5 wild moments from the Barbie advertising and marketing marketing campaign By Joseph Foley printed 19 July 23 We have reached peak Barbiecore.

2 months ago 4 min read

The Barbie film lastly hits cinemas this week and, surprisingly, it appears like probably the most anticipated movies in historical past. That is maybe partly as a result of, because the world’s most well-known doll, Barbie already had an enormous branding machine behind her. However the build-up to the movie has additionally concerned some unusual (and never all the time intentional) boosts.

The Barbie build-up has given us the most important meme of 2023, an entire style of mashup poster artwork, an exquisite double entendre and a really suspicious wanting burger. Listed below are our highlights from a rollercoaster few months wherein Barbie was every part (see our choose of the perfect film posters of 2023 to this point for extra movie artwork gems).

01. The Barbie film character posters

wow EVERYONE is on this new Barbie film pic.twitter.com/gM6L1SaHHfApril 4, 2023

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The Barbie film advertising and marketing machine received off to an awesome begin when, deliberately or not, it created the most important meme of the yr with its character posters. All they confirmed was every character with a short description, the actors’ names and the movie title on a glittery background, however their simplicity, and the very fact that there have been so a lot of them, made the designs ripe for on-line appropriation. The web instantly set about creating Barbie-style character posters for anybody and everybody.

02. The French Barbie film poster

He simply is aware of tips on how to what? (Picture credit score: Warner Bros)

There is a hilarious pattern for French film titles to make use of a form of simplified English wherein every part is both ‘attractive’ or ‘very unhealthy’. Unusually, the French launch of the Barbie film, will not be referred to as ‘Horny Lady Based mostly on a Doll’ and even ‘Very Unhealthy Blonde’ however merely Barbie. That looks as if a missed alternative, however a genius copywriter did at the least have some enjoyable with the tagline on the poster.

On the face of it, the French Barbie poster encompasses a translation of the movie’s English tagline “She’s every part…. he is simply Ken.” However the French moviegoing public was left in stitches due to the double-entendre within the phrase “Lui, c’est juste Ken” ‘Ken’ is a colloquialism for a four-letter phrase that begins with ‘F’ whereas within the spoken language ‘c’est’ sounds the identical as ‘sait’. So “She will be able to do every part. He simply is aware of tips on how to—” properly, you get the thought. An accident? I feel somebody knew what they had been doing.

03. Barbenheimer posters go viral

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Barbie/Oppenheimer mashup posters — Numerous creativity has been put into creating posters for the imaginary Barbie – Oppenheimer mashup, Barbenheimer (Picture credit score: @shadowknightdk on Twitter)

Studios spend quite a lot of time selecting the discharge date for a movie, and the discharge of the Barbie film was clearly timed to suit the northern hemisphere college and school summer time vacation interval. Bbut one has to marvel if in addition they noticed the potential of pairing it with one other vastly anticipated however extraordinarily totally different cinema launch.

The choice to launch Barbie on the identical day as Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, a thriller in regards to the scientist typically credited with inventing the atomic bomb, provoked to a viral sensation, as folks set about creating some fairly beautiful mashup posters imagining a film referred to as Barbenheimer.

04. Barbie takes on Burberry

BRBY logo

Burby, sorry, Burberry, upset Barbie’s legal professionals (Picture credit score: Burberry)

This was one model battle we did not see coming. However with Barbiecore reaching its peak, the world’s favorite anatomically unimaginable doll did not need anybody to rain on her parade – and we all know Barbie would not be seen lifeless in beige. Mattel was not impressed with the British style model Burberry’s try and trademark a BRBY mark for clothes, luggage and different merchandise. In its opposition submitted to the US Trademark Trial and Enchantment Board, Mattel says Burberry’s proposed trademark is “visually related” and “phonetically an identical” to Barbie and will mislead shoppers.

05. The Burger King Barbie meal

oi burger! oi Barbie™️! oi burger! 🍔💖 conheça o Pink Burger, a primeira revelação do Combo BK Barbie™️, q chegou direto de Barbie Land™️ pic.twitter.com/Vt2cWhedMkJuly 11, 2023

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With Barbiemania reaching fever pitch final week, Burger King Brazil leapt on board with a advertising and marketing collaboration that will have been a step too far. A burger with bubblegum pink sauce? Hmm, I feel I will go. However regardless of some folks referring to the product as a ‘Pepto-Bismol burger’, the Burger King Barbie combo appears to have been a success amongst followers on social media in Brazil. The combo additionally features a pink shake, pink doughnut and ‘Ken fries’ (plan potato fries as a result of, in spite of everything, “Lui, c’est juste Ken”).