Barbie as a global phenomenon - Essay Example

Barbie as a global phenomenon Introduction There is no person in the world who grew up without toys. Toys reflectthe life and behavior of this or that society. Producing toys, the society takes care of children and makes them full-fledged members. Some toys have already become a part of the history. Doll Barbie is among them. If to ask a girl what present she would like to have for her birthday, she would not hesitate even for a second and the answer will be “A Barbie”. “Barbie is the cultural icon of female beauty that provides an “aspirational role model” for young girls, and 99% of 3- to 10-year-olds in the United States own at least one Barbie doll” (Helga et al 283). The question is why this doll is so popular. How did it enrapture the whole world and become a dream of every girl? More than 100 Barbie dolls are sold in the world every minute, thus Mattel Inc. makes around $2 billion annually and the sales of a famous and desired doll constitutes more than a half of Mattel’s sales. “Barbie is the best-selling fashion doll in every major global market, with worldwide annual sales of about $1.5 billion” (Mattel, 2003 cited in Helga et al 283). The activity of the company seems successful, but now the managers consider the issue how the changes in the world influence Barbie doll. The problem became relevant because of the changes brought by globalization that eliminated patterns. The image of Barbie doll demands changes. The given paper will discuss the changes brought by the globalization and the problems Barbie doll manufacturers have to solve now. Notwithstanding that Barbie does not loose its popularity, time still flies and everything changes. The doll was created in 1959 and the women of that time were very different in comparison to modern women. Now women are emancipated, their life is very active. As women change, dolls should also change. Mattel was too late to realize that the changes were necessary, thus they suffered a failure in 2001, when their competitors launched the product appropriate to the modern understanding of a perfect woman. As the competitors managed to make necessary changes in contrast to Mattel, the latter still suffers from this mistake. The company did not think about the changes as they considered the doll to be absolutely perfect and was sure that any changes are not needed. Moreover, the manufacturers were afraid that consumers may not have accepted the changes in their favorite doll image. Thus, they did not touch Barbie doll and paid their attention to other toys. This brought a lot of harm that was realized by the manufacturers too late. They understood their mistake only by 2006, when their sales decreased by 30%, notwithstanding that the efforts were taken at once to change the look of the doll and her boyfriend, clothes, accessories. In order to save the situation, they even created a new line called “My scene”, but this imitation did not impress consumers much. The cause of the failure is the lack of appropriate long-term strategy as well as corresponding analysis of the brand and world changes, which affect Barbie’s image. Globalization brought many new changes, it changed the perception of the issues greatly. Many international organizations appeared at the global market that provided people with new opportunities to work abroad, travel, see new country, meet new people and show their abilities. In the past immigration was not so active and people lived and worked in their native countries among the people of their own nation. Now it is not surprising if people from different countries work in a one company sharing their values, culture and experience. Such changes made the world more democratic and influenced all the areas, including the field of toys manufacturing. Barbie doll always served as a pattern that caused many problems: “my main personal problem is Barbie’s body, and what that does for girls’ understanding of how their bodies are supposed to look. So many young girls and women have body dysmorphia and skinny celebrities constantly rubbed in their faces as the standard that to begin this in the playroom is really horrible” (cited in Rizzo 1). The girls were sure that they all should be blue-eyed, blond, thin. Every deviation resulted in deep depression. Globalization managed to eliminate patterns, thus Barbie image should be also changed. Speaking about the problems Mattel faced and the changes it tried to implement to return the success, it is essential to mention the famous article written by Ann DuCille called “Black Barbie and the Deep Play of Difference”. The author comes over with the idea that the attempts to make Barbie a symbol of American woman and American nation are the main problem of Mattel and the reasons of their failure. The company also made an attempt to make a doll look exactly like an African American woman, but after making its face look more like the face of blacks, they faced a problem when tried to make corresponding hair. The first attempt of making Barbie look like African-American women was made in 1967 (pic 1). The hair of black women is usually curly and short, but it was important to remember that Barbie is a doll, not a real women. The girls usually do not like dolls with short hair as they want to brush it (Risso 1). “The behemoth behind the Barbie brand made its first black doll in 1967: “Colored Francie,” a version of Barbie’s white cousin that did not sell well and was soon discontinued” (Engelhart 1). After this failure manufacturers decided to present children with black friend of Barbie named Christi. A first black Barbie was launched only in 1980. Pic. 1. First black Barbie launched in 1967 (Risso, 2012). The changes should be made but the question was how to meet new requirements the globalization brought without changing the successful image of Barbie doll. This was not an easy task for Mattel. Certainly, there is a collection of ethnic Barbie, the dolls with different color of skin, which represent different nations. The dolls are very nice and dressed in nice national costumes. It seems that the problem was resolved, but actually it was only the beginning. “Today Barbie dolls come in a rainbow coalition of colors, races, ethnicities, and nationalities, [but] all of those dolls look remarkably like the stereotypical white Barbie, modified only by a dash of color and a change of clothes” (DuCille 38). The trouble was that all the ethnic dolls had the same appearance with different color of hair and skin. The features and the length of hair were the same (pic. 2). The manufactures just took their famous doll, colored its skin and hair and dressed it differently. “To be profitable, racial and cultural diversity… must be reducible to such common, reproducible denominators as color and costume” (DuCille 340).This caused indignation among masses as showed that Barbie remained an ideal of a woman, which was not going to change. It even did not want to reflect racial differences, because other races were not so perfect as Caucasian. Black girls became depressed because they did not have so long hair as their dolls and their noses were wider. The new measures taken brought new problems as a result. Actually, Barbie doll always greatly influenced the girls’ perception of their own body, the issue was studied thoroughly. “Sociocultural theory provides a useful perspective for theorizing the influence of dolls (as an embodiment of the sociocultural beauty ideal) on girls’ developing body image when integrated with some underlying processes posited in developmental theories concerned with social influences on children’s self-evaluation (e.g., Bandura, 1989; Ruble, 1983 cited in Helga et al 283). Pic. 2. Ethnic Barbies (Images of “Ethnic” Barbies) A new image of ethnic Barbie seemed nice and perfect but it was perceived negatively by ethnic minorities. New dolls did not have anything in common with African-Americans or Indians. We just see the same North-American Barbie with another color of the skin and hair. Nothing changed and the problem just became more serious. “The Native American Barbies depict the "Indians" and "Eskimos" of the North American imagination, not of the real world. While the mainstream Barbies have allowed mainstream North American women to change and grow, the Dolls of the World Collection has done exactly the opposite. They have marginalized the Native American Barbies and restricted them to what we call the "ethnographic present," that fictive, timeless past, before Native Americans had begun to transform their cultures in response to the opportunities and restrictions imposed by the coming of the United States and Canadian nation-state” (Schwarz 305). Ann DuCille even came to the conclusion that Barbie will never be ethnic, it is impossible to make it look ethnic. However, the manufactures of Barbie doll, Mattel Inc. do not give up. They are working to meet new standards and return their success. In 2009 they launched a new version of black Barbie. This version has wider nose, curly hair and looks like a black woman very much. But people found problems even in this version that seems perfect Ann DuCille said that this black Barbie is too thin, thus not successful as African-American women are considered to be thicker than white. Pic. 3 A new black Barbie (Engelhart, 2009). Conclusion After analyzing the issue we see that globalization brought many problems to toys industry. Mattel Inc, the manufacturer of Barbie doll had to implement certain changes to retain success. New opportunities brought by globalization provided people with chance to travel, work abroad and meet new people. Now many companies have in their staff people of different nations, beliefs, principles. These people work together thus they do not notice the differences between them. These changes make the world more democratic. Thus the problem with Barbie doll inevitably occurs as it represents an ideal woman that should be blond, slim, blue-eyed. This causes racial indignation and influences women badly as they do their best to look like Barbie. Mattel Inc was doing its best to solve the problems. They made several attempt to satisfy consumer’s needs but they failed. At last a new black Barbie was launched in 2009. A doll looks perfect but people still try to find problems in it. Ann DuCille in her work criticized all the attempts of Mattel to satisfy the new needs. She is sure that new black Barbie is not perfect as well. The author comes up with the idea that it is not possible to make Barbie ethnic at all. Let’s hope that DuCille’s opinion is mistaken and Mattel will have a success with its new toy. Works Cited Dittmar, Helga, Halliwell, Emma, Ive, Suzanne. Does Barbie Make Girls Want to Be Thin? The Effect of Experimental Exposure to Images of Dolls on the Body Image of 5- to 8-Year-Old Girls. Developmental Psychology Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association, 2006, Vol. 42, No. 2, 283–292; DuCille, Ann. DuCille's “Black Barbie and Toy Theory and the Deep Play of Difference”, n.d. accessed June 13, 2013 http://www4.ncsu.edu/~mseth2/com417s12/readings/ducille.pdf DuCille, Ann. Skin Trade. Harvard University Press, New York. 1996; Engelhart , Kate.There’s a new black Barbie in town, 2009 accessed June 13, 2013 http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/08/13/there%E2%80%99s-a-new-black-barbie-in-town/; Images of “Ethnic” Barbies, 2012 accessed June 13, 2013 http://race.iheartsociology.com/2012/09/images-of-ethnic-barbies/; Rizzo, Laura. “Black Barbie and Toy Theory and the Deep Play of Difference”, 2012 accessed June 13, 2013 http://femtheory2012.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/black-barbie-and-toy-theory-and-the-deep-play-of-difference/; Schwarz, Maureen Trudelle. Native American Barbie: The Marketing of Euro-American Desires. Indigenous Studies Today, 2006. Read More