We've posted another great story from June. Given all the hoopla about the "new" Barbie, we thought it was time to set the record straight.
Recently Mattel
announced that they were making Barbie look more like the way the real world
looks in skin color, eyes, hair, body build and size. This is a welcome change, but why did it take
so long?
In the early
1980s, Mattel hired a group of 10 consultants across the nation to give them
advice about their toys and products. I was among these
"experts" and it was a very interesting experience for me. In those days the social media did
not exist and children did play with dolls; Apple was something you ate rather
than text on.
After weeks of
examining and talking about the products, our group came to the unanimous
decision to recommend that
Mattel change Barbie and Ken into more recognizable dolls that would more
reflect the children's real-life
world. We felt that Barbie and Ken were models that
were not desirable:
too thin, too
blond; too everything!
In order to try
to reduce our animosity, Mattel introduced a new line of doll called Hals'
Pals. These were very expensive
handicapped dolls (which did not catch on as a mass-produced product...they had
to be mail -ordered and were not very
accessible). I was asked to write an introductory piece to accompany the dolls.
Our group
persisted in our recommendation to send Barbie and Ken to the operation-room
for a make-over. And it was then I first
was touched by
the words of
Donald Trump: You (We) Are Fired!
The image of
Donald Trump reminds me of that old Barbie: blond, pumped-up and stupid!!!
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