Barbie, the movie - a marketing triumph just like the doll herself

The 'Barbie' film, coming out on July 20, is based on Mattel's iconic toy doll. It has generated a lot of attention over the past year thanks to an exceptional marketing campaign.

All images are from Warner Bros. Pictures unless otherwise stated.

In fact, the Barbie promotion has been so overwhelming that, for many people, it will be less known that on the same day, the expected masterpiece 'Oppenheimer' by Christopher Nolan will be released.

Image: Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer / Universal Pictures

The film is the first live-action film based on the toy doll franchise, following a series of previous CGI-based films. It features big names in Hollywood, like Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

The release of this film, the first Barbie film in fourteen years, based on a toy franchise that has reached generations of people, is sure to elicit warm feelings of nostalgia in moviegoers of all ages.

Image: Lionsgate Home Entertainment

In addition, being live-action and following many new norms of the current movie era, it may offer a new perspective on the long line of Barbie films. As The Hollywood Reporter states, previous Barbie films have always been based on fairy tales.

Despite the Barbie film franchise's long history of making films based on fairy tales, it appears that this upcoming live-action adaptation will not follow in the footsteps of previous films. Not much detail has been revealed about the plot, and the trailers are very ambiguous as well.

According to Variety, the film's topic will be entirely different from others. It will follow the journey of Barbie and Ken dolls' attempts to adjust outside of the Barbie world.

The screenplay for this Barbie movie was rewritten multiple times. According to a Variety report, writing for the film began under Universal Pictures in 2009, but the project fell apart, and Mattel switched to working with Sony Pictures in 2014, where the screenplay had to be rewritten several times in 2015, 2017, and 2019.

2019 was the definitive year for the development of the Barbie film, as the producers finally settled with having Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach working on screenwriting. Gerwig would also become the director of the film in 2021.

Greta Gerwig's taking over the reins of the film has resulted in not only a star-studded cast but also an ensemble that includes diversity, for example in terms of race or gender identity.

According to Time, including a diverse cast was not only a must for Greta Gerwig, but also for Margot Robbie to agree to play Barbie.

Barbie has also made itself one of the must-see films of summer 2023 thanks to its brilliant marketing. The team behind Barbie has even been praised by The Guardian for their marketing strategies.

The Guardian even claims that the success of its marketing has revived the decades-old Barbie brand for modern sensibilities. Could it be that the 'Barbie' movie has done what Mattel could not do in past years with its iconic doll?

Screenrant reports that Barbie’s marketing team has come up with marketing campaigns, no less than nine of which have stood out and gone viral. Speaking of which, have you tried your hand at the Barbie selfie filter yet?

There have been some scandals surrounding the movie, but they may have helped it rather than hurt it.

For one, Vietnam is boycotting the film because the Barbie character shows a geographical map in one of the trailers that suggests the Chinese possess islands in the South Chinese Sea which Vietnam and the Philippines dispute. For that reason, Vietnam is banning the film and the Philippines is considering doing the same.

The question is now: will the film live up to its hype and become the movie of the summer? Or will it, perhaps, become a failure - not only because of the film itself but because people have already seen so much of it that they are Barbie-tired?