"Be who you want to be." Is
the motto of one of the most iconic dolls in history and Barbie takes that
motto very seriously. With the rise of YouTube culture Barbie has become a
Vlogger.
Segments are a couple of minutes long
with a computer generated teenage Barbie talking about events in her life, her
family, and her friends. Barbie follows the tropes of being a good Vlogger. She
has a draw my life segment, she talks about style and hair,she as a semi-clever
sign off, and she makes you feel like you are her best friend. It all seems
like Barbie is giving it all to be who she wants to be, but why?
Barbie has been going through some
hard times as of late. With the rise in popularity of other dolls, like Monster
High and American Girl dolls, who have messages of excepting you individual
qualities and showing that they are your strength and not something to be
afraid of Barbie has seemed a little to perfect and cookie cutter.
Using the new form
of narrative that is vlogging Barbie is marketing herself to be more personal
and relatable with a media that was built to make you feel close to some one
you don't know.
I think this idea is so interesting, but also so weird. When I was little the most diversified barbie was just pregnant and vlogs most definitely did not exist. Recently for a project we had to create a creative brief for a certain brand that is aiming to change their image. A friend of mine did Barbie which I thought was interesting as well. Turns out they are actively trying to change their image. Their newest commercial is entitled "Imagine the Possibilities" and it shows a little girl following women doing the same things as them in all of these dream job scenarios. The argument is that Barbie allows them to imagine these possibilities and lead to powerful confident women. They are slowly introducing new Barbies of different sizes and different traits that still all dream big. And that is their real message. I think as a company they are slowly tuning it around to make a comeback in the doll industry. Their was also this article about Barbie creating a talking doll that basically works like Siri but in the doll. Barbie can handle multiple conversations, as well as things children might be experiencing that could be hard to handle. I think all of this also relates to the digital age and how Barbie is changing their products to fit the new technology.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like Barbie is using the same marketing scheme she always used. In olden days, Barbie was always pictured as the “best friend” of the group. She was so malleable that she could literally be anything you wanted her to be. Even in her games her main objectives revolve around helping friends and making new ones. It seems that their marketing, however, is the changing factor. They’re trying to reach out to kids still, but now they’re reaching out to them on the internet. The last time I saw a Barbie commercial was on Cartoon Network during prime time television. Now they’re putting up these commercials disguised as vlogs.
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