We are all seeing pink as Barbie takes over big screens — and store shelves.
Barbie has made a comeback ahead of the highly anticipated Barbie movie. Mattel, which has been making Barbie dolls since 1959, is re-connecting with consumers ahead of the movie’s Friday premiere — and not just those who play with dolls. The toy maker has brand collaborations with more than 100 companies spanning many industries.
The wave of brand collaborations ahead of the release of the movie leverages both nostalgia and positive associations with the Barbie name — “fun, dream, playful, beauty, empowerment,” said Olivier Toubia, a business professor at Columbia Business School.
“The Barbie-mania that's out there right now is such a huge cultural phenomenon,” Addie Rintel, vice president of women’s merchandising and design at Pacsun, a Gen Z clothing retailer that partnered with Mattel, told The Messenger. “Everyone is seeing it everywhere. It's on social media and every brand — even if brands don't have the Barbie license.”
“Everyone's trying to capitalize on this moment,” she said of the Warner Bros. movie, which is projected to bring in upwards of $140 million in ticket sales — with a $95-$110 million U.S. box office expected in the opening weekend alone.
The term “Barbie collab,” which consumers use to find the different brand collaborations with Barbie, reached peak search popularity on Google in early July, hitting its all-time highest levels since Google began recording such metrics in 2004. Before June 20, the term did not have enough data to register on Google’s search trends analytics.
For Mattel’s part, Rintel said the Barbie manufacturer was looking to “blow up this Barbie moment” through a variety of retailers that would reach different audiences. Brands that already have common ground with Barbie, be it fashion and lifestyle or a general “playful” ethos, gravitate towards these types of collaborations, Toubia said.
But even unexpected brands have entered the Barbie universe: Burger King launched a Pink Burger in Brazil, Xbox unveiled a hot pink version of its gaming console and a Canadian dog accessory brand, Canada Pooch, released Barbie dog-wear priced from $20-$55 per item.
Social media has also been a major driver of the hype for Barbie items.
Moon Oral Beauty, which sells electric toothbrushes and other oral hygiene products, said it saw a 500% jump in social engagement following its partnership with Barbie, largely fueled by “organic viral TikTok posts and Instagram Reels.” The company said sales have outpaced projections for the collection by over 250% since the launch.
Crocs’ Barbie collection was trending on Twitter the day the line launched on July 11. The rubber footwear brand saw roughly 2,800 users tweet about the collaboration, with certain styles, including its hot pink platformed Mega Crush Clog that retailed for $84.99. It sold out the same day.
But the social media craze didn’t start with its product collaborations: After the Barbie movie released its character posters in April, which featured Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling among other superstar cast members, social media users quickly began making their own viral iterations of the designs.
Since then, videos with #BarbieMovie have racked up 3.5 billion views on TikTok and those with #BarbieTheMovie have a total of 1.7 billion views.