AFP
“It bizarrely links a kitschy girl fantasy to a feminist pamphlet,” Herien Wensink explains the film’s success Barbie. “And that is a well-considered substantive message,” says the chief of the art editors of The Volkskrant.
At the same time, the film is a mega commercial success. “You can see that Barbie’s parent company Mattel is now expanding the catalog of dolls and bringing into the store Barbies that are introduced in the film.”
And with that we shouldn’t necessarily see Barbie as a noble feminist action by the company, says Anne Stokvis, creative director of advertising agency N=5. “It’s about Barbie, a product that needs to be sold.”
The American toy manufacturer Mattel has seen sales of the dolls fall in recent years and therefore appointed Ynon Kreiz as the new CEO to revive the brand.
“The not-so-feminist male CEO was tasked with making Barbie relevant again in today’s world. So he said, ‘Let me be the bad guy, give me that part in the movie and be critical of me. ‘” says Stokvis. “And with that he knows how to hook up very well with the conversation of the day.”
The free hand
Kreiz himself comes from the film world: he previously worked at Endemol and was CEO of Fox Kids Europe. He dared to make a polar opposite of what the toy doll Barbie is known for. He appointed exactly the right people for this, says Stokvis: actress Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig.
“Margot Robbie is not at all Barbie-minded and even a little critical. He said: I want a script that is also critical of your company. Director Greta Gerwig also criticizes the Barbieworld right. Kreiz dared, gave them a free hand and said: ‘You are the new world, so you can tell the story. And if my part in the movie is that I’m a dick, then I just be.'”
Director Gerwig is known for being independent arthousemovies. “People who know Greta Gerwig’s oeuvre immediately looked up at the announcement: Barbie and Greta Gerwig? That is a very bizarre combination,” says Wensink. “She made alternate coming of age movies with a subtle feminist undercurrent, which you don’t associate with something as commercial as Barbie.”
‘Barbie dares to show guts’
With the film, the director – who is also largely responsible for the story of the film – immediately sets a record in her name: never before has a film by a female director grossed 1 billion dollars or more.
“Few brands dare to show guts and really go as far as Barbie does now,” says Stokvis. According to the creative director, this is not a marketing stunt, but it rebranden of intellectual property. “Barbie is a name and with it comes a certain feeling. And hundreds of brands are now allowed to borrow a little bit of that feeling.”
For example, there is a Barbie house for rent in Malibu via AirBnb, fast fashion brands such as Primark and Forever21 have devoted entire clothing lines to the doll and there are Barbie skates, Barbie makeup (NYX) and Barbie Xbox consoles. “Everyone wants a piece of Barbie.”
And so Kreiz succeeds in boosting the sale of the dolls and – in addition to the film itself – collaborations also bring in money. “If the brand hadn’t done something, the whole doll would have been irrelevant, it didn’t matter anymore. The doll represents a world that we no longer want to identify with and the male CEO felt that very well.”
Due to corona, the arrival of a good one remained blockbuster long out, but the Barbiefilm by director Greta Gerwig is a great success. In three weeks, the film earned more than 1 billion dollars worldwide (more than 908 million euros). In the Netherlands, the film has already attracted more than a million visitors and raised 11 million euros.
2023-08-07 19:08:15
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