Awash in Pink, Everyone Wants a Piece of the ‘Barbie’ Movie Marketing Mania 

A woman holds a Barbie doll after watching the "Barbie" film at the SM North Edsa in Quezon City on July 19, 2023. (AFP)
A woman holds a Barbie doll after watching the "Barbie" film at the SM North Edsa in Quezon City on July 19, 2023. (AFP)
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Awash in Pink, Everyone Wants a Piece of the ‘Barbie’ Movie Marketing Mania 

A woman holds a Barbie doll after watching the "Barbie" film at the SM North Edsa in Quezon City on July 19, 2023. (AFP)
A woman holds a Barbie doll after watching the "Barbie" film at the SM North Edsa in Quezon City on July 19, 2023. (AFP)

Pink sauce on that Burger King burger? What about "Barbie-fying" your pet with sweaters and beds with Barbie motifs? If that's too low-brow, perhaps you'd be interested in hot pink Barbie monogrammed knit leggings by luxury designer Balmain instead, selling at Neiman Marcus for a cool $2,150.

Welcome to the wonderful and weird world of "Barbie" movie marketing.

Ahead of Friday's US release of the "Barbie" movie, parent company Mattel has created a product marketing blitz with more than 100 brands plastering pink everywhere.

There are pink benches at bus stops and pink clothing displayed in store windows. Microsoft's XBox has come up with a Barbie console series and HGTV is hosting a four-part Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge.

And then there are all the unofficial collaborators trying to grab a piece of Barbie craze. Restaurants across the country are offering special pink cocktails, while interior decorators are showing options like vibrant pink backsplashes to "Barbiefy" your kitchen.

Even the organization I Support the Girls — a nonprofit that has provided 22 million bras and menstrual hygiene products to homeless people, refugees and immigrants — is creating a social media campaign around menstrual periods using Barbie and having volunteers create miniature packages of Barbie-sized menstrual pads and tampons as teaching tools.

"The capability to share stories and knowledge through playing with Barbie is what made us realize we need to jump on this pop culture Barbie bandwagon," said Dana Marlowe, founder and executive of I Support the Girls. "If you can see yourself in a toy or in a doll, we want to also make sure that we’re raising awareness about bras and and clean underwear and the like."

Some experts say all the marketing beyond the movie is only good for the 64-year-old brand, helping to attract multi-generations of fans.

"When a brand owns something as iconic as the color pink, it's good news and bad news," said Marc Rosenberg, a Chicago-based toy consultant who led the global marketing teams for Hasbro's brands like Furby, GigaPets, and Hit Clips. "In this case, I think it’s all good news. Everyone in the world wants a piece of pink now."

But pundits also say it's going to be hard for many of the products to stand out when the world is awash in pink.

"There is such a stampede toward this that most people are going to get stepped on and will not be noticed," said Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce, noting he believes there will be more losers than winners.

For some shoppers like Hollie Krause of Mahwah, New Jersey, Barbie pink blitz that ramped up since June is already getting too much.

Krause, 31, said that she loved her Barbie dolls growing up and had about 20 of them along with a Barbie Dreamhouse. So when some of the merchandise started to roll in earlier this year, she bought Barbie-themed pajamas, a Barbie T-shirt, Barbie-trademarked pink lemonade, along with some other pink outfits.

Now she's feeling overwhelmed.

"Barbie is supposed to be for everyone, but these nostalgic collaborations should feel a little bit more unique or a little bit more creative," said Krause, who plans to focus on limited edition items.

Barbie's first live action movie, an homage to the doll with some biting satire, comes at a time when Barbie sales have been up and down after slumping from 2012 to 2015, when it faced stiff competition from other dolls and was under attack for pushing unrealistic beauty standards to girls and lost some relevance. It enjoyed a big bump in sales during the depths of the pandemic when parents were looking to entertain their children.

Barbie now accounts for one-third of Mattel's revenue and it has been diversifying the dolls with more skin tones and versions with prosthetic legs, wheelchairs and hearing aids. This year, it unveiled its first Down Syndrome doll.

As a result, according to market research firm Circana, Barbie has remained the top fashion doll for the past four years starting in 2019 and through June of this year in the US as well in the combined 12 countries that Circana tracks.

So far, product marketing around the movie has done well.

Mattel's Barbie that was specifically made for the movie and is dressed in a pink gingham dress, is No. 1 in sales for dolls and for the pre-school dolls and dollhouse category sold on Amazon, according to the retailer's website.

Neiman Marcus noted that it launched its exclusive Barbie collaboration with Balmain last year and sold out of many items in the first few days. Based on the success of last year’s collaboration and the current Barbiecore cultural phenomenon, it has reissued the collection starting July 10, the retailer said.

Then there's the mixed social media reviews for the "Pink Burger" offered by Burger King’s franchisee in Brazil. It's offering a slice of melted cheese, bacon and a smoky-flavored hot pink sauce. The Pink Burger comes in a Barbie Combo, which also features French fries (dubbed "Ken’s Potatoes"), a pink shake and a pink-frosted donut.

"Has BK completely lost its creativity or is just too lazy to think of something better?" said one comment on Burger King Brazil's Instagram account.

Restaurant Brands noted it is a limited-time partnership sold exclusively in the Brazil market and will not be available in the United States nor elsewhere.



Jack Black, Jason Momoa Enter the Minecraft Universe as the Video Game Phenom Hits the Big Screen

 US actor Jason Momoa poses on the red carpet upon arrival for the World Premiere of "The Minecraft Movie" at Cineworld Leicester square, central London, on March 30, 2025. (AFP)
US actor Jason Momoa poses on the red carpet upon arrival for the World Premiere of "The Minecraft Movie" at Cineworld Leicester square, central London, on March 30, 2025. (AFP)
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Jack Black, Jason Momoa Enter the Minecraft Universe as the Video Game Phenom Hits the Big Screen

 US actor Jason Momoa poses on the red carpet upon arrival for the World Premiere of "The Minecraft Movie" at Cineworld Leicester square, central London, on March 30, 2025. (AFP)
US actor Jason Momoa poses on the red carpet upon arrival for the World Premiere of "The Minecraft Movie" at Cineworld Leicester square, central London, on March 30, 2025. (AFP)

When Jack Black got the call to star in the "Minecraft" movie, the perks were plenty. He got to work alongside Jason Momoa, reunite with "Nacho Libre" director Jared Hess and engulf himself into a beloved gaming universe.

But before agreeing, Black turned to the real decision-makers: his sons, who are avid Minecraft players. They didn't just give their approval, but practically begged him to take the role.

Like his sons, Black has noticed the buzz since the release announcement of "A Minecraft Movie," which hits theaters Friday. The actor was already familiar with the video game, having played it occasionally with his sons while preparing for the live-action adaptation.

"My boys were playing it, and I wanted to speak their language," said Black, who stars as the main protagonist Steve, who becomes an expert Minecrafter after being sucked into the Overworld dimension. His character eventually teams ups with a band of misfits who are mysteriously pulled through a portal into this new realm by a cubic object that thrives on imagination.

The film also stars Momoa, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Coolidge and Sebastian Hansen.

Before his character found himself in the Overworld, Black immersed himself in the Minecraft gaming world alongside his sons. He spent over 100 hours playing the game while on set.

"I put the work in," he said. "You got to put the days of work in. Watch YouTube videos to get some tips on how to survive that first night in the Overworld. I was pretty versed in it."

After Minecraft's 2009 release, it took only two years to reach a million players. Since then, it has sold over 235 million copies across various gaming platforms, cementing its status as a global phenomenon with its blend of creativity, exploration and survival elements.

The game's open-ended design lets players carve out their own experience, whether it's surviving against mobs, mining for resources, farming or using block-based structures to craft artistic masterpieces. It has also fostered a thriving multiplayer community where players collaborate to build their worlds together, while its educational applications extend to coding, architecture and problem solving.

At its core, Minecraft is a limitless digital sandbox, where imagination transforms simple blocks into everything from cozy homes to sprawling cities.

Minecraft creators' gameplay videos have generated millions of pageviews on YouTube.

Those are some of the elements that drew Myers and Hansen into the game during their childhoods.

"I played a lot during COVID," said Hansen, 14, who plays Henry, a shy but creative and intellectual kid trying to navigate his new high school. Once his character gets thrown in the Overworld, he feels comfortable with the environment.

"I played it a lot during my childhood, watching videos and stuff all the time," he said.

Myers began playing the pocket edition with her friends around age 10. She said the digital and real-world elements seamlessly complement each other.

"I think it's very versatile," said the 22-year-old actor who plays Natalie, a character who put her life plan's on hold to take care of Henry, her younger brother. "I think Minecraft kind of forces you to be creative and ... problem solve in ways that you probably wouldn't think of in the first place."

The road from console to cinema hasn't always been smooth.

Many video game adaptations have struggled at the box office, but recent hits like the "Sonic" series, "Five Nights at Freddy's" and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" have proven the genre's potential.

These three films have dominated the box office, with "Super Mario Bros." raking in more than $146 million during its 2023 opening weekend, according to Comscore. The three "Sonic" films have debuted between $58-72 million, while "Five Nights at Freddy's" pulled in more than $80 million.

That's a significant leap from other adaptations like "The Angry Birds Movie 2," which Comscore records show had a lukewarm $10 million opening in 2019. Other attempts such as "Mortal Kombat ($23 million in 2021) and "Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City" ($5.3 million that same year) struggled to gain traction.

Black, who has starred in popular films like "School of Rock" and the "Kung Fu Panda" series, said he's never been a part of such a highly-anticipated movie as "Minecraft."

If you ask Hess, it's certainly not. For him, the game is a family affair, woven into his household dynamics as he and his kids frequently explore the Overworld together.

That made it an easy sell for him to direct "A Minecraft Movie."

"The game is one of my favorite games of all time, and it was such an important part of our family life," said Hess, 45, who directed films including "Napoleon Dynamite,Masterminds" and "Nacho Libre."

The game doesn't have a storyline, so Hess wanted to help create one for the movie based on his knowledge after playing it for hours.

"This world of Minecraft is so bonkers in such a perfect setting for an epic adventure movie that was really ridiculously funny," he said. "There's so many places you can go with it. There's no story to the game, so there was a lot of creative license to kind of come up with."

Torfi Frans Ólafsson said he's got thousands of hours clocked in on Minecraft, sometimes playing an entire night until 5 a.m., even if he has an 8 a.m. meeting. He recalled an entire weekend playing with his son, who was 6 at the time.

"I don't think we did anything else," said Ólafsson, a creative director at Minecraft and a producer of the film. "We had a mission. We're trying to kill the dragon. It was just a lot of work and he kept messing up. ... But it was a wonderful bonding moment between father and son."

Ólafsson added: "That's the thing that matters. This game brings people together and creates shared memories and give meanings to things."