Entertainment editor AnnaBeth Crittenden discusses the new Barbie campaign
AnnaBeth Crittenden, Campus Carrier entertainment editor
A few days before the wave of madness that is Black Friday, the National Retail Federation released their top toy reports, and on the very top was Barbie. Yet, all was not sunny and signature pink in the Dreamhouse.
Almost everyone has heard the critiques about Barbie — most prominently about her body. In her book “Barbie Culture,” Mary Rodger reveals that a human sized Barbie would be seven feet tall and weigh about one hundred and ten pounds.
These dimensions have given rise to a variety of complaints. In 2013, Mattel attempted a campaign called #unapologetic, claiming that Barbie should not have to apologize for her size. The campaign failed and sales for the doll continued to decrease.
After a 16 percent decline in sales and an increase in criticisms, Barbie decided to strike back. Their newest ad campaign “Imagine the Possibilities” shows several girls appearing to confused adults as veterinarians, coaches, college professors and businesswomen. Yet at the end of the ad, the viewer sees that these situations are, in fact, all imagined by little girls playing with their Barbie dolls. The screen then fades to pink as the tag line “you can be anything” appears. And as the Washington Post from Oct. 30, states “the commercial more effectively puts the focus on Barbie’s many careers and the professional dreams they can inspire in girls.”
In her early years, Barbie was given over 150 careers, 40 pets and countless family members. Barbie was founded in 1959 by Ruth Handler who is quoted as saying that her “whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.”
And Barbie used this idea when planning their newest campaign. By ultimately going back to the basic ideas on which they were founded, this Barbie campaign reminds viewers that to a child’s imagination, it doesn’t matter what you look like. This is especially apparent in the last scene of the ad when the girl is playing with her Barbies.
Her imagined classroom is filled with dolls of all shapes and sizes. It doesn’t matter what you look like, what matters is that you can follow your dreams.
In Barbie’s newest campaign, she decided to make a stand for empowerment.
With feminism becoming more and more prevalent, Barbie’s decision to base its campaign on the empowerment of young girls immediately allowed their video to go viral. By showing young girls with ambitions to be vets, soccer coaches or professors, the brand creates Barbie as a compelling feminist icon.
“The great irony of the Barbie debate is that we spend so much time talking about how she looks and so little time talking about her careers — all 150 of them,” the Time magazine of Feb. 5, 2015 said.
Barbie is a tangible way for girls to portray their dreams. According to Barbie’s maker, Mattel, 90 percent of American girls from three to ten own a Barbie doll. With that big of a fan base, Barbie needes a strong message to portray to the children that buy her. The first 10 seconds on the advertisement show the quote: “what happens when girls are free to imagine they can be anything?” The advertisement is ultimately being used to sway skeptical parents, but its message inspires little girls. By telling children they can do whatever they want in an ad that features a well-known doll, Barbie is re-establishing herself as a role model and icon for these girls.
Barbie will never be loved by everyone, but by creating a campaign that validates the dreams and ambitions of little girls, Barbie has made a huge step in restating her purpose in the 21st century.