Honest Editorial: Our Opinions on Lea Clark GOTY Leaks

Yo! Whassup!

Welcome back!

Oh wait -- can we welcome ourselves back???

So we were in Orlando from Friday thru yesterday, and while we were down there pics of the 18" Lea Clark doll were leaked all over the internet.

It was only a matter of time.

And we've pretty much known what she is going to look like since the late summer when her mini doll was leaked onto the internet.

Oops?

And that's kinda the point of this Honest Editorial:

it was only a matter of time.

I think it was Chrissa Maxwell that had a tile-reveal game -- each day at the end of December, one tile would be taken away from a picture of the next Girl of the Year doll, slowly revealing the doll, piece by piece.

(Pretty sure that was Chrissa - feel free to correct me.)

Well, it was only a matter of time until someone figured out the javascript code (or whatever it was) and revealed all the tiles well in advance of when American Girl thought they were going to reveal the whole pic, haha. 

Poor AG.

And so we've never seen one of those tile things again!

This shows us that American Girl has been trying to control the "release of leaks" of the new Girl of the Year for a long, long time.

People are eager to see her and her collection, to learn about her stories, and who she is.

So why not just let them know?

Sure, some people don't want spoilers.

But the vast majority of people want the spoilers.

And it's just tiresome how much effort American Girl has to put in to control the leaks.

Telling people to take down pictures and videos all over the internet.

Yelling at nine year old girls to remove pics of Lea's clothes 

from their Instagram accounts, etc. etc.

Really?

How much time and effort is put into all of that?

Is it really worth it?

How much are you paying your lawyers to be the bad-guys?

You are just scaring your highest-affinity group.

The people who want to see and talk about your upcoming releases (and essentially advertise your products for free) -- those are the people you are yelling at.

The ones who want to spend money on your company's products.

You aren't yelling at companies you compete with -- you are yelling at your own customers.

This seems counter-intuitive and counter-productive.

From American Girl's perspective, I understand they don't want to cut down on Grace sales, i.e. the current Girl of the Year's sales -- of the doll, her collection, etc. -- by pre-advertising the next Girl of the Year.

But really, as customers, we've been doing this whole 

"shopping from American Girl" thing for awhile now.

We know how the system works.

We know the Girl of the Year is only going to be around for a year.

And we know she might sell out at any time in the final months of the year.

By the beginning of December people already know if they want Grace or not.

They know they had to make that decision in advance.

Most people who are going to get her already have her, or she is waiting in the wings to be opened on Christmas, etc.

By this time of year the fever is all about the next Girl of the Year.

You might as well capitalize on it American Girl, instead of trying to stamp it out.

Do they really think stamping out leaks will help build the fever?

Maybe.

Does it help build the fever?

Maybe.

But I don't think it's worth it.

I don't like the fact that a toy company has to have big-bad lawyer-police out there on the internet controlling leaks. 

It's just sad.

(For example, I'm not gonna be stupid and try to put any of the leaks here in this post,

as I don't feel like being yelled at by the company I love.

I don't want to feel alienated and embittered.)

I think that American Girl should just do the reveals themselves.

Not with the stupid tile thing that was easily hacked.

But just reveal a picture a day of the Girl of the Year and her collection, her books, etc. beginning on Thanksgiving.

Just "leak" it all yourself American Girl.

That's what social media is for.

Then you don't have to police the internet, which will always find ways 

to get around your lawyer-ish actions.

And you can participate in building the fever yourself, American Girl.

It's 2015.

It's not 2002.

It's all out there online.

The internet is way ahead of you.

You have to go with the flow.

In the immortal words of Elsa: "Let it go!"

Just let it all flow out there in advance.

I know you just joined social media, American Girl, so you are just now embracing 2010's trends.

But really, just get with the game -- use the internet to your advantage.

Let the excitement about the coming Girl of the Year do your advertising for you instead of spending months trying to reign in all of your little GOTY secrets, which aren't secrets to anybody anymore.

It's 2015, soon to be 2016, if people want to find out about something 

they are going to find ways to do it. 

Even the nine year olds you are yelling at on Youtube -- they are figuring it out, and they aren't advanced computer hackers.

They are just kids who want to know more about the new products from your company.

It seems logical to me to play to those desires and just start advertising your next GOTY starting at the end of November.

I know I am singing to the choir with this post, as I am talking to fellow fans, and not really talking to American Girl, haha.

But I'd like to know your opinions on this issue friends!

Feel free to comment below with what you think should be done about the Girl of the Year leaks, spoilers, policing, etc.

Thanks for visiting us today friends!!!

p.s. Stay tuned for a second part, sort of, to this post with another Honest Editorial on Grace's collection and how well (or not so well) she has done this year, in our eyes. :-)