Barbie, one of the most actively anticipated movies of the year, has recently been released with resounding praise. What is interesting, however, is understanding the reasons why the movie was so widely anticipated. Media outlets and Twitter accounts have been hyping this movie up for months, so much so that googling the film literally turns your entire page pink. This hype, though well earned as PDBY’s review will show, has been a concerted effort by Mattel to ensure that the film is as widely seen (and as widely paid for) as possible.
In a New Yorker article, Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz explained that Mattel has changed from “a toy-manufacturing company, making items, to an I.P. company, managing franchises”. This approach is telling in the over 100 million dollars that have been pumped into campaign after campaign to ensure that this film was a success before it even hit cinemas.
Barbie is important. It is a brand that was created by a woman to show that women can fill any role in society.
According to the New Yorker article, Barbie had been to space years before most women had credit cards. However, this importance has often been the subject of criticism. From a feminist perspective, a doll cannot solve the deep-seated problems within our society. But Mattel’s consistent statement has been one of self-awareness. The Barbie film’s irreverent treatment of the IP has been intentional in that it has sought to tap into a more irreverent public (and was successful). Memes abound, with Ryan Gosling tapping into his “kenergy”and the trailers evoking 2001 a Space Odyssey. Furthermore, the amount of “this Barbie is an X” memes that you can find littered across social media is astounding. All of this is to say that Barbie is likely one of the most astonishingly expensive toy advertisements to date.
This is obviously a cynical view. Barbie is a toy brand that has evidently had an impact, and the movie goes far beyond being an ad, but you would not be able to tell from the strategy behind the marketing. According to an article from The Hollywood Reporter, marketing analysts all seem to agree that the endpoint of this entire campaign is a movie that will be “very, very profitable”. And here we have the clear point of films: movies are an industry, and we buy into that industry when we go to see the movies. Barbie, however, is the best example of that. Mattel expects toy sales to increase because of the movie.
With that said, it is up to you to decide whether any amount of self- deprecating humour (and what is genuinely an important message) can make up for the fact that everything behind this movie is motivated by the same thing that motivates any company to create anything: profit.
In a Little Black Book article, Raphaël Bouquillon (the managing director at MG Empower) lays the strategy bare: “This new, more inclusive messaging is clearly being communicated in [Mattel’s] strategy. By activating across multiple spaces, products, and brands, they’re creating bold touch points across a range of communities, therefore building wider, more meaningful associations and connections with the brand, keeping the movie at the forefront of minds.” The goal is clear: connections need to be built with the brand. These connections have been successfully built and this corporate goal should be remembered when watching the movie. As the movie itself points out, everything is complicated, as the people who should be praised for the startling achievement that is Barbie are those that made it, and yet all of the marketing funnels you back to Mattel. The fact that the media has effectively been ‘Barbified’ may support the people on the ground who made the film, but it supports none more than the corporations who bankrolled it.
Watch the movie. But as with any piece of media, watch it and understand its context.