Walmart is pulling an educational toy for children from its website amid the holiday shopping season after it was reported that the toy contains lyrics about cocaine and other, um, mature topics.
A rep for the Arkansas-based chain confirmed that the “Dancing Cactus Toy” has been removed from sale on its website after a grandmother in Canada discovered the toy sang about cocaine and depression.
The cactus went viral last month after Ania Tanner told her local news affiliate that she bought the toy for her granddaughter only to discover that it rapped about the mature topics in her native language of Polish.
Tanner told CTV News Toronto that she ordered the China-made toy after discovering it on Walmart’s website. After paying $26 fo the toy, which sings in English, Spanish and Polish, Ania discovered that the Polish version featured a song by Polish rapper Cypis.
“This toy uses swear words and talking about cocaine use,” she told the show about the children’s toy. Yikes! “This is not what I ordered for my granddaughter.”
Walmart removes dancing cactus toy that plays song about cocaine use https://t.co/O4tzTJJ24k pic.twitter.com/OztbkWAY97
— New York Post (@nypost) November 25, 2021
“It just so happens that I am Polish and when I started to listen to the songs and I heard the words,” she said. “I was in shock. I thought what is this some kind of joke?”
A rep for the company told CTV at the time, “These items are sold by a third-party seller on our marketplace website. We are removing the items while we look into this complaint further.”
Apparently, complaints about the toy go back to July, however. This singing toy was sold in Europe through Amazon and in July 2021 other families reported the inappropriate lyrics. In fact, as of press time we were still able to find a product page for the cactus on the Amazon site. WHAT is happening!
To make matter worse, the rapper was unaware that the toy used his lyrics and said he is pursuing legal action. This is one prickly mess!
