The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, an organization whose mission is to  support parents’ efforts to raise healthy families by limiting commercial access to children and ending the exploitive practice of child-targeted marketing, is having a Vote for the Worst Toy of the Year contest.

There are five worthy (or should I say unworthy) candidates:

I voted for the Barbie Loves Girl Scouts for several reasons. First, Barbie represents everything that I find offensive about girls’ dolls, in particular, her ridiculous body dimensions, her focus on physical appearance, and her materialism. Those alone should send mothers running as fast as possible away from Barbies (though given their popularity, for some reason that is beyond me, mothers obviously have the opposite reaction).

Second, I love the chutzpah of the Girl Scouts for their hypocrisy and greed in signing a $2 million licensing deal with Mattel. Isn’t GSA supposed to be teaching girls healthy values and attitudes?

Combine this deal with GSA making millions (around $700 million since 1999 to be precise) from those obesity-contributing, tooth-decaying (though, admittedly delicious) cookies and you wonder whose side GSA is on.

You can be sure I will never let a Barbie within 10 feet of my daughters. And, as for the Girl Scouts, my daughters are Brownies and Daisies, but, after seeing this new Barbie, I’m going to talk to my wife about rethinking their participation.

Sorry for the rant, but please cast your vote for your Worst Toy of the Year.