The Barbie doll is a serious model. The product has bought in mind-boggling numbers and moved throughout the globe, venturing past Southern California the place it was first created 64 years in the past. Mattel, the corporate that manufactures it, is an organization that makes $1.5 billion yearly from simply the vary of fifty merchandise it has modelled on Barbie.
So. How do you make a model that’s kind of saturated its market develop?
Easy. Make a Barbie film by your movie division, get an enormous star to headline it, and a director identified for her sharp, women-centric movies to helm it. The final bit is essential: The model is now inclusive and wishes a voice that may convey simply that.
Excellent.
The tone of the movie must be aspirational, after all. Barbies have been astronauts and presidents and judges and docs and a lot extra. Which little woman has not spent her childhood mimicking grownup life by a Barbie, weaving round it new lives and backstories?
However there have been issues too. The unrealistic magnificence requirements, the impossibly tiny waist, the discontinuation of pregnant doll Midge, the peddling of the bimbo narrative (Keep in mind the ’90s? A Barbie mentioned “Math class is hard”).
In fact, the model is outdated and it has a chequered historical past. However the movie may have confronted that historical past head-on. Or may it?
Barely any of those points are touched on within the movie. It doesn’t acknowledge the very fact that there have been protests in opposition to the model within the Nineteen Seventies by ladies’s rights activists. Or the backlash the corporate acquired for its depiction of African-American and Hispanic Barbies.
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A great model is accountable. However a greater model retains up with the occasions and stays related.
So, we should remind viewers that Barbie is now obtainable in “petite,” “tall,” and “curvy” iterations and throughout races and ethnicities. Keep in mind, a Barbie could be something. There may be now a Barbie with a listening to help, and one other with vitiligo. And there’s additionally one with no hair. There’s something for everybody right here!
However wait, what if Greta desires extra freedom? What if she desires to actually reinvent Barbie, give her a radical spin?
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Everyone knows core model photos are key. So, we forged Margot Robbie as the primary Barbie. She must be the face of the movie. Name her “stereotypical Barbie”, circle round some points together with her, however don’t actually dig deep. Folks should be provoked — however solely in gentle doses. And it helps that somebody like Margot is asking the essential questions concerning the patriarchy and the techniques and issues.
The movie additionally must please everybody. Little women want to observe it, love the bubblegum pink aesthetic and stroll out of the movie pondering they’d plaster their rooms the identical color. And there should be songs. A former Disney star (like Ryan Gosling) could be the right option to play Ken.
Naturally, Margot must be wearing impeccable outfits — in all shades of pink: Coral, peach, sizzling pink, magenta, and fuschia — in the course of the promotional run. She is blonde and lovely and has a symmetrical face. It will not be too troublesome to make her seem like a real-life Barbie. We simply should spruce up the styling group and work on that hair and make-up a bit bit.
Now think about how profitable the movie marketing campaign could be if we had folks displaying up for the movie wearing pink!
And one other concept: Every time somebody googles the forged or crew of the movie, the search bar has to glitter and glitter. Think about how cute that may be. SO ON BRAND!
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We can not additionally alienate older ladies, who might need truly performed with Barbies. Greta’s filmmaking fashion could be utilised on this division. She has made movies about deep bonds between ladies. Her first movie, Girl Fowl, was such an actual and trustworthy tackle moms and daughters.
We should remind them of that, so clearly we have now bought to incorporate a mother-daughter relationship within the movie. And it must be troubled, however not a lot. They need to mildly resent one another and possibly have a complete of 1 disagreement.
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And yeah, older ladies.
They should be reminded of their childhood — a number of product pictures of garments Mattel has launched through the years are essential for this.
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And since they may be straddled with a number of obligations, and are searching for some illustration on display, they need to get one thing.
Okay, what’s a great way of reminding them they matter?
We should give them two variations of a world — a utopian Barbie world the place ladies are all essential woman bosses and an actual world the place they don’t seem to be. Juxtaposition, what an awesome cinematic system!
And naturally, a monologue! Written and delivered impeccably by a lady barely on the verge of tears. It must have sentences reaffirming that they are often something they want to be.
Tada, the right recipe for a film that doubles as a advertising and marketing marketing campaign!
vidhatri.rao@expressindia.com
