Commuter Barbie is social commentary of the most cut-and-dried kind. Creators and young professionals Carina Hsieh and Claudia Arisso took their experiences riding the New York City MTA and created a parody doll in the image of who they saw jockeying for standing room alongside them.
It’s not layered, it’s not a critique. It’s a simple reflection made worthy of eyeballs by rock solid Barbie-sized props that have made tens of thousands of viewers (and a smattering of journalists) take notice because they recognize their own lives and patterns in the tiny basic-ness of this flaxen yuppie. With nearly 200k views on Facebook in just over 24 hours, I think I mean that in a good way.
Will laughing at what’s painfully familiar ever go out of style? Dunno, but it’s tough to argue with results.
Luke is an executive producer at CollegeHumor/Big Breakfast and a watcher of many web videos. Send him yours @LKellyClyne.