The doll you know and love just got even better!
On Thursday morning, Barbie revealed its more diverse line of dolls: curvy, petite, and tall. This comes after the doll has been under scrutiny for promoting an unrealistic body image to young girls.
Since 1959, when the doll was created, our girl Barbie has looked the same with her slender physique, large breasts, and her iconic long platinum blond hair. While a few other dolls of different races and ethnicities were created, their image was almost the same and with minimal differences.
Diversity is a large topic of discussion right now, so having the most popular toy in history tackle it is a huge deal. Barbie’s sales may have dipped, but she remains a top seller among the young. This means that young girls have looked at dolls, such as Barbie, for inspiration and an image of what beauty is.
The diversity that Barbie is tackling includes body types, skin tones, and even hair because not everyone looks the same. Duh!
This is a risk for Mattel, but one the brand may have needed. Sales have been low for the last eight quarters and revenue has dipped by 14 percent. What was once a billion dollar brand, fell into the millions. Historically, Barbie had consistently been the best-selling toy, but was replaced last year by Disney’s Elsa and the Lego brand.
Barbie needed to win back customers by winning over the most progressive generation—millennials. A Mattel director told the Telegraph, “We were seeing that millennials are driven by social justice and attracted to brands with purpose and values, and they didn’t see Barbie in this category.”
Eva Mazzocco, head of Barbie, points out that “the millennial mom is a small part of our consumer base, but we recognize she’s the future” in an interview with Time.
Everyone at Barbie knows exactly how you feel about the iconic megabrand. They’ve been keeping track of how millennials have reacted towards Barbie over the last couple of years. Negative words associated with Barbie were discussed during the rebrand of the doll.
Barbie has been improving its image by progressing with the times. In an ad that aired in November 2015 a little boy was featured playing with Moschino Barbie. That same year, Zendaya received her own Barbie doll mimicking her highly talked about Oscars look.
The diverse dolls, who will debut in the spring, have already received praise on social media, but the brand expects backlash. How do you feel about Barbie’s step towards diversity?