Why Read About Health Care When You Can Read About Hamsters?

Writing in Business Week, Christopher Palmeri on how the Zhu Zhu Hamsters "dodged the Wheel of Death":

Hornsby was able to contain the scandal and avoid a recall thanks to one critical element: the U.S. government. The toy executive immediately hired a crisis communications firm, published the company's own product test results on Cepia's Web site, and even asked his 23-year-old daughter, Natalie, to go on television and radio defending the hamsters. Still, Hornsby's main ally proved to be the Consumer Product Safety Commission. For the federal agency, which is in charge of monitoring product safety, the Zhu Zhu Pets crisis was the first big test of tougher toy-testing laws passed earlier this year in the wake of widespread toy recalls in 2007.