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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)
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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.

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Entertainment

Think You Know 'Jaws'? Test Your Knowledge with this Trivia Ahead of the Movie's 50th Anniversary

This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)
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Think You Know 'Jaws'? Test Your Knowledge with this Trivia Ahead of the Movie's 50th Anniversary

This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)

Friday marks the 50th anniversary of “Jaws.” It remains one of the most beloved and rewatched movies of all time. But how good is your knowledge of the some of lore surrounding Steven Spielberg's 1975 masterpiece?

Read on and see how much you know about “Jaws.”

What was the nickname given to the shark? Spielberg named his mechanical shark “Bruce,” after his attorney, Bruce Ramer.

Where did the title come from? When author Peter Benchley’s 1974 book was going to print, he needed to choose a title. He has juggled various titles — “Leviathan Rising,” “Silent Fall” — before, at the last minute, choosing “Jaws.”

What did it mean? Benchley, himself, wasn’t sure, he told his editor, but it was short.

What's the origin of the iconic movie poster? The image of the rising shark came from the cover of the novel’s paperback edition, illustrated by Roger Kastel. For his painting, Kastel went to the American Museum of Natural History to photograph a great white shark from a diorama that was laying on an easel.

What was the inspiration for Amity? Though Spielberg shot “Jaws” on Martha’s Vineyard, off Cape Cod, it was the neighboring island, Nantucket, that inspired Benchley’s novel. He has spent time fishing there with his father. In the book, the fictional Amity is on the south shore of Long Island.

Who was first attached to direct “Jaws”? Dick Richards was initially in line to direct the film, but producer Richard D. Zanuck said he lost the job after, in a meeting, repeatedly referring to the shark as a whale.

How old was Spielberg when he began the project? 26.

Who sought but was turned down the role of Brody? Charlton Heston wanted to play the Amity Island police chief, but Spielberg instead cast Roy Scheider.
What’s the name of Quint’s boat? The Orca. Not coincidentally, two years after the massive success of “Jaws,” a 1977 ripoff about a killer whale was released titled “Orca.”

What led to the shark often malfunctioning? Salt water. The shark, built by special effects artist Bob Mattey, would get corroded by the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean, leaving it unusable for times – particularly early in the filmmaking. Spielberg pivoted and instead doesn’t show the shark until well into the film, an approach that ultimately led to a far more suspenseful film.

Spielberg once estimated that Bruce’s mechanical delays added $175 million to the movie’s box office.

How long into “Jaws” does the shark fully appear on screen? It’s not until one hour and 21 minutes into the movie that we really see the shark.

Was the movie’s most iconic line scripted? No, Schieder adlibbed “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, though, has said the line had been percolating on set. The size of the barge carrying equipment and craft services was often slighted by the crew who felt producers weren’t spending enough. Gottlieb told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016: “It became a catchphrase for any time anything went wrong – if lunch was late or the swells were rocking the camera, someone would say, ‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat.’”

What disaster was Quint a survivor of? The sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the US Navy cruiser torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during World War II.

Quint’s lengthy and memorably speech in the film wasn’t in the novel but was, according to Spielberg, penned by the uncredited screenwriter John Milius.

Spielberg wanted a backstory to why Quint hated sharks so much. Though debate has continued over the years over who wrote the monologue, everyone has agreed Shaw synthesized it, and deserves most of the credit for the scene’s power.

Does Spielberg appear in “Jaws?” The director isn’t seen in the film but his voice is heard. During the finale of the film when Quint is readying the harpoon, it’s Spielberg’s voice on the radio. He says: “This is Amity point light-station to Orca. Orca, come in.” Spielberg shows up in a couple other ways, too. A clarinetist in high school, he plays briefly on Williams’ score. And Brody’s dogs were Spielberg’s cocker spaniels, Elmer and Zalman. (For his part, Benchley makes a cameo as a TV reporter during the July 4th beach scene.)

How far over schedule did “Jaws” run? The production was scheduled for 55 days but took 159 days to complete. The budget also nearly tripled, to $9 million, plus $3 million more in post-production. Though “Jaws” become the prototype summer movie, it was originally expected to open around Christmastime the year before.

What was “Jaws” rated? Though it caused some controversy, the Motion Picture Association of America gave “Jaws” a “PG” rating. At the time, there was no PG-13 rating. (That only began in 1984, with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” after a handful of other Spielberg productions, including “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Gremlins” led to the new category.) Jack Valenti, then-president of the MPAA, defended the rating by arguing that “‘Jaws’ involved nature’s violence, rather than man’s violence against man,” Valenti said. “This is the same kind of violence as in ‘Hansel and Gretel.’ Children might imitate other kinds of violence, but not the kind seen in ‘Jaws.’”

The movie’s poster carried the warning: “MAY BE TOO INTENSE FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN.”

What did “Jaws” lose best picture to at the Academy Awards? “Jaws” was nominated for four Oscars and won three: best sound, best editing and best score for John Williams. The competition for best picture, though, was fierce.

The nominees, alongside “Jaws,” where “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Barry Lyndon,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Nashville.” The winner was “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”