Heavy Mattel MusicAbout this time last year,...

Heavy Mattel Music

About this time last year, Mattel’s chief executive was taking a rap when the company reported a third-quarter loss of $14.2 million. But last week, when the company reported a quarterly profit of $21.9 million, the chief executive was this time giving a rap.

Literally. While 800 astounded Mattel employees--gathered in the company cafeteria--listened, company Chairman and Chief Executive John W. Amerman rolled up his sleeves and broke into a staged “rap” song along with Mattel USA President Bob Sansone.

“We thought you’d like to know that the third quarter’s fine, and after nine months, Mattel is startin’ to shine,” went the routine that included backup by three secretaries called the Mattel Rappettes. “As for profits this year, here’s a wonderful fact: The numbers are improving and the sales are snappy.”

Laughable Shell Corporation

It sounds like a nutty idea. But maybe that’s what you get from a firm that calls itself “Off Center who else but a California corporation.”

Called “Certifiably Nuts,” it’s basically a sack of Georgia peanuts, wrapped in a tiny straitjacket, that laughs hysterically. This $19.95 strange-looking headless doll-like novelty item was created by two local advertising executives and is sold at Disneyland and Robinson’s department stores.

Like Cabbage Patch Dolls, Certifiably Nuts comes with papers, including a patient history and a certificate committing it to an insane asylum. At the pull of a string, it emits frenzied giggles recorded by its two creators--Manhattan Beach ad exec Tom Binnion and Jon Reeder, senior art director at the Los Angeles office of the BBDO ad firm.

Normally, however, its creators are not at wit’s end. “I’d say you could describe us as those dangerous, quiet types,” joked Binnion. “But I think everybody goes a little crazy” once in a while.

YBL8 With a Gift?

Wondering WATT2BY this XMASCZN for your loved ones? Well, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suggest a one-of-a-kind gift: a personalized license plate.

The plates, which cost $36 plus regular registration charges, take six to eight weeks to process and deliver. A gift certificate can also be purchased, and the recipient can create their own personalized message limited to a total of seven numbers or letters.

Some of the messages already taken: 2THDOK, IMACPA, 4D9RFAN and H20SKI. So, by the way, are PEACE, JOY and LOVE.

Cleanup Made Mess at Vons

Shoppers at some former Safeway locations that are now Vons stores will soon notice a few things missing from the parking lots: video games, children’s rides and a couple of Goodwill Industries tractor-trailers used to collect costumers’ cast-offs.

Areas outside some Safeways were “a little messy,” Roger E. Stangeland, chairman of Vons, said before the company’s annual meeting last week. The atmosphere wasn’t always conducive to attracting a quality clientele, he added. “We’ll probably ruffle a few feathers,” Stangeland acknowledged.

Goodwill, which employs disabled persons to repair donated items, plans to take its case straight to Vons President William S. Davila. It hopes he will rescind the order to remove the two collection vehicles, according to Goodwill official Dan Mulcahy. Losing two successful collection points, in Glendale and La Crescenta, would “affect the number of handicapped people we’re able to employ,” he said. “The sites have become sort of a fixture.”