Pakistan becomes second country to ban 'Barbie' after Vietnam

The 'Barbie' film is already generating a lot of buzz — and not always for the right reasons! The film has been banned in Vietnam for allegedly inciting a territorial dispute in the South China Sea in its trailers, and it once potentially faced a ban in the Philippines. Now, Pakistan is coming into the mix and has banned the film.

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

Just before its release, in July 2023, the Barbie movie faced its most serious controversy yet. It caused an international stir because of its depiction of Asian countries in one of its trailers.

As The Independent explains, the trailer of the Barbie movie shows a map that demarcates China’s land territories. Strikingly, China in this map includes islands that are under territorial disputes in the South China Sea. the dispute involves nations such as Vietnam, China, and the Philippines, amongst many others.

US Senator Ted Cruz even accused the film of "promoting Chinese propaganda," as The Independent reports.

Given the sensitive nature of what was shown in the Barbie movie’s trailer, it was no surprise to all when Reuters reported that Vietnam had decided to ban the airing of the film in the country.

This is not the first time the nation had decided to ban films for airing content relating to the territorial dispute as the same report notes that Vietnam has similarly banned the film ‘Uncharted’ and the Netflix series ‘Pine Gap’ for also portraying the disputed islands as China’s.

Vietnam was not be the only country where the Barbie movie was at risk of being banned. According to Deadline, the Philippines has considered following suit with banning the film too as it has similarly done so with banning the screening of ‘Uncharted’ for the same reason.

According to CNBC, Barbie has managed to avoid being barred from air in the Philippines! The country's film board approved the film because the map was deemed too 'cartoonish' to be taken seriously, but they have asked Warner Bros. to blur the controversial line for air in the country.

Since the topic is both controversial and political, Barbie producers are attempting to regain lost ground in Vietnam and possibly the Philippines by responding to the ban directly in a statement.

According to 8days, the Barbie producers asserted that the map drawing was just a childish depiction of an actual map and was "not intended to make any type of statement." However, given the sensitivity of the subject, the ban is unlikely to be lifted anytime soon.

Vietnam turned out to not be the only country who has banned the film in theaters. In a report from The Guardian, Pakistan has joined in banning the film but for different reasons.

According to the New Indian Express, the film's "LGBTQ+ themes" prompted Pakistan's ban. However, Pakistan's Punjab Censor Board has assured that the ban is only temporary and that 'Barbie' will be re-released after the alleged "objectionable" scenes have been removed.

Apart from these bloopers, 'Barbie' has already been involved in a number of other scandals.

A serious topic of discussion about 'Barbie' is the timing of its release. It appears on the same day as Christopher Nolan's war opus 'Oppenheimer'.

The simultaneous release of the two films, especially considering the stark contrast in their subject matter and visuals, has even spawned an internet phenomenon known as "Barbenheimer" according to The Daily Dot.

Image: 'Oppenheimer,' Universal Pictures

The Barbie movie also caused some controversy with its marketing campaign in France in June. According to Marca, the marketing poster for France came with a rather R-rated pun, which to date has not been clarified by the Barbie team on whether it was intentional or not.

The Canadian-Chinese actor Simu Liu is set to play an Asian Ken doll in the new Barbie movie. While being one of the most prominent faces for the film in promoting diversity, the actor got involved in several PR scandals.

According to Yahoo, Simu Liu had a public spat with a TikToker who had criticised the actor in an unlisted video during his 'Barbie' marketing campaign. The spat drew backlash against the actor for his over-the-top persecution of his critics online.

It remains to be seen whether the negative stories outweigh the promotional campaign and nostalgic appeal of the 'Barbie' movie. In any case, we should remember what PR experts often say: "There's no such thing as bad publicity."