colorado 1996 headquarters burbank california united states key people julie aigner clark founder owner independent 1997 2001 the walt disney company 2001 2013 kids ii inc. 2013 present parent kids ii inc. website babyeinstein.com baby einstein is a line of multimedia products and toys that specialize in interactive activities for infants & toddlers . it was introduced to the public in 1996 . between november 2001 and september 2013 baby einstein products were owned and operated by disney . from october 2013 onward kids ii inc. owns and operates baby einstein products . the videos have been described as crack for babies by whom but research shows that they do not necessarily increase youngsters vocabularies which led disney to offer refunds to parents whose children did not improve . 1 contents 1 history 2 controversies 2.1 ftc complaint 2.2 language development 3 products 3.1 vhs 3.2 dvd 3.3 discovery kits 4 tv productions 5 references 6 external links history edit the baby einstein company was founded in 1998 by former teacher and stay at home mom julie aigner clark at her home in suburban alpharetta georgia as i think i can productions . 2 aigner clark and her husband invested 18 000 of their savings to produce the initial product a vhs they named baby einstein and later sold as language nursery . the original video shows a variety of toys and visuals interspersed with music stories numbers and words of many languages . eventually the video was marketed across the united states europe asia and australia . other videos followed some featuring the clarks two daughters as well as other children . all videos feature toys by ambi brio folkmanis dakin chimes battat tomy legends and lore among others . it quickly became a multimillion dollar franchise ; its revenue grew from 1 million in 1998 3 to 25 million in 2001 . 4 in january 1998 julie aigner clark renamed the company the baby einstein company and in february 2000 gave distribution rights of the company s home videos to artisan entertainment and family home entertainment both now acquired by and folded into lionsgate home entertainment . in november 2001 julie aigner clark sold baby einstein to the walt disney company . 5 the concept and popularity of baby einstein greatly expanded as a disney property . educational toys and additional videos were developed . baby einstein was also the source of inspiration for a preschool aimed television series called little einsteins created jointly by disney and curious pictures . the series aired episodes on playhouse disney from 2005 2009 and has since been airing reruns on disney junior the channel . the success of baby einstein was estimated to be nearly 400 million based on revenues . julie was named entrepreneur of the year and won various awards and one in three u.s. households with babies were found to own at least one baby einstein product . citation needed it received positive media and aigner clark appeared on the oprah winfrey show good morning america the today show and usa today among others . president george w. bush mentioned the baby einstein company in his 2007 state of the union address which aigner clark was invited to attend . citation needed in 2008 clark along with actress jennifer garner hosted a tenth anniversary party for baby einstein . clark had also announced plans to launch a toddler brand called einstein pals 6 including videos but it has since been abandoned . 7 because baby einstein was named after albert einstein royalties had to be paid to corbis which compensates the einstein estate making him one of the top five earning dead celebrities . 8 clark left the company after the release of baby beethoven and has since been involved in other startups including the safe side joybox and the soft skin company . citation needed in october 2013 kids ii inc. acquired baby einstein from disney 9 controversies edit ftc complaint edit in may 2006 the campaign for a commercial free childhood ccfc filed a complaint with the u.s. federal trade commission ftc against the baby einstein company and similar companies for false advertising . 10 the ccfc alleged false advertising based on an american academy of pediatrics recommendation that children under two should be discouraged from watching television . 11 it also cited studies showing that only 6 % of parents were aware of that recommendation whereas 49 % thought educational videos were very important in children s intellectual development . 12 13 in december 2007 the ftc closed the complaint noting that some of the ccfc s claims did not raise issues under the ftc s substantiation rules . 14 the ftc also considered the redesign of the baby einstein website which removed certain product testimonials and product descriptions as well as the company s promise to make sure that advertising claims about products educational and developmental value would be properly substantiated . 14 however the websites of baby einstein in languages other than english are not all modified in the same way . for example its official chinese website still contains the product effect statement as for example the baby van gogh released by us can initiate your baby s interest and recognition of colors . 15 language development edit a 2010 study published in psychological science demonstrated that children who viewed the videos regularly for one month with or without their parents showed no greater understanding of words from the program than kids who never saw it . 1 on the other hand children who were taught by their parents improved the most ; researchers speculated that this was probably because children learn best through meaningful gestures and interactive communication with parents . 16 in response to these new findings disney offered refunds to parents whose children did not see improvement 17 even though robert iger ceo of the walt disney company demanded a retraction of the press release when a similarly unsupportive study was announced in 2007 . 18 19 the 2007 study based on telephone interviews with parents had been published in the journal of pediatrics and resulted in a lawsuit by the company s founders due to widespread negative media coverage stemming from the article . 20 21 the press release announcing the study explained that for each hour spent watching baby dvds videos infants understood on average six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them . 22 the university of washington researchers frederick zimmerman dimitri christakis and andrew meltzoff had claimed that among infants aged 8 to 16 months exposure to baby dvds videos such as baby einstein and brainy baby was strongly associated with lower scores on a communicative development inventory a standard language development test . 23 the baby einstein company expressed serious concerns about the many contradictions in the study . 24 although university of washington president mark emmert rejected disney s claims 25 in 2010 the university settled with the founders paying out 175 000 in back legal fees and turned over the study s data to the baby einstein founders . 26 in march 2008 the journal of pediatrics released a study by harvard university and the boston children s hospital s center on media and child health showing that television viewing is neither beneficial nor deleterious to child cognitive and language abilities for children under 2 in a study that examined all television rather than just education dvds for babies . 27 in january 2010 the founders requested that a judge order the university of washington to release records for the 2007 study saying given that other research studies have not shown the same outcomes we would like the raw data and analytical methods from the washington studies so we can audit their methodology and perhaps duplicate the studies . 28 in 2013 the original dataset was reanalyzed by independent scholars who concluded that it was safest to suggest that baby videos had minimal impact on language development and that linking baby videos to decreased language development was not well supported by the data . 29 products edit vhs edit language nursery voices from many lands 1997 30 baby mozart music festival 1998 31 baby bach musical adventure 1999 32 baby shakespeare world of words 2000 33 baby van gogh world of colors 2000 34 baby santa s music box 2000 35 neighborhood animals discovering familiar animals 2001 36 world animals a musical safari 2001 37 baby newton world of shapes 2002 38 baby beethoven symphony of fun 2002 39 dvd edit baby neptune discovering water 2003 40 baby galileo discovering the sky 2003 numbers nursery discovering 1 through 5 2003 41 baby macdonald a day on the farm 2004 42 baby da vinci from head to toe 2004 baby noah animal expedition 2004 baby monet discovering the seasons 2005 baby wordsworth first words around the house 2005 on the go riding sailing and soaring 2005 meet the orchestra first instruments 2006 baby s favorite places first words around town 2006 baby s first moves 2006 my first signs see and sign with baby 2007 discovering shapes circles squares and more 2007 lullaby time soothing sounds for baby 2007 baby s first sounds discoveries for little ears 2008 world music 2009 world animal adventure 2009 discovery kits edit baby mozart 2010 baby bach 2011 baby shakespeare 2012 baby van gogh 2012 neighborhood animals 2013 world animals 2013 baby beethoven 2014 sea animals 2015 baby webster 2015 tv productions edit little einsteins 2005 2009 references edit a b bruce bower september 3 2010 . dvds don t turn toddlers into vocabulary einsteins . sciencenews . youtube . retrieved 25 may 2016 . eric hubler march 12 1999 . baby videos spell big money mom turns einstein into million dollar enterprise . denver post . daisy whitney may 30 2001 . nurturing a baby boom littleton woman s line of videos cds a hit with children . denver post . artisan entertainment acquires rights to distribute branded developmental series from the baby einstein company . business wire . february 10 2000 . baby einstein tm founder julie clark and jennifer garner host 10th anniversary celebration business wire . businesswire.com . retrieved 8 september 2016 . apply for a trademark . search a trademark . trademarkia.com . retrieved 8 september 2016 . cobain is the new elvis most earning dead celebrities . sydney morning herald . 2006 10 25 . archived from the original on 5 september 2008 . retrieved 2008 08 13 . license global october 14 2013 . kids ii purchases baby einstein . license global . baby einstein & brainy baby ftc complaint campaign for a commercial free childhood website retrieved dec. 15 2008 american academy of pediatrics committee on public education february 2001 . children adolescents and television policy statement . pediatrics . 107 2 423 426 . doi 10.1542 peds .107.2.423 . pmid 11158483 . josh golin january 2007 . putting the book back in book fair . mothering magazine . archived from the original on 2007 08 12 . retrieved 2007 08 13 . michelle m. garrison & dimitri a. christakis . new report on educational media for babies toddlers and preschoolers . kaiser family foundation . archived from the original on 2 september 2007 . retrieved 2007 08 13 . a b federal trade commission closing letter to counsel for the baby einstein company december 5 2007 retrieved july 9 2008 product introduction . retrieved 2008 08 22 . dvd for example the baby van gogh released by us can initiate your baby s interest and recognition of colors . maia szalavitz september 7 2010 . like crack for babies kids love baby einstein but they don t learn from it . time . tamar lewin no einstein in your crib get a refund new york times october 23 2009 robert a. iger august 13 2007 . the walt disney company demands retraction from the