A grandmother from Ontario, Canada, was shocked to discover a toy she had bought for her 15-month-old granddaughter produced explicit content. Ania Tanner bought an educational, dancing cactus completely unaware it plays a rap song swearing about depression, suicide, and doing cocaine.
“This toy uses swear words and talking about cocaine use,” Ania Tanner told CTV News Toronto. “This is not what I ordered for my granddaughter.”
The cactus, which sings songs in several languages including English, Spanish and Polish, was advertised as an educational toy, selling on Walmart’s website for about $26. Although the American retail chain quickly pulled the toy from its online store, consumers were quick to find several past European reports from earlier in the year.
Tanner, a polish native, quickly realised how un-educational the plush toy really was when she listened to the lyrics in Polish. She said the cactus would rap about doing cocaine, drug abuse, suicide, depression and used profanities.
“It just so happens that I am Polish and when I started to listen to the songs and I heard the words,” she said. “I was in shock. I thought what is this some kind of joke? It's about taking five grams of cocaine and being alone … It's a very depressing song.”
The song in being used is by Polish rapper, Cypis, who has been reported to be completely unaware his song had been used by the toy’s Chinese manufacturer. It is claimed the rapper plans to take legal action against the Chinese company for using his song without his consent. CTV News Toronto was unable to contact Mr Cypis, or the toy’s Chinese manufacturer, for comment.
Tanner, who is demanding a refund for her inappropriate gift, feels that Walmart should not be selling such a toy without checking what it is. Walmart told reporters of CTV News Toronto that they take their customer complaints concern seriously.
“These items are sold by a third-party seller on our marketplace website. We are removing the items while we look into this complaint further,” a Walmart spokesperson told CTV News Toronto.
The response is a welcome relief for Tanner, who does not “want anybody before Christmas to think this is a great toy and go online and have the same thing happen, that happened to me.”
