Brands on promo product initiatives, working as a volunteer Guardian ad Litem, traveling the world with his lovely wife, or enjoying a cigar at his favorite local cigar shop. Follow Jeff on Twitter, or reach out to him at jacobs.jeffreyp@gmail.com.