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Barbie Advertisements Ib Lang 11

The Barbie doll was developed in the 1950s and was marketed heavily through advertisements and commercials. Over time, Barbie came to represent unrealistic body proportions and beauty standards that emphasized physical appearance over intelligence. Studies show that exposure to Barbie at a young age increased girls' concerns with being thin. However, more recent Barbie commercials have focused on empowering messages and showing she can be anything. While Barbie dolls now feature more diversity, the iconic image of a thin, blonde doll remains influential.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
352 views3 pages

Barbie Advertisements Ib Lang 11

The Barbie doll was developed in the 1950s and was marketed heavily through advertisements and commercials. Over time, Barbie came to represent unrealistic body proportions and beauty standards that emphasized physical appearance over intelligence. Studies show that exposure to Barbie at a young age increased girls' concerns with being thin. However, more recent Barbie commercials have focused on empowering messages and showing she can be anything. While Barbie dolls now feature more diversity, the iconic image of a thin, blonde doll remains influential.

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The Barbie doll is an iconic toy that was developed in the 19 hundreds.

There were many

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.

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