New Barbie Purely A Marketing Tactic
By now practically everyone knows that Mattel has decided to give their 38-year-old Barbie a facelift. She’s also getting a breast reduction and a thicker waist to soften the current 38-18-34 measurements.
All this so she will be more realistic looking to the millions of little girls who play with this fashion plate.
Merits of this makeover have been discussed on national television, by syndicated columnists and over lattes across the nation.
To anyone who thinks this is a step forward to a kinder, gentler, more politically correct Barbie, I have this to say: Wake up and smell the decaf, folks. It’s nothing more than a marketing ploy.
This is the voice of experience speaking. You see, in 1967, Mattel did its first Barbie makeover. The doll I loved, created in 1958 with her black-and-white striped swimsuit, wasn’t good enough anymore. She didn’t bend and flex, so someone came up with the brilliant idea to create a more updated version. The result was a new doll, “Twist and Turn Barbie.”
At that time the average 9-year-old girl (me) owned only one Barbie, so Mattel began a campaign to convince us we needed to trade in our old dolls for new ones. Any young lady willing to give up her original Barbie would get a whopping $1.50 off the price of a new doll. Quite the savings in then.
After much soul-searching and bombardment by advertising, I decided to follow the pack and trade in my beloved non-flexing doll for a newer model. They even convinced me my classic raven-haired beauty should be exchanged for a blonde.
Oh, how foolish I now realize that decision to be.
An original Barbie from 1958 now sells for upward of $1,600 - if you can find one. Isn’t it curious so few of us have those dolls? Don’t you think it’s remarkable that Mattel just so happened to recover hundreds of the original versions 10 years after they were introduced? Just before they would have started to become collector’s items, they disappeared.
Let’s face the facts. Giving Barbie a face-lift is not an attempt on the part of Mattel to create a more realistic-looking doll. It’s a trap, designed to get us to abandon the current model and go with a newer one.
We fell for this once, but not again.
Stick to your dolls, people! Don’t let some marketing numbskull convince you to upgrade to the new edition. You’ll regret it for the next 30 years. I know I have.
Shanna Southern Peterson is a Spokane writer and home economist. The Clothesline appears weekly. Ideas for the column may be sent to her c/o The Spokesman-Review Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210, or e-mail shanptr@aol.com.