Midsummer, Beijing.
In order to avoid the sun, I fled into the mall in a panic, not thinking that in front of MINISO, a pink light that was more dizzy than the poisonous sunlight flashed.
- Ah, it's you again, Barbie.
Near the release, the movie "Barbie" has many joint names, no matter online or offline, Leng can't help but collide with the phosphor at which corner.
I heard the girls picking the merchandise whisper: "This little bag is just right to carry to the premiere... It doesn't matter if the shark clips multiple pink ones, and the water cup can also be bought for rotation. ”
Barbie, the past actress, is really back to the top.
Directed by Hollywood's emerging female director Greta Gerwig, starring popular actors Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, and bringing in "Sister Pa" Dua Lipa, "Spicy Chicken" Nicki Minaj, "Pear" Billie Ellish and other popular people, long before its release on July 21, it has become the most topical movie of the year.
In 2013, "Frozen" was born, and the new generation of big heroine Elsa beat the old jade Barbie so that she couldn't lift her head, causing the revenue of Mattel, which produced Barbie, to plummet; Now the "Concubine Xi Returns to the Palace" banquet the world, not only by playing the nostalgic feelings card, peddling childhood filters, but also bombarding the 360-degree three-dimensional surround without dead angles of the propaganda offensive has gained the lead.
The arrogance of "Barbie" in marketing is that people do not need to show the title of the film when they post advertisements, "Brush pink, who dares to sit in addition to Barbie?" ”
"Barbie" movie poster, not a word, full of flow
Lisa McKnight, head of Mattel's doll business, said in an interview, "Our goal this year is to make Barbie everywhere," and then repeated, "everywhere." ”
The penetration of pink power starts with joint products that shoot regardless of age and gender.
"Barbie" not only harvests girls, "macho men" are also in range.
Zara's Barbie co-branded model has a men's clothing series, including a coquettish pink scarf and the same jeans of Barbie's boyfriend "Ken", I thought that netizens who no one bought at all underestimated the diversity of the male group, and the official website has long been broken. Some people directly regard the joint name as Valentino Ping, this time it is the lair of real Barbie fans.
Cybergear has also been purchased for Barbie fans, Xbox has launched a movie co-branded wireless controller, and the game Forza Horizon 5 has also launched a limited Barbie-themed car, allowing all players to fly over the horizon with the sparkling pink sports car during the event.
Clothing and games are just the tip of the iceberg, "Barbie" co-branding has covered all categories, clothing, food, housing and travel, only you can't think of it, without it can not be linked, just burgers have two pink heat bombs with two brands, frozen yogurt, popcorn these "movie companions" are not a word, if you need to further render the Barbie atmosphere at home, a Barbie scented candle is waiting for you to order, so that you are not only visually filled with pink, but also in smell.
However, joint shelving is really not a rare thing now, so "Barbie" while relying on "volume", crazy out thousands of joint products to brush the sense of existence, while smashing a lot of money is commonplace, directly on Malibu Beach to create a realistic version of "Barbie Dream House".
This mansion, completed in 2019 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Barbie, repainted nude powder into bright powder, and it feels noisy to look at the picture. The film side released a rental notice in the tone of Barbie's boyfriend Ken, and on July 21 and 22, lucky viewers will have the opportunity to stay for free. As for why it's free, it's because Ken "doesn't know how to price Barbie's Dream Cottage."
The joint name of the wide net sends a clear signal that the audience of "Barbie" is no longer a little girl who is still living with dolls, and this movie clearly refers to adult leeks like me, regardless of men and women.
McKnight, head of the doll business, did say: "We want to re-engage fans who may not support us – people in their 20s and above. ”
Commander Gao called on boys to say it out loud, picture source Weibo @Dugua Yinghua
It's not easy to "turn black into powder", entertainment magazine "Variety" broke the news that "Barbie" has a budget of $100 million, I don't know how much of it is spent on marketing. Fortunately, the money does not seem to be in vain, and the box office forecast of "Barbie" in the latest North American opening weekend has reached $110 million, far exceeding Nolan's new film "Oppenheimer" released on the same day.
Netizens spoof "Barbie Heimer"
The endless phosphor items not only promote Barbie fever, but also support Barbie fever.
How did this craze get on? Official money and effort are very important, and folk meme carnival is even more key - terriers are marketing tools in the Internet era.
The journey of "Barbie" began last summer.
A year ago, Robbie and Gosling's stills stepping on roller skates were exposed, and a group of spicy eyes exploded with a super high degree of discussion, especially the Gosling version of Akon, the frivolous clothes and greasy look, provoked netizens to "buy a pair of eyes that have not been seen", and foreign social platforms also brushed up entries like #NotMyKen (not my Ken).
In this regard, Gosling sharply shot back in an interview with "GQ": "Say 'not my Ken', have you thought about Ken before? He continued, "If you really care about Ken, you'll know that no one cares about Ken. ”
"Puxinken, who no one cares about", has become the most out-of-the-loop meme of "Barbie". Of course, Ken is not without use value, and there are some interesting and unique audience words: it can be used to ride (bushi).
It can only be said that respect blessings
The progress bar dragged on to April 4 of this year, and "Barbie" released a character poster, and the copy quickly became a popular golden phrase: "Barbie is everything" and "Ken is just Ken". The film side struck while the iron was hot, and then launched the "Selfie Generator" on April 6, providing a fluorescent plastic background and logo, and the photos and copy were freely played by netizens to generate their own "Barbie" poster as they wished.
A carnival of emoji creation begins. Some made posters for their cats, some made posters for a bunch of potatoes, and some people used this to satirize "Pepper" Gwyneth Paltrow, who was deeply involved in a ski crash lawsuit at the time: "This Barbie lost half a day's skiing time"; McDonald's, Burger King and other brands have also started "rubbing" the whole work.
For a while, the cognition that "everything can be Barbie, Barbie can also be everything" is deeply rooted in people's hearts. Of course, Ken is just Ken, and Gosling even sang the song "I'm Just Ken" in the film.
But Ken wasn't just Ken, he went from Barbie "not even a cool appendage" (Gosling's words) to a noun, a verb, an adjective.
Mattel sells the Kenergy muscle vest
In an interview, the heroine Robbie mentioned that on the set, when the male creators talked about "men's topics" such as bitcoin and golf, he and director Gerwig would use "Ken" to spit on them: "They are also too 'Ken', can you not 'Ken'." ”
The host also said on the spot that in the past, people used to use "she is really a Barbie" to accuse women, but after the movie was released, people may start to say: "He is really a Ken." ”
Image source: Weibo @ Subtitle Girl
And the soul terrier that best represents "Barbie" is, of course, Barbie fans.
Since the 70s of the 20th century, Mattel began to use pink as the main color of the brand logo, and later, this pink has its own color number (219C) and copyright, and has a place on the Pantone color card. Now, Barbie fans unify all the marketing actions inside and outside the play of "Barbie".
Sarah Greenwood, the film's production designer, even revealed that "the world ran out of pink all over the world" in order to make the film. Although this statement is not rigorous, only the pink of Rosco, a special paint company for film and television, is far from "the world", but the intention of the movie to give the world a little "Barbie powder" shock can be seen. Warner Bros. also changed the official blog logo to pink, which is really a bit pink PTSD.
Director Gerwig said: "I wanted pink to be bright to an exaggerated extent. ”
And "exaggeration" is also a trick announced by "Barbie". There is nothing groundbreaking in the marketing methods of co-branding and playing terriers, but it is powerful enough in the formation and strong enough visual impact, in the Internet black language, only in this way can it "penetrate the user's mind".
This gave Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz enough confidence, who threatened: "On Earth, it is very difficult to know that this movie is about to be released." ”
However, knowing that you know, breakdown to breakdown, this phosphor, is really black.
Source: Little Red Book @ Also sweet without sugar~
Although Barbie is about to stand up now, if you think about it, since becoming a rebellious junior high school student, his Barbie toys have become dusty memories.
Barbie is probably the enlightenment of fashion bloggers and home bloggers for some post-90s girls. Changing Barbie's hair and decorating the room is a deeper experience, the refrigerator should be placed at the end of the bed, reach out to pull out ice cream, the kitchen should be close to the sofa, turn over to catch grilled sausages.
Source: Weibo @bitechunksoutofme
After gradually beginning to forget Barbie, I learned that for a long time, Barbie's public image was mixed, both as the ideal embodiment of "perfect woman" and synonymous with "blonde brainless vase".
Such controversy has been with Barbie almost since its birth.
In 1959, Ruth Handler created Barbie, inspired by the German comic book character "Bild-Lilli" positioned as a "blonde stunner", and Barbie, although aimed at children, also inherited the overly bumpy body that could not exist in reality, and angered some parents when it debuted.
However, Handler still used a TV commercial to successfully shape Barbie into a role model for girls and the most wanted gift, which directly propelled Mattel to go public the following year and soon became the world's largest toy company.
Handler said that his original intention was to let girls see their infinite possibilities through Barbie, so while most women were still limited to the role of housewives, Barbie already had multiple identities such as businesswoman, astronaut, surgeon, and even president.
Ken's emergence also served an ideal world in which women can do everything, and in 1961, this unambitious tool boyfriend was placed next to Barbie, who had a successful career. As a child, I didn't even bother to buy an extra Ken - with this money, why not buy two Barbies?
In the upcoming "Barbie" movie, Ken's mediocrity and shallowness are further strengthened. In one scene, he first questions the identity of a female doctor and then says that he does not need a medical degree to perform surgery because he is a man.
Although Mattel has been committed to portraying Barbie as a female role model, there is no shortage of controversy, and the appearance that is too much in line with the stereotypical image of "beauty" has been criticized for "aggravating girls' body anxiety" and "solidifying a single aesthetic norm".
"Barbie" became a negative character, and a 2006 article published in the journal Developmental Psychology pointed out that girls who came into contact with Barbie were more likely to have body anxiety than other dolls.
Russian influencer Angelica Kenova has been called "the girl who most resembles Barbie"
In addition, Barbie's agent Mattel is also "bad". In the 60s of last century, Mattel came with a Barbie diet manual with the doll, and the manual guidance can be described as concise - "don't eat"; In the "Talking Barbie" launched in 1992, some dolls were even programmed to lament that "math is too difficult".
Therefore, although Barbie's sales exceeded $1 billion in 1992, the top road of this female star can only be said to be "black and red".
Issa Rae, who participated in the "Barbie" movie and played President Barbie, admitted that "Barbie" sometimes does become an insulting word: "People who are evaluated as [Barbie] may indicate that you are a slut, a silly white sweet." ”
Then, times changed. The previous Barbie was outdated, and wanted to turn the popular people to keep pace with the times.
Judging from the materials that have been released and the interviews with the main creators, the main purpose of the "Barbie" movie is that Mattel wants to create a "Barbie" that is more suitable for the global baby physique in 2023.
Filming Barbie, the big heroine, the main creative team has a high female content - Warner found director Gerwig, who directed "Miss Bird", "Little Women" and "Frances Ha" and other feminist word-of-mouth works in recent years;
Barbie's personality can't be too single - 1 Barbie is too easy to stereotype, okay, then I'll design you [175] Barbie with different skin tones and figures, there are presidents, justices, Nobel Prize winners in physics, and mermaids.
More importantly, Barbie in the movie finally didn't have to take off her high heels, she kept walking on tiptoe, and her flat heels also became a big flashpoint;
And the whole style is different - if the impression of Barbie is a lady heartthrob, then the new version of "Barbie" is closer to the "multiverse of Barbie", nonsense is the essence, absurdity is the true meaning, tribute to the trailer of "Space Odyssey 2001" made many people change, "This does not seem to be Mattel's advertisement, is really dare to play terrier."
So, the trailer plays subtitles: "If you like Barbie, this movie is for you; If you hate Barbie, this movie is also for you. ”
In an interview with Time magazine, Robbie added: "If you don't feel for Barbie dolls, or haven't thought about Barbie dolls in years, this movie is for you." ”
In a word, your aunt is no longer the aunt you were sixty years ago.
Although there are also audiences who have already watched it complaining about "too much force" and "are you writing papers", but for such a movie that can innovate Barbie's narrative, Mattel, a difficult Party A, has been tossing for more than ten years.
In 2009, Mattel contacted Universal Pictures, in 2014, it hooked up with Sony Pictures, and in 2018, it met Warner Bros.; Barbie's actor also changed from comedian Amy Schumer, who has blond hair but is known for her sharpness, to Anne Hathaway, who was raped online because she was too perfect, and then finally finalized Margot Robbie.
Amy Schumer affirmed after seeing the "Barbie" trailer, saying that the project she had worked on was not as "cool" as it is now.
From "not cool" to "cool", it is also the epitome of Mattel's always trying to keep Barbie up with the times.
For people who don't know Barbie, this doll has probably always been the blonde look, with a standard smile on its face, and Mattel is also a "stubborn" company that has continued to peddle appearance anxiety for many years, but in fact, Mattel, as a large company to make money, has desperately stacked buffs to cater to consumer psychology.
Back in the sixties of the last century, Barbie began to "diversify". The "World Dolls" series, released in 1981, brought the first black Barbie and East Asian-looking Barbie, which later attracted criticism of "cultural appropriation" and "Orientalism" and was discontinued in 2014, but the practice of selling traditional clothing and corresponding accessories from different cultures separately made Mattel a fortune.
The "Aesthetic single" slot, Mattel is not unnoticed, the "Really Rad Barbie" series released in 1998, Barbie has a wider waist, smaller breasts, and an overall "sassy".
After entering the new millennium, especially after 2010, Barbie is shooting vlogs for "inclusive improvement", and it is an option to increase skin tone, hair quality, and figure.
In the words of Barbie collector Bradley Justice: "Whenever Mattel senses a loss of market share, it changes accordingly." ”
The challenges from the market were most severe from 2012 to 2015, when Barbie sales fell to $900 million, a 25-year low, and then hovered at a low level in turmoil until 2017.
In the meantime, with the help of its girls' toy series "Lego Friends", Lego successfully "usurped" the world's largest toy company in 2014, and Hasbro beat Mattel to win the Disney Princess franchise, although Mattel took back the management right in January 2022, but some analysts believe that Mattel has earned $500 million less in these 6 years.
The old way really can't be played, and it doesn't work anymore.
In 2015, Mattel released a flat-footed doll, and Barbie's feet that had been tiptoe for 45 years for high heels were finally put down; In 2016, Barbie officially determined three body types of "petite", "tall" and "plump"; The 2017 Fashionista collection includes 40 new dolls (including Ken), including 11 skin tones, 28 hairstyles and 7 body types; In 2019, Barbie in a wheelchair and Barbie with prosthetic limbs were launched, and Mattel also launched the "Creatable World" series, which is believed to be the world's first gender-neutral toy line.
With a lot of bold efforts, Barbie sales finally climbed back from the trough of 2017, reaching a record of nearly $1.7 billion in 2021.
Diversification continues, and Mattel has successively released Barbie dolls that wear hearing aids, suffer from vitiligo, and suffer from Down syndrome.
"Busty" body type Barbie and Barbie with Down syndrome
This is probably one of the reasons why it took Mattel 14 years to finally make the Barbie movie. Mattel President and COO Richard Dickson, who has witnessed several deaths of Barbie's live-action film project, said that before Gerwig, "there wasn't the right person to tell Barbie's story." As businesses, they have to make sure that such a large investment is on the pulse of the times.
At the same time, the "Barbie" movie is also a key step for Mattel to advance from selling toys to selling IP.
In September 2018, Mattel announced the establishment of a film department, and CEO Chris bluntly said that making movies is not to sell more toys, and "the most important shift is from a toy manufacturing company that produces goods to an intellectual property company that manages franchises."
Streaming shows, games, theme parks, an entire movie universe, these things have to be there, and this company will not only have consumers, but more importantly fans — in my rough understanding, it's about Disney.
Mattel has been a bit slower in this step: Hasbro has film projects such as "Transformers" and "Dungeons and Dragons", and Lego has already had several movies released.
On the other hand, Mattel, in 2016, cooperated with Dolphin Entertainment to produce a live-action version of "Max Steel" (Max Steel), but was deemed unsuitable for children by the Motion Picture Association of America, classified as PG-13 rated (not suitable for children under 13 years old), and finally the global box office was only $6.3 million, the $10 million investment was far from being returned, and the IMDB score was only 4.6. The live-action film "Masters of The Universe", co-developed with Sony, was officially announced in April 2018 and has not yet been released.
"Barbie" is now the "hope of the whole village", and it is undoubtedly shouldering the important task of putting Mattel's IP on the right track. Looking back at the noise of gongs and drums, firecrackers in unison, red flags on display, and crowds of people, it is only logical to look at the publicity posture of the gongs and drums, the sound of firecrackers, the display of red flags, and the crowds of people.
Mattel's new three years, the old three years, and the seams and patching for another three years, relying on "fantasy into reality" to kill a horse gun, can also be regarded as keeping Barbie glory and wealth. This summer's pink storm is menacing, and how the next "Barbie Universe" can wash the audience's brains depends on whether Mattel can continue to keep pace with the times.