The idea that the Barbie movie was responsible for a global shortage of pink paint seems almost too good to be true, doesn’t it? Then again, everything about the rollout for Oppenheimer’s opponent feels that way, from Ryan Gosling’s heartfelt comments about his “Ken-ergy†to the movie’s stacked soundtrack. As it so happens, production designer Sarah Greenwood did tell Architectural Digest that construction on Greta Gerwig’s film caused an international shortage of the fluorescent-pink Rosco paint. “The world,†Greenwood said with a laugh, “ran out of pink.†But that claim, much like Barbie’s highly saturated world of high heels, isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Lauren Proud, the vice-president of global marketing for Rosco, has since clarified to the Los Angeles Times that Rosco did run out of that shade of paint … but it already had less than normal in 2022, when Barbie was in production. Proud explained that the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting the global supply chain for goods across the board, and Rosco was also still recovering from a 2021 deep freeze in Texas that damaged a lot of materials used to make its paint. “There was this shortage, and then we gave them everything we could — I don’t know they can claim credit,†Proud said. But hey, even if there wasn’t a full supply available, Barbie definitely used everything that Rosco had left. Now that’s what we call a material girl.
Wait, Did Barbie Actually Cause an International Pink-Paint Shortage?
