Bratz Anniversary

Barbies   by Shannon Sobcheck

Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. She is an actress who plays roles in some of her movies that are based on classical stories. In a series of novels published by Random House in the 1960s, her parents’ names are given as George and Margaret Roberts from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin. Barbie has had over forty pets including cats and dogs, horses, a panda, a lion cub, and a zebra. She has owned a wide range of vehicles, including pink Corvette convertibles, trailers and jeeps.

Barbie syndrome is a term used to loosely describe the desire to have a physical appearance and lifestyle representative of the famous Barbie Doll. It is most often associated with pre-teen and adolescent females but is applicable to any age group. Usually it is female youth that will attempt because it is associated with puberty and the awkward stages. The child will want to look her best and most beautiful to males and believes in looking beautiful like Barbie, though Barbie has radical body proportions.

Barbie was one of the first toys to have a marketing strategy based extensively on television advertising, which has been copied widely by other toys. Barbie has appeared in a series of animated films and makes a brief guest appearance in the 1999 film Toy Story 2. It is estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries, with annual sales of over £1 billion. Mattel is claiming that three Barbie Dolls are sold every second. Barbie has been manufactured under license, commencing in England, France, Germany, Italy, and elsewhere.

In recent years Mattel has sold a wide range of Barbie Dolls aimed specifically at collectors, including porcelain versions, vintage reproductions, and depictions of Barbie as a range of characters from television series such as The Munsters and Star Trek. There are also collector’s edition dolls depicting Barbie dolls with a range of different ethnic identities. In 2004 Mattel introduced the Color Tier system for its collector’s edition Barbie Doll, ranging through pink, silver, gold and platinum depending on how many of the dolls are produced.

Today the doll has come to symbolize consumer capitalism and is a global brand, with key markets in Europe, Latin America, and Japan. But recently Barbie has faced increasing competition from the Bratz range of dolls, a move that would give Barbie her first serious competition in the fashion doll market. Barbie celebrates her 50th anniversary in 2009, and Mattel released a new reproduction of the original 1959 Barbie Doll to mark the occasion.

About the Author

Created by Ruth Handler, wife of one of the company’s co-founders, and launched by the American toy-company Mattel at the 1959 New York Toy Fair, Barbie doll was originally marketed as a glamorous, bodily developed teenage fashion model with a range of fashions and accessories. With ponytail hairstyle, black and white striped bathing suit, and sunglasses she proved an instant and phenomenal sales success with young girls, despite the initial reservations of retail industry buyers.

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