Baby Einstein (stylized as baby einstein) is global brand currently owned by Kids2 and created by Julie Aigner-Clark in 1996. They design & distribute multimedia products, toys, and gear for infants and toddlers.[1]
Baby Einstein was introduced to the public in 1996, and remained a small company until Clark sold it to Disney. Between November 7, 2001,[2] and October 13, 2013, Disney owned and operated the Baby Einstein brand. Starting on October 14, 2013, Kids II, Inc. owns and operates the Baby Einstein brand.
Brand Philosophy - The Einstein Way
The brand’s present-day positioning emphasizes parental interaction and curiosity-based exploration rather than passive screen learning. Marketing and educational materials describe Baby Einstein content and products as tools intended to encourage shared play experiences between caregivers and infants, with a focus on social-emotional engagement and early sensory exposure.
Baby Einstein’s learning philosophy is called “The Einstein Way,” which is a curiosity-driven learning philosophy backed by science and built from childhood development research, according to their website.[3] The Einstein Way is authored by Rochelle Wainer, Ph. D. In 2025, Kids2 introduced expert-created play tips based on The Einstein Way on Baby Einstein toys.
History
The Baby Einstein Company was founded in 1996 by former teacher and stay-at-home mom Julie Aigner-Clark[4] at her home in suburban Alpharetta, Georgia, as I Think I Can Productions. According to an interview with Julie Dunn, she wanted her babies to be exposed to classical music, poetry, colors, shapes, and more.[5] Aigner-Clark and her husband borrowed video equipment and invested $15,000 of their own savings to produce the initial product, a VHS cassette they named Baby Einstein and later sold as Language Nursery in 2001 to avoid confusion with the Baby Einstein brand as a whole.
The original video shows a variety of toys and visuals interspersed with music, stories, numbers, and words spoken in seven different languages: English, French, Spanish, Japanese, German, Hebrew, and Russian. Eventually, the video was marketed across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It even won the 1997 Parenting Magazine award for Best Video of the Year.[6] More videos followed like Baby Mozart and Baby Bach, with some videos featuring the Clarks' two daughters, Aspen and Sierra, as well as other children.
It quickly became a multimillion-dollar franchise; its revenue grew from $1 million in 1998[7] to $25 million in 2001.[8] Julie Aigner-Clark renamed the company as Aigner-Clark Productions in 1998, as when Julie and her family and her company moved from Georgia and relocated to Denver, Colorado,[9] then renamed the Baby Einstein Company the following year in 1999, and on February 10, 2000, Artisan Entertainment announced they had acquired a minority stake in the company in exchange for a North American home video distribution agreement under the FHE Kids sub-label of Family Home Entertainment, as well as DVD distribution.[10]
On November 6, 2001, The Walt Disney Company announced they had acquired The Baby Einstein Company for an undisclosed amount.[11] Julie Aigner-Clark stepped down from directing Baby Einstein videos after Baby Beethoven in 2002. Disney rereleased the first eight Baby Einstein videos previously distributed by FHE Kids in 2002–2003, and then rereleased all the Aigner-Clark videos with some alterations in 2004. These changes were mainly done with the toy scenes and some titular changes in the credits.
The concept and popularity of Baby Einstein expanded as a Disney property. Disney continued to build the video library, but Baby Einstein also began expanding beyond DVDs into physical products that families could use every day. In 2003, Equity Marketing was named the North American master toy licensee for Baby Einstein, which helped move the brand from being mainly a home video series into a broader line that included toys as a core part of the business.[12]
Baby Einstein was also the source of inspiration for a preschool-aimed television series called Little Einsteins, created by the Disney-owned Baby Einstein Company and animated by Curious Pictures. The series began with a direct-to-video film in August 2005, with regular episodes airing on Playhouse Disney starting in October of that year.
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,[13] along with a new Baby Einstein video, but it was all abandoned for reasons unknown.[14]
As a result of Baby Einstein being named after Albert Einstein, royalties had to be paid to Corbis which compensates the Einstein estate. This made Einstein one of the top five earning deceased celebrities.[15]
On October 14, 2013, The Walt Disney Company announced they had sold the Baby Einstein brand to Kids II, Inc., a longtime licensee of the property.[16] Under Kids2, Baby Einstein continued primarily as a product brand. Kids2 later relaunched Baby Einstein toys[17] in 2018 with new interactive learning products, reflecting the brand's continued emphasis on physical toys and everyday baby gear.[18]
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.[20] The CCFC alleged false advertising based on an American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that children under two should be discouraged from watching television.[21] 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.[22][23] 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.[24] 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.[24]
Language development
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".[25] 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".[26] In response to these new findings, Disney offered refunds to parents whose children did not see improvement,[27] even though Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, demanded a retraction (of the press release) when a similarly unsupportive study was announced in 2007.[28][29]
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.[30][31] 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.[32] 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.[33] The Baby Einstein Company expressed "serious concerns about the many contradictions" in the study.[34] Although University of Washington President Mark Emmert rejected Disney's claims,[35] 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.[36]
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.[37] 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".[38] 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.[39]
Research findings about infant video exposure have been mixed.[40] Early studies in the 2000s questioned whether infant media could delay language development, while later work suggested that the measured effects were small or inconsistent when controlling for external variables such as age, parental involvement, or socioeconomic factors. These findings have led to continued discussion about the role of infant media, with Baby Einstein cited frequently within academic research on the subject.
Media and distribution
Since the 2010s, Baby Einstein has expanded under Kids2 into streaming and digital platforms beyond its original DVD business model. The brand distributes video programming on platforms such as YouTube and subscription streaming channels, reaching international audiences with short-form and long-form educational content.[41] Baby Einstein programming has also appeared on connected-TV services, and the catalog includes legacy content along with new series themes relating to music, movement, and sensory engagement.
In 2019, they launched Hello Einstein Studios and released their Explorers series for the first time. Baby Einstein Ocean Explorers launched in 2023—the company’s first STEAM-focused edutainment series, in conjunction with a comprehensive line of two dozen products, including toys and baby gear.
Today, they produce several shows on YouTube, including modernized versions of classic Baby Einstein content, Farm Explorers, Closer Look with Marlee Matlin, and other learning-based content aimed towards babies and toddlers. In July 2025, Baby Einstein hit 1 million subscribers on their YouTube channel.[42]
In February 2026, Baby Einstein announced a partnership with Tonies.[43] That same month, Baby Einstein Ocean Explorers debuted on Netflix.[44]
Modern product lines
Following its acquisition by Kids2 in 2013, Baby Einstein products have broadened beyond media to include developmental toys, activity centers, play gyms, and music-based learning products. In 2018, Kids2 relaunched Baby Einstein toys.[45] These items incorporate themes centered on early curiosity, sensory play, and STEAM-oriented exploration for infants and toddlers. Baby Einstein-branded products are sold internationally through major retail channels.
↑Dunn, Julie. "Bringing up Baby Einstein." New York Times, 11 Nov. 2001, p. BU. Gale Academic OneFile,
↑"80 Percent of Parents Feel Children Under the Age of Five Should Be Exposed to Classical Music." PR Newswire, 10 Aug. 2000, p. 0870. Gale Academic OneFile
↑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.
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