Have you heard about Barbie? What about Barbie? What about Barbie Gap? And the Barbie Dreamhouse? Or Barbie luggage? What we’re saying is there’s a lot to know about with Barbie these days, and that’s no accident. It turns out that the current onslaught of Barbie merch, which is tying in with the movie out July 21, took 18 months of planning on Mattel’s part, according to the Wall Street Journal. And the choice to have the merch extend beyond dolls was deliberate. “The bigger opportunity for us is going to be outside of the toy aisle,†Mattel president and COO Richard Dickson told WSJ. (If you want to make jokes about the name “Richard Dickson,†then you are welcome to, but we would never be so uncouth.) The strategy? Increase the consumer audience from people buying for kids to all ages. “We go from our core customer, little girls, all the way through grandmas, or what we call ‘glam-mas,’†Dickson added. That means capitalizing on Barbie’s bright, colorful aesthetic, but also on its nostalgia.
Brands, for their part, are more than happy to oblige. Pink is a high seller anyway, according to Forever 21 CEO Winnie Park. “Pink appeals to men, women and them,†she told WSJ, in an attempt to identify the three genders. In fact, pink drives 15 percent of their sales. And in line with the movie’s move toward a capitalist-friendly version of feminism, brands are following suit. Xbox is releasing a pink, Barbie-fied version of Xbox Series S with the apparent hope of being able to “motivate young girls in following their passions and highlight careers in STEM and gaming,†according to Kirsten Ward, Xbox’s VP of integrated marketing. We’re living in a material world, and everyone is a material #girlboss.