(Host) The Vermont Teddy Bear company has sold out of its controversial “Crazy for You” bear and says it won’t manufacture more. The straight-jacketed teddy bear was widely criticized as being offensive to the mentally ill.
Nicole L’Hullier is a spokeswoman for Vermont Teddy Bear:
(L’Hullier) “With any other bear we probably would look very hard at making more of those teddy bears because it’s obvious that our customers are interested in purchasing them. So it’s actually quite significant that we chose – after working with the NAMI folks several weeks ago – we chose not to manufacture more of this particular bear.”
(Host) The controversy over the Valentine’s Day bear started in January. Mental health advocates, including the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, had urged Vermont Teddy Bear to remove the product from the market. The company says it agreed at that time to not make more of the bears, but it intended to sell the inventory it had on hand.
L’Hullier says she can’t disclose how many of the “Crazy for You” bears were sold until the company issues its end-of-quarter statement.