Dumbest of This Week's 5 Dumbest: CPSC Says Kids Don't Like Cartoons

About 48% of voters found it dumb that the Consumer Product Safety Commission is claiming a set of 'Wizard of Oz,' Superman and Batman drinking glasses aren't children's products.
By Theresa McCabe ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- The Consumer Product Safety Commission arguing that

lead-heavy drinking glasses featuring superheroes and Wizard of Oz characters

were intended for adults was considered the dumbest thing on Wall Street this week by readers of

TheStreet

.

As of late Friday, about 48% of the readers that

took our poll

thought that the CPSC claiming that a set of

Wizard of Oz

, Superman and Batman drinking glasses aren't considered children's products was particularly dumb.

Late last month, the

Associated Press

found that drinking glasses distributed by

Time Warner's

(TWX)

Warner Brothers and

Coca-Cola

(KO) - Get Report

contained lead levels up to 1,000 times the amount permitted by Federal limits for children's products.

The "Oz" Tin Man design was reported to contain the most alarming levels of lead: 1,006 times the federal limit for children's products.

The Wizard of Oz

Lion and Dorothy decorations exceeded the limit by 827 times and 770 times, respectively. Wonder Woman exceeded the limit by 533 times, Superman by 617 times and Batman by 750.

However, the CPSC reviewed the case and decided that the cartoon-adorned glasses weren't actually children's products after all.

"After thoughtful analysis by child behavior experts at CPSC, it has been determined that the glasses are not children's products," agency spokesman Scott Wolfson told the AP this week. The criteria for this assessment include a specific combination of size, weight and price that indicate that the glasses were meant for adults.

The news that

Gap

(GPS) - Get Report

launched a holiday campaign to fight hunger in the U.S. by selling trendy new bags that they said were made in the U.S. but were really made in China was considered the second dumbest thing on Wall Street with 15% of the votes.

Gap told customers that for every bag purchased a $5 donation would be made to U.S. school lunch programs. These bags were printed with U.S. maps and American flags and even a little icon that proclaimed them to be "Made in USA." The only problem was that the bags were actually made in China.

Gap responded by saying that only some of the bags were made in China and that only the U.S.-made bags should have been sold alongside the in-store signage that said "Made in USA."

Close to 12% of voters found it dumb that a report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that U.S. airlines collected about

$4.3 billion in fee revenue

in the first three quarters of 2010.

Airlines historically lose money during the fourth quarter, but it's possible that fees alone will reverse the trend this year. U.S. airlines are expected to earn about $4 billion in 2010 after losing $23.7 billion the previous year.

Among the individual carriers,

Delta

(DAL) - Get Report

, the largest airline, had the highest fee revenue, about $1.3billion.

American

(AMR)

had about $785 million. Combined while

United

(UAL) - Get Report

and

Continental

had about $922 million.

Almost 12% of voters think that the major media calling President Barack Obama the "anti-business" president is pretty dumb.

Obama

met with capitalist bigwigs on Wednesday,

including the CEOs of

Cisco Systems

(CSCO) - Get Report

,

Google

(GOOG) - Get Report

,

American Express

(AXP) - Get Report

,

Honeywell

(HON) - Get Report

and

Boeing

(BA) - Get Report

. He even met with

General Electric

(GE) - Get Report

CEO Jeffrey Immelt.

The media didn't miss the opportunity to stage Obama's "pro-business" meeting with the CEO elite as an attempt to finally get rid of the "anti-business" stamp he wears on his forehead.

The

AP

described the relationship between Obama and the business world as "testy" and said that the lunch was a "reset" for Obama as he seeks to extend an olive branch to corporate America.

Reuters

referred to the "strained relations" and opined that the President was seeking to turn a "new page." The

Wall Street Journal

noted the "rocky relationship" between Obama and the business world. Even the

New York Times

described the lunch as a White House "charm offensive."

This criticism directly follows a quarter when the largest corporate profits in U.S. history were recorded. It also trails the comeback of

GM

(GM) - Get Report

, which was the biggest U.S. IPO of the year.

Starbucks

(SBUX) - Get Report

and

Kraft's

(KFT)

high school-level relationship spat was considered dumb by 10% of voters.

Starbucks has been trying to walk away from its distribution agreement with Kraft and has been insisting their partnership is null and void. The fight has

turned into a legal battle

, putting Starbucks in the role of the boyfriend trying to flee a suffocating relationship. Kraft, for its part, was cast as the obsessive, jilted girlfriend who simply couldn't move on.

Then this week Kraft pulled a reverse psychology stunt by announcing that it would be raising its prices, pushing the cost of Yuban above $6.50 a pound. Starbucks came running back to say the agreement it no longer recognizes doesn't allow Kraft to raise its prices.

"Kraft was offering this brand long before we signed our first agreement with Starbucks in 1998," Kraft spokeswoman Renee Zahery told Dow Jones Newswires. "We thank Starbucks for giving Yuban more press coverage than, to our knowledge, it has received since it launched in 1905."

-- Written by Theresa McCabe in Boston.

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Theresa McCabe

.

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@TheresaMcCabe

.

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.

Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors and reporters from holding positions in any individual stocks.

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