Were Parents Who Purchased Baby Einstein Videos Merely Naive?

Chez Pazienza mocks the Federal Trade Commission's decision to force Disney to issue refunds to purchasers of its Baby Einstein videos and derides parents who he concludes shouldn't have been so naive as to think these videos would transform their little tykes into nascent geniuses. The latter argument is simply a straw man. The packaging and marketing strongly suggest that the videos are educational, which is a much more modest and superficially plausible claim than that they will turn your child into a genius.

The videos have no educational value, so are falsely advertised. The FTC's action is perfectly justified.

People should always exercise skepticism in purchasing products, but since it is possible for a video to have some educational value, parents who purchased them relying on that assumption, which was created by Disney, weren't necessarily being gullible.

It's a shame that the FTC, since Reagan, has been underfunded and politically hobbled. There are many other companies that are deserving of similar action.