The sheer extent to which the characters are used in licensed material is a subject of criticism against Schulz. "Los Angeles Times" pointed out that "some critics Schulz was distracted by marketing demands, and his characters had become caricatures of themselves by shilling for Metropolitan Life Insurance, Dolly Madison cupcakes and others." Schulz reasoned that his approach to licensing was in fact modest, stating "our [licensing program is built upon characters who are figuratively alive" and "we're not simply stamping these characters out on the sides of products just to sell products" while also adding "Snoopy is so versatile he just seems to be able to fit into any role and it just works. It's not that we're out to clutter the market with products. In fact anyone saying we're overdoing it is way off base because actually we are underdoing it".