Known more for her dream house and perfect looks than promoting gender equality, Barbie is taking a new approach to her target audience with an ad that encourages girls to be whatever they can imagine.
The ad features young girls around age 6 in various jobs like soccer coach, college lecturer and veterinarian while asking the question, "What happens when girls are free to imagine they can be anything?" The adults in the video are unprompted that they'll be met by a young girl, and the reactions are pretty priceless.
ABC reported that the ad was a hit with many adult consumers even those who had been opposed to Barbie's image in the past, like in 1992 when Teen Talk Barbie enraged parents for the pre-programmed line, "Math class is tough."
"The kids are adorable and the message was positive," mother and blogger Michelle Combs told ABC. "So much better than the Barbie that was programmed to say 'Math class is hard.'"
Still, not everyone was convinced the ad was so great. One South Carolina writer told ABC she felt the ad erred in showing the girls not being taken seriously.
"If the girls were 'imagining' how they were perceived, how off-putting and sad," writer Andra Watkins said.
It's been a rough couple of years for Barbie, publicity-wise, making the ad a nice break for Barbie maker Mattel. Last year, Mattel was forced to pull a Barbie book from Amazon over outcry against "Barbie: I Can Be A Computer Engineer." The book featured Barbie coming up with an idea for a video game before giving her idea to a male colleague to "turn it into a real game."
Mattel later apologized for the book, and the toy company has not released comment on its new ad.
The ad features young girls around age 6 in various jobs like soccer coach, college lecturer and veterinarian while asking the question, "What happens when girls are free to imagine they can be anything?" The adults in the video are unprompted that they'll be met by a young girl, and the reactions are pretty priceless.
ABC reported that the ad was a hit with many adult consumers even those who had been opposed to Barbie's image in the past, like in 1992 when Teen Talk Barbie enraged parents for the pre-programmed line, "Math class is tough."
"The kids are adorable and the message was positive," mother and blogger Michelle Combs told ABC. "So much better than the Barbie that was programmed to say 'Math class is hard.'"
Still, not everyone was convinced the ad was so great. One South Carolina writer told ABC she felt the ad erred in showing the girls not being taken seriously.
"If the girls were 'imagining' how they were perceived, how off-putting and sad," writer Andra Watkins said.
It's been a rough couple of years for Barbie, publicity-wise, making the ad a nice break for Barbie maker Mattel. Last year, Mattel was forced to pull a Barbie book from Amazon over outcry against "Barbie: I Can Be A Computer Engineer." The book featured Barbie coming up with an idea for a video game before giving her idea to a male colleague to "turn it into a real game."
Mattel later apologized for the book, and the toy company has not released comment on its new ad.
