Barbie Advertisements Ib Lang 11
Barbie Advertisements Ib Lang 11
ads and commercials that were made to help sell the toy and as time went on, With all these
advertisements and songs and articles, there are some elements that can be seen in the toy. One
of the biggest elements is the influence the toy has on people, kids more specifically. When you
close someone thinks about a barbie and what they look like, they will probably think of the
blonde hair doll with the extremely unrealistic body proportions. An article that talks about this a
lot is the article named “ Inside the Biggest Change in Barbie's 57-year History- And What it
Says About American Beauty Ideals” by Eliana Dockterman. Eliana Dockterman talks about
how the change of the Barbie doll’s figure can really alter everything. The toy had many
controversies since its release. First, the doll was practically rejected by the community, mostly
men, because it was a female and had female parts. Then the toy sold a version which came with
a diet book that basically said “Don’t Eat.” And there was even one that came with some phrases
saying things that simply say the math is hard. Eliana Cockterman states,” a group called the
Barbie Liberation Organization said the doll taught girls that it was more important to be pretty
than smart.” This is kind of scary to think about because of how big the toy is to the entire world
and with something that big, will have a huge impact and influence on the majority of people.
That girls at a young age were taught at a young age to care more about what they look like
rather than things that really matter like their morals and intelligence. They have the possibility
of changing the world but if they get hooked up on something that doesn’t really matter, then that
possibility is gone. Later, the barbie came with other body sizes and forms. There is the original,
curvy, petite and tall. And even different races and hairstyles were developed to add diversity to
the whole barbie franchise. Many moms see this as a benefit and good thing but the problem is
that the barbie itself has been associated with a certain type of hair and body figure and race that
when one would think of a barbie, they would only really think of the blonde and skinny doll. In
Eliana Dockterman, she quotes “I brought by daughter to a Christmas Tree lighting with Santa
and Barbie the other day… If a balck woman or a redheaded woman or a heavyset woman had
shown up, my daughter would have been like, ‘Where’s Barbie?’” Ultimately, the physical
characteristics of a barbie doll is a big element that affects modern society and what they see and
think. Another major element that might be even bigger is the influence of the Barbie. With the
provided commercials on the barbie from different years can really show how this developed and
changed over time. In the first ever barbie commercial in 1959, it basically advertised the barbie
as the ideal woman of the time and being all about looks. In the 90’s commercial, it was
advertising Barbie having long hair. Young girls were shown in the advertisement playing with
the dolls and doing the hair of the doll. This really only still shows that the barbie girl was only
for the pretty looks and stuff. Then in the Dream House commercial in 2017, it was about a
whole dollhouse for the dolls. It really only shows the more feminine attributes like having
slumber parties and even cooking. But then all this changes with the Professor advertisement. It
features a young girl who was a professor at a college and at the end shows her really playing
with barbies and even says “ You can be Anything” at the end of the commercial. They started to
transition from being all about the looks of the barbie to being more about freedom. This really
shows the influence Barbie had on people. In the article by Eliana Dockterman, she states,” A
handful of studies, however, suggest that Barbie does have at least some influence on what girls
see as the ideal body… a 2006 study published in the journal Developmental Psychology, found
that girls exposed to Barbie at a young age expressed greater concern with being thin, compared
with those exposed to other dolls.” The barbie doll really has a huge influence on young girls that
are introduced to the toy. And when the doll is compared to some other major competitors, there
really isn’t any backstory for the doll. One of the major competitors Barbie has is the Elsa doll
from the Disney movie “Frozen” The princess has an inspirational backstory while the Barbie
doll doesn’t. Even in the Barbie doll song by Aqua, you can’t really pick things that aren’t ideal
for women out of the music video and lyrics. For example, in the song, it says,”You can brush
my hair, undress me everywhere, Imagination, life is your creation, I'm a blond bimbo girl in a
fantasy world, Dress me up, make it tight, I'm your dolly” The part about how she is a blond
bimbo girl is really big out of this quote. There really is an ideal Barbie and with how big Barbie
is it’s going to have some major influence in the female part of the population. Some girls are
going to think that the best girl is a blond bimbo girl who really only cares about the look of
themself rather than other things but influence will and is changing as time progresses.
Ultimately, influence is a huge thing that comes out of the Barbie doll and has influence on the
population. It is changing today but the old influence and ideas are still in play on the population.