Sunday Reads: The Unbearable Brightness of Barbie
Yes, I saw the Barbie movie this weekend and no, I'm not over it.
Welcome to The Enthusiast, the newsletter that's all yum, no yuck! Every Sunday I send five interesting articles I enjoyed recently and think everyone should read. Friday Faves are now for subscribers only, but subscriptions are free, so why not sign up?
Fam, I had every intention of sending you a variety of stories to read this week, but in full transparency, I've only been reading about Barbie for the last five days or so, and I regret nothing. Here are my favorite insightful, informative Barbie reads to wrap up this Barbie weekend, and I promise I'll (eventually, maybe) get over it by Friday, okay? Okay.
Barbie's legacy is important. It's also extremely complicated.
This article captures the many different threads Barbie the movie weaves together around Barbie the American Icon. I've been excited for this movie for at least the last six months, if not longer, and it delivered on so many levels, including some of her objectively problematic aspects. Despite all the baggage, Barbie continues to entice and excite us, especially those of us who grew up playing with Barbies and only reluctantly put them aside in adolescence.
I think there's also an important generational aspect at play when it comes to Barbie: my mother was born a year before Barbie hit the shelves, but she vividly recalls having not only Barbies, but also a fuzzy-headed Ken as well as Midge and Allan. My mom passed Barbie along to me, and that matrilineal connection also plays a key part in the movie's emotional relevance.
Can Barbie have it all?
Let's be perfectly clear: despite Barbie herself being Boomer-adjacent, Greta Gerwig's Barbie is a Millennial movie. I'm pretty sure we invented compartmentalizing existential angst underneath pink, sparkly veneers–we have our own namesake pink hue, thx. I think Millennials are going to be remembered (hopefully) as the last generation that truly believed that it was possible to "have it all," even as it all came crumbling down around us.
Boomers set the bar low (don't @ me), Gen-X's slacking forced it upwards, and we Millennials had to figure out to achieve what had become literally impossible, even as we watched our parents achieve their American Dreams in our youth. Comparison is the true thief of joy, and Millennials learned the hard way so our Zoomer bretheren could self-actualize. (You're welcome!)
In the Beginning, There was Barbie
Yes, the heavy-handed Biblical allegory think pieces have already started in earnest! Let's be honest, however, the entire concept of The Hero's Journey has been embedded in our psyches since before time existed, and it's right next to Creation Mythology in terms of classical storytelling. Barbie is a strong balance of both, which makes it simultaneously more accessible across many perspectives and deeper than we ever thought a Barbie movie could be.
How Barbie’s Production Designers Created the Plastic, Fantastic World of Barbie Land
If you in any way consider yourself an aesthete, you should absolutely treat yourself to seeing Barbie in the theatre. The production and costume design of this movie are so fully and lovingly realized you get a real sense that the people who worked on this movie weren't just in it for the billion-dollar returns producer Margot Robbie built her original pitch around (I'm sure it didn't hurt, either). There was clearly a lot of time, money, effort, and care put into every aspect of Barbie, from the sculpted airbrushed plastic ocean lapping at the pink-sanded Barbieland Beach to Weird Barbie's (Kate McKinnon, amazing as always) abstract enclave on a hill on the outskirts of town. It made me feel like even though yes, this movie is clearly a work of commerical capitalism, it didn't get churned out or doused in CGI to cut corners.
This summer's biggest hit? The Barbie marketing team.
Okay, time for my Marketing Shill/Professional Business Lady to emerge for a moment. As a commerical capitalist product that was carefully overseen by the same Mattel overlords parodied in the movie, we must acknowledge that not only did the Barbie Marketing team NAIL it, but they were able to do so only because of the sizable budget and creative freedom they clearly had to work with. There hasn't been a blitz like this for any movie in recent memory, and it has somehow managed to be both ubiquitous and effortless.
Clients of any and all sizes, please take note: this is the result you get when you invest in creative, fun, extensive marketing strategy and execution. I wouldn't call Barbie "content marketing," because it isn't targeted towards the actual Barbie user-base (it's a decidedly grown-up movie), but the Barbie brand is clearly still worth exploring and expanding among all kinds of audiences. Good, effective marketing takes time and effort, and must be budgeted accordingly.
Quick Reads:
- 😱 If you thought people are joking when they talk about "Barbie's existential crisis," they are absolutely not.
- 💖 The science behind the power of pink.
- ⏳ While this year's Barbie is the highest-profile iteration in recent memory, she's been ingrained in popular culture almost from the start.
- 🫶🏻 There's only one Allan, and we all love him.
- ✍🏻 Ernest Hemingway's "Barbie Girl".
Enjoy your Sunday evening, beautiful babes! As usual, please send along any intriguing articles you think everyone should read; subscribers, post them in the comments!
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In sparkles and female empowerment,
LKH