Whoever gave Barbie’s marketing team the key to Warner Bros entire yearly budget needs to come forward, because it’s starting to get a little bit ridiculous. Given all the hype, anticipation, and excitement generated so far (with undoubtedly more to come before its release on July 21), Barbie’s pretty much set to be 2023’s most-watched movie. But the more marketing we see for the upcoming film, the more we’re beginning to wonder: are they compensating for something?
The Barbie movie’s promotions started out with some strategic viral marketing techniques on social media – pretty basic but effective stuff. The “This Barbie is X” poster templates organically spread buzz around the film, showcased the star-studded cast, and encouraged fans to get involved by adding themselves to the template and sharing it on Instagram. But from there it seems Barbie’s marketing team was given the OK to just OK everything, and so they did.
Amidst teasers, trailers, and Architectural Digest tours of the set, Barbie began quickly taking over every buyable product in the Western market. From fashion to beauty to tech, and everything in between, some choices were cohesive, with Barbie x Impala Roller Skates being a pretty natural pair given the amount of roller skating Barbie does herself. However, Barbie x Xbox was a collaboration we didn’t see coming.
Then we were treated to Barbie hair rollers, Barbie pool inflatables, Barbie rugs, Barbie pink lemonade, Barbie bath bombs, Barbie bikinis, and… well, the list goes on but you get the picture. It sure as h*ll is a Barbie world and we’re just living in it. Hot pink is basically tinged into our retinas at this point, and the press tour only just started three days ago.
Finally, (except it’s not finally because we’re still a whole month away from the movie’s release) Barbie announced a collab with AirBnb and the debut of an actual, liveable, IRL Barbie Dreamhouse. Yes, we might be obsessed with the decor and already scouring the millions of Barbie collaborations online in the hopes of redecorating our own homes to look just like it, but it’s still kind of unnecessary. I mean, we were already going to watch the movie.
If half the budget that’s been spent on marketing this movie has actually gone into the film itself we should be preparing to leave the cinema with a whole new, fully fledged Barbie personality (perhaps like the one Ryan Gosling’s already adopted in his effort to basically become Ken).
We’re not saying we’re not just excited as the next hot-pink wearing, roller skating Barbie fan – we’re just saying it had better live up to the hype. Because at this point the hype around Barbie is bigger than the size of the Oppenheimer bomb that’ll be exploding in the theatre next door whilst we’re trying to watch it.
More on CULTED
See: SHEIN, BABE, NO ONE BELIEVES YOU & YOUR INFLUENCER TRIP
See: DANIEL LEE IS TAKING BURBERRY INTO A NEW CHAPTER FOR SPRING 2024
