July 14, 2023 • 20 mins
On this episode of The Circuit, Emily Chang visits Mattel's Design Center to hear about Barbie's complicated history and find out more about how her makers are inventing her next act.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is iconic fun. I mean, come on the famous.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Elevator, all right.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Yeah, so this is a really fun part of the
Design Center and celebration of a part of Barbie's dreamhouse.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
I'm Emily Chang, and this is the circuit. The most
popular doll of all time is finally getting her big
screen debut. Barbie is an icon, a legend, a cultural
lightning rod, and an eleven and a half inch piece
of plastic who's represented and projected are biggest aspirations and
flaws for more than sixty years. Her movie debut marks
(00:36):
a big bet by Mattel, which hopes to turn legacy
brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels and Rockham Sockam into blockbuster franchises.
Think Marvel if they're lucky. With so much riding on
her tiny but mighty shoulders, I've stepped into Barbie Land
to find out more about how her makers are inventing
her next act. We start with a visit to the
Mattel Design Center with President and COO Richard Dixon to
(00:59):
get a behind the scenes look at how Barbie is
made and has evolved over the decades.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
The feedback that we were getting from consumers was she
just didn't seem relevant.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
I also meet two of the minds behind Barbie's new looks,
Kim Colmoney and Robert Best to discover all the work
and experimentation that goes into designing a more inclusive and
diverse collection.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Will you want to pull them off? And Tommy does story?
Anyone that speaks to me? I mean, gosh, they're all
so beautiful.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Pretty incredible, Okay, pretty incredible, braid.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Here's the circuit from inside Mattel's design studio.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Welcome to the Big Garage. This is the design center, okay,
and right when you come in, you see, as I said,
a tribute to our founders, Ruth and Elliott.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Okay. And what did she want to create?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Like?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
What was the goal and.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
The origin story of the company was an entrepreneurial couple
trying to create essentially the future of play Barbie was.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Of course, Ruth Handler's claim to fame.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
She was inspired by watching her daughter play out through
paper dolls, imagining that she could be anything that she.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Wanted to be.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
But what she realized also was her son Ken could
also play out with action figures and figures, and Barbie,
of course, was invented with the idea that a girl
should have those aspiration and inspirational ideas as well. And
so the invention of the doll was really about Ruth's
connection with her own daughter, inspiring her to imagine that
(02:28):
she could be anything that she wanted to be.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Okay, and Barbie wasn't her daughter's name, right.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Barbie, Barbie was Kenneth.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Wow. Yeah, Barbara and Kenneth where Ruth and Elliott's son
and daughter.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Okay, just blew my mind. Yeah, that's cool. All right.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
So as you walk through the Design Center, it's a
huge building with engineers and creatives and artists and designers
from fashion and automotive and just an incredible place of
pure creativity. And really that's why I reference it as
just a bigger.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Girl, big garage.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And you've been working here for a pretty long time.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
I have been working here for a pretty long time.
This was actually my second chapter. I left and somehow
they got me back in. And of course I've been
here now a combination of eighteen years.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
So you've personally seen a lot of Barbie's sisty.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I've seen a lot of Barbie's history, and I've been
fortunate enough to be a part of that history as well,
and our job here is to certainly leave it better
than we found it and create the next generation of
leadership to take it on to the next level.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Wasn't she based on a gag gift?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well, there's a lot of narratives with Barbie, and Barbie
is a cultural conversation. But as far as we are
concerned in the context of how Ruth spoke about Barbie,
and that's the quote, my whole philosophy of Barbie was
that through the doll, the little girl could be anything
she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that
(03:54):
a woman has choices, and the fashions themselves at that
time was really about girls experiencing what their choice would
be and what their aspirational life would take them, and
ultimately how the brand was invented.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
And I didn't realize so as I understand it was
she the first adult doll.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
She wasn't necessarily an adult doll. Never said she's an
adult doll.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Well, she looks like she looks.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Like a grown up, but she was actually a teenage.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
She was positioned as a teenager, okay, and her intent
was really for.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Younger girls, younger at that time.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
It's called it tween to be inspired, to imagine that
she could be anything that she wanted to be, and
ultimately the doll itself when it was taken to New
York Toy Fair to be presented to retailers, was really
regarded as this adult toy, if you will. That got
a lot of pushback from retailers at the time. That
(04:46):
being said, with the pursuit that Ruth in particular had
around the empowerment position that she took with this doll,
it did break through and the industry actually played back
the definition which became the fashion doll, and that's how
the fashion all market segment was invented.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
The first Barbie was a fashion model, right.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
The first Barbie was a fashion model, that's right.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
And then she expanded and then.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
She evolved into many, many different careers and ultimately today
with thousands of careers represented and today is the most
diverse and inclusive doll brand in the world.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
So she certainly had a complicated history.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
How do you reconcile that sort of preserving the history
but also rewriting it.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, it's the world that talks about Barbie the way
they are inspired to talk about Barbie. It's our job
to make sure that we present Barbie based on her
meaning and purpose and that she matters in people's lives
as an inspiring tool for girls and boys around the world.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
She used to hold a book that said don't eat, Like,
how do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
The brand has always had controversial moments in the context
of some of the toys, either that we invented or
some of the narratives that were associated with the brand.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Right, there was another Barbie that had a book, or
there was another a teen Barbie I think that said
math class is tough.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yikes.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, yeah, there were there were lots of parts of
our history that ultimately, in the moment that they were created,
probably with the right intent, either were misinterpreted or ultimately,
you know, became part of a cultural conversation that had
more negativity associated with it. Now, what's interesting about our
(06:25):
brand is we actually present the brand to inspire other
imaginations to whatever they want to be.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And however they think of the brand.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Barbie is an open ended brand, so there is no start, middle,
and end to it.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It's really what you make of it.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
And so while there's been controversy and cultural conversations around it,
our job has been to keep the brand relevant and
current in the context of culture. Still an eleven and
a half inch doll from nineteen fifty nine until now,
but we've diversified her. We've included lots of different ways
that girls can see themselves in the brand, and we
(07:01):
take a lot of pride in the fact that we
have evolved her into a meaningful conversation that matters in
people's lives. So now we're entering the Barbie section of
the Design Center, and of course you'll see everything Barbie,
but in particular our purpose on the wall there to
inspire and nurture the limitless potential in every girl. Throughout
this section, here as far as you could see, is
(07:24):
where the Barbie team sits. They work in a very collaborative,
team based environment. It's very much like a fashion company
in miniature version.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Interesting because you're sort of your setting trends or you're
taking the pulse of.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Well, we're a real fashion trende. Barbie's wearing clothes. She
has different looks in different outfits. Every one of them
is designed by an apparel and fashion designer with backgrounds
in the apparel space. We then have face painters and
pattern makers and sewers and stitchers and all sorts of
skill sets and talents and artisans that basically bring the
(07:59):
brand to life much like real fashion brands.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Okay, yeah, super cool, very cool.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Especially in more recent years, you started doing consumer surveys
and talking to kids about Barbie.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
What were they.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Telling you, Well, we've gone through an evolution of the brand,
and back in twenty fourteen it was really marked a
pivotal moment for us where the brand was not doing
well in the marketplace. The feedback that we were getting
from consumers was she.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Just didn't seem relevant.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Not only didn't she seem relevant, but she didn't look
as relevant as she had in the past. She wasn't
as aspirational, and she didn't represent the intrinsic values that
we were promoting. But it wasn't breaking through in terms
of our audience. So we took a hard look at
essentially who we were and what we were saying and
turn the conversation from what was I call a brand
(08:49):
monologue where we were telling the world what Barbie is,
into a dialogue where we were actually listening to our
consumer tell us what they thought of our brand. And
that was hard and some of the things that we
heard were difficult, that she wasn't a reflection of how
the world looked, of how our world looked in terms
of diversity inclusiveness. She didn't represent the career aspirational values
(09:13):
that we had built the brand on.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Did kids say that? How would kids frame that?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Sort of The feedback that we got from kids was
the play experience was not as fun. It didn't represent
sort of real and in our world that play system
is really role play and if we're not providing the
right system of play for girls and kids to be inspired,
then we're missing the mark. So ultimately, we took a
hard look at ourselves. We diversified the brand. We introduced
(09:40):
twenty four different skin tones represent the ethnicities around the
world that girls see. We changed her body and introduced
nine different shapes, tall, petite, kurvy, and etc. We kept
the original, but we expanded for choice, and we started
to recognize women of achievement and honor them with their
own Barbie to be able to show girls you can
(10:01):
be whoever you inspired to be based.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
On the accomplishments of women around the world.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
So highlighting those stories for girls also helped us create Thats.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
You didn't start releasing the new body types until twenty sixteen.
What do you say to folks who think it's too
late for a rebrand, like it just took too long.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Well, look, I think when we look at the connection
that we have with those who love us and with
those who are starting to understand more about the value
of Barbie play, that's who we want to make sure
connects to our brand. We can't please everybody. We have
a strong purpose, we have a reason for being. We
(10:42):
have a brand that matters, and it's our job to
ensure that those who really respond to our play pattern
are inspired by it and can feel connected in a
moment where their development needs are being met.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Do you think Mattel should have changed faster, Should Barbie
have changed faster?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
In your view?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Look, I think the business would have suggested that Barbie
should have changed faster.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
A brand that has decades and decades of history, probably
any one of those brands goes through, you know, cycles
of peaks and pits, and we had gone through a pit. However,
the work that we did to understand the dynamics of
how to get out of that, reflecting back to the
(11:24):
origin story of the brand, is really what we could
be most proud of that has led.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Us to today's Barbie, which is.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Double where it was five years ago, is unbelievably culturally relevant,
is on the cusp of this theatrical film that we
couldn't be more proud of.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
The circuit continues after this quick break.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
All right, so now we're going to enter probably you know,
one of the most important parts of the doll design
and development process, which is.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Of course Barbie's hair.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yes, come on hairport part of the play pattern, and
also a really proprietary way that we design Barbie's hair.
Incredible expertise, the finest of fabrics, and the various different
ways that we present Barbie as the most inclusive and
diversityal line in.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
The world, and a lot of it has to do
with her hair and her look.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
All right, These are our amazing creators who are This
is Kim who runs design for all of Barbie as.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Well as other parts of the Mattel system.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
And this is Robert Best, one of our most famous
designers in the Barbie organization, but also really an avid
expert in everything Barbie has a fan following all by
himself in terms of his own dollar design and we
could not be more lucky to have these two on
(12:49):
the Barbie team.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So tell me about Barbie's hair.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
We're gonna start at the beginning of the design process, actually,
so everything starts with a sketch, and it starts with
the designer's vision, and then we have an incredible group
of hair designers and face designers that bring the designer's
vision to life in three D. And then we move
into fiber choice. There's a board of colors and lens
of fibers, all the varied textures.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
As I'm sure.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
You've been talking about, diversity and inclusion and representation is
centered in everything that we do.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
What were the challenges that you face trying to make
her more diverse and experiment with these materials that you've
been were using for decades but then had to change.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Well, and some of it's in research and development. So
we develop hair fibers that are more varied than we
had had in the past. And you can see here
this amazing knit fiber that gives you an absolutely fantastic,
authentic texture for the afro on that doll. And then
we continue to do that R and D, whether it's
in raids or other sorts of fibers that allow the
(13:49):
designers and our hair designers to bring to.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Life the vision of a real woman in her hair.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
So why don't we go see Aki, who's one of
our hair rooters, and you can see how we make
that magic.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Let's do it, Hi Aki, This is Aki. Nice, Nice
to meet you. This is an original machine that was
used on the first barbies that we used. We still
use the originals here to build our prototypes.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
And she's going to show you how we take the
hair from those spools and put it into the doll.
Oh my goodness, don't be afraid, because sometimes people are.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
It's a little districting.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
See how the sausage is maybe, and I don't think
people think about how does that hair actually get in
that head? You know. So she's going to show you
so and so often what we do is we heat
the heads a little bit so the plastasaol is a
little softer. But then she has a needle that draws
the hair fiber, which is a continuous filament into the needle,
(14:47):
and she guides along the periphery of in the head
and each stitch is locking into.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
The head as she goes through. It's so intricate. You
just don't realize how interest okay that is.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
And what she'll eventually do. Once she roots the entire head,
she'll then root apart line, she can root highlights in,
she can begin the styling process. But each of our
prototypes are done by hair working with the specifications from
the designers, and we're also very specific about the number
(15:21):
of stitches per inch. Barbie's hair is a very heroic
part of the.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Doll, and she's famous for her amazing hair. So is
everyone who's making these doing it by hand? Or do
you have machines do this in the in house factory?
Speaker 5 (15:34):
In house here for prototypes, we actually do them by hand.
We have some automation process when we reach the manufacturing stage,
but the ones that we make here while we're ideating
and creating the next Barbie's are all created by hand. Okay,
you'd be amazed how much handwork is actually done.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Throughout the process of the creation of a Barbie.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Even in manufacturing, there's handbraiding, there's other aspects just to
get the design exactly right.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I had no idea.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Most people now, and it's a fairly fast process. I mean,
within a little bit now, she'll start to speed up.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I'm not telling you to.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
Speed up up.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I'm just describing it.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
What She'll start to speed up and the next thing
you'll see, the entire crown.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Of ahead will be covered. And then there's a stage.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Where she'll rush it out and it'll look like the
barneys that you see on job.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
How do you think about, like what comes next? What
should we do? What's that process?
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Like?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Do we do this? Do we do that?
Speaker 6 (16:29):
I think it's a collaborative process between the creative teams,
the marketing team, sort of everybody just looking at ideas
and looking to be as expansive as possible. We know
that it's like it's not perfect, it's not like a
fully finished thing. It's something that can always improve. I
think you see that in terms of we are always
looking at sort of what representation means and how important
(16:52):
that is, and sort of seeing who do we serve currently,
how can we serve more people better? And what does
that mean. It's not always just a simple thing of
a visual thing about aesthetics. It's about differently abled communities.
It's about representation in its broadest forms. So we're always experimenting,
talking to outside people, talking to our customers, listening to
(17:16):
our customers, and that's how you kind of get to
this idea of pushing yourself to kind of explore how
that can look and how it could continue to expand
because we know we're not done right. It's not like
you can just kind of rest on our laurels la
resting here.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
Yeah. I think insight instinct equals innovation, starting with insights,
talking to parents, kids, families, fans, taking the instincts of
our designers, some of which are newer to the brand
and some have a history on the brand. That's what
gets us to the innovation. All of our prototypes are handmade,
but then we have to get to mass production. So
(17:55):
then the process of all of our manufacturing sources really
figuring out how to bring this to Life's great in
this space, it's great in the design center, it's even
better on shelf. Yeah, if we can't get it made,
then the idea, you know, is art versus an actual
product that can serve the consumers that love the brand.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
So I think it's really also like when we talk
about the customer you're serving, everyone from like the oldest
consumer or collectors who really like have an appreciation of details,
are maybe not looking to play with this style as
much as display or sort of like have it be
part of their collection, whereas like a younger audience, younger kids,
it's about brushing the hair, styling the hair, playing with it.
(18:34):
So these really long hairstyles, like this incredible crimped style
that would have been so fun to brush.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, yeah, I did a lot of brush. Like, I
did some cutting too. How do you know that I
got it cut away?
Speaker 6 (18:49):
Yeah, Like, I think it's the whole thing of giving permission.
That's the play the play aspect is like not limiting
what that means and kids to find it themselves. Right,
So cutting the hair is a big part of it
because it's this thing of like you see it happen
in real life and you're like, that seems like a
good idea. I'm going to do that to Barbie. And
the next thing you know, it's tears and a horrible hairstyle.
(19:12):
I've learned a lesson.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Yeah, but that's actually the best part of Barbie. Right.
We put the doll in the box, but she comes
to life when she gets in the hands of a kid,
and that's the beauty, that's the.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Magic of the Barbie brand. That's actually an amazing place
to end. Thank you course, so much, good, Thank.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
You, thanks so much for listening to the Circuit podcast.
Check out the full episode to hear more from Attel
CEO Eenon Cries, the architect of the company's new content strategy.
We also sit down with OSCAR nominated producer Robbie Brenner,
the heavyweight behind the upcoming Barbie film. If you want
even more Barbie content, check out our recent episode of
(19:51):
Bloomberg's The Big Take to hear about Barbie's high stakes,
big screen debut.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I'm Emily Chank.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Emily
Chang TV. You can watch new episodes of the Circuit
on Bloomberg Television or on demand by downloading the Bloomberg
app to your smart TV and let us know what
you think by leaving us a review. I'm your host
and executive producer. Our senior producer is Lauren Ellis, Our
associate producer is Lizzie Phillip. Our editor is Sebastian Escobar.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Thanks so much for listening.
This is iconic fun. I mean, come on the famous.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Elevator, all right.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Yeah, so this is a really fun part of the
Design Center and celebration of a part of Barbie's dreamhouse.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
I'm Emily Chang, and this is the circuit. The most
popular doll of all time is finally getting her big
screen debut. Barbie is an icon, a legend, a cultural
lightning rod, and an eleven and a half inch piece
of plastic who's represented and projected are biggest aspirations and
flaws for more than sixty years. Her movie debut marks
(00:36):
a big bet by Mattel, which hopes to turn legacy
brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels and Rockham Sockam into blockbuster franchises.
Think Marvel if they're lucky. With so much riding on
her tiny but mighty shoulders, I've stepped into Barbie Land
to find out more about how her makers are inventing
her next act. We start with a visit to the
Mattel Design Center with President and COO Richard Dixon to
(00:59):
get a behind the scenes look at how Barbie is
made and has evolved over the decades.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
The feedback that we were getting from consumers was she
just didn't seem relevant.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
I also meet two of the minds behind Barbie's new looks,
Kim Colmoney and Robert Best to discover all the work
and experimentation that goes into designing a more inclusive and
diverse collection.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Will you want to pull them off? And Tommy does story?
Anyone that speaks to me? I mean, gosh, they're all
so beautiful.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Pretty incredible, Okay, pretty incredible, braid.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Here's the circuit from inside Mattel's design studio.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Welcome to the Big Garage. This is the design center, okay,
and right when you come in, you see, as I said,
a tribute to our founders, Ruth and Elliott.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Okay. And what did she want to create?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Like?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
What was the goal and.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
The origin story of the company was an entrepreneurial couple
trying to create essentially the future of play Barbie was.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Of course, Ruth Handler's claim to fame.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
She was inspired by watching her daughter play out through
paper dolls, imagining that she could be anything that she.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Wanted to be.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
But what she realized also was her son Ken could
also play out with action figures and figures, and Barbie,
of course, was invented with the idea that a girl
should have those aspiration and inspirational ideas as well. And
so the invention of the doll was really about Ruth's
connection with her own daughter, inspiring her to imagine that
(02:28):
she could be anything that she wanted to be.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Okay, and Barbie wasn't her daughter's name, right.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Barbie, Barbie was Kenneth.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Wow. Yeah, Barbara and Kenneth where Ruth and Elliott's son
and daughter.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Okay, just blew my mind. Yeah, that's cool. All right.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
So as you walk through the Design Center, it's a
huge building with engineers and creatives and artists and designers
from fashion and automotive and just an incredible place of
pure creativity. And really that's why I reference it as
just a bigger.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Girl, big garage.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And you've been working here for a pretty long time.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
I have been working here for a pretty long time.
This was actually my second chapter. I left and somehow
they got me back in. And of course I've been
here now a combination of eighteen years.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
So you've personally seen a lot of Barbie's sisty.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I've seen a lot of Barbie's history, and I've been
fortunate enough to be a part of that history as well,
and our job here is to certainly leave it better
than we found it and create the next generation of
leadership to take it on to the next level.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Wasn't she based on a gag gift?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well, there's a lot of narratives with Barbie, and Barbie
is a cultural conversation. But as far as we are
concerned in the context of how Ruth spoke about Barbie,
and that's the quote, my whole philosophy of Barbie was
that through the doll, the little girl could be anything
she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that
(03:54):
a woman has choices, and the fashions themselves at that
time was really about girls experiencing what their choice would
be and what their aspirational life would take them, and
ultimately how the brand was invented.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
And I didn't realize so as I understand it was
she the first adult doll.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
She wasn't necessarily an adult doll. Never said she's an
adult doll.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Well, she looks like she looks.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Like a grown up, but she was actually a teenage.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
She was positioned as a teenager, okay, and her intent
was really for.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Younger girls, younger at that time.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
It's called it tween to be inspired, to imagine that
she could be anything that she wanted to be, and
ultimately the doll itself when it was taken to New
York Toy Fair to be presented to retailers, was really
regarded as this adult toy, if you will. That got
a lot of pushback from retailers at the time. That
(04:46):
being said, with the pursuit that Ruth in particular had
around the empowerment position that she took with this doll,
it did break through and the industry actually played back
the definition which became the fashion doll, and that's how
the fashion all market segment was invented.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
The first Barbie was a fashion model, right.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
The first Barbie was a fashion model, that's right.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
And then she expanded and then.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
She evolved into many, many different careers and ultimately today
with thousands of careers represented and today is the most
diverse and inclusive doll brand in the world.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
So she certainly had a complicated history.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
How do you reconcile that sort of preserving the history
but also rewriting it.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, it's the world that talks about Barbie the way
they are inspired to talk about Barbie. It's our job
to make sure that we present Barbie based on her
meaning and purpose and that she matters in people's lives
as an inspiring tool for girls and boys around the world.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
She used to hold a book that said don't eat, Like,
how do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
The brand has always had controversial moments in the context
of some of the toys, either that we invented or
some of the narratives that were associated with the brand.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Right, there was another Barbie that had a book, or
there was another a teen Barbie I think that said
math class is tough.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yikes.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, yeah, there were there were lots of parts of
our history that ultimately, in the moment that they were created,
probably with the right intent, either were misinterpreted or ultimately,
you know, became part of a cultural conversation that had
more negativity associated with it. Now, what's interesting about our
(06:25):
brand is we actually present the brand to inspire other
imaginations to whatever they want to be.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And however they think of the brand.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Barbie is an open ended brand, so there is no start, middle,
and end to it.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It's really what you make of it.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
And so while there's been controversy and cultural conversations around it,
our job has been to keep the brand relevant and
current in the context of culture. Still an eleven and
a half inch doll from nineteen fifty nine until now,
but we've diversified her. We've included lots of different ways
that girls can see themselves in the brand, and we
(07:01):
take a lot of pride in the fact that we
have evolved her into a meaningful conversation that matters in
people's lives. So now we're entering the Barbie section of
the Design Center, and of course you'll see everything Barbie,
but in particular our purpose on the wall there to
inspire and nurture the limitless potential in every girl. Throughout
this section, here as far as you could see, is
(07:24):
where the Barbie team sits. They work in a very collaborative,
team based environment. It's very much like a fashion company
in miniature version.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Interesting because you're sort of your setting trends or you're
taking the pulse of.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Well, we're a real fashion trende. Barbie's wearing clothes. She
has different looks in different outfits. Every one of them
is designed by an apparel and fashion designer with backgrounds
in the apparel space. We then have face painters and
pattern makers and sewers and stitchers and all sorts of
skill sets and talents and artisans that basically bring the
(07:59):
brand to life much like real fashion brands.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Okay, yeah, super cool, very cool.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Especially in more recent years, you started doing consumer surveys
and talking to kids about Barbie.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
What were they.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Telling you, Well, we've gone through an evolution of the brand,
and back in twenty fourteen it was really marked a
pivotal moment for us where the brand was not doing
well in the marketplace. The feedback that we were getting
from consumers was she.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Just didn't seem relevant.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Not only didn't she seem relevant, but she didn't look
as relevant as she had in the past. She wasn't
as aspirational, and she didn't represent the intrinsic values that
we were promoting. But it wasn't breaking through in terms
of our audience. So we took a hard look at
essentially who we were and what we were saying and
turn the conversation from what was I call a brand
(08:49):
monologue where we were telling the world what Barbie is,
into a dialogue where we were actually listening to our
consumer tell us what they thought of our brand. And
that was hard and some of the things that we
heard were difficult, that she wasn't a reflection of how
the world looked, of how our world looked in terms
of diversity inclusiveness. She didn't represent the career aspirational values
(09:13):
that we had built the brand on.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Did kids say that? How would kids frame that?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Sort of The feedback that we got from kids was
the play experience was not as fun. It didn't represent
sort of real and in our world that play system
is really role play and if we're not providing the
right system of play for girls and kids to be inspired,
then we're missing the mark. So ultimately, we took a
hard look at ourselves. We diversified the brand. We introduced
(09:40):
twenty four different skin tones represent the ethnicities around the
world that girls see. We changed her body and introduced
nine different shapes, tall, petite, kurvy, and etc. We kept
the original, but we expanded for choice, and we started
to recognize women of achievement and honor them with their
own Barbie to be able to show girls you can
(10:01):
be whoever you inspired to be based.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
On the accomplishments of women around the world.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
So highlighting those stories for girls also helped us create Thats.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
You didn't start releasing the new body types until twenty sixteen.
What do you say to folks who think it's too
late for a rebrand, like it just took too long.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Well, look, I think when we look at the connection
that we have with those who love us and with
those who are starting to understand more about the value
of Barbie play, that's who we want to make sure
connects to our brand. We can't please everybody. We have
a strong purpose, we have a reason for being. We
(10:42):
have a brand that matters, and it's our job to
ensure that those who really respond to our play pattern
are inspired by it and can feel connected in a
moment where their development needs are being met.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Do you think Mattel should have changed faster, Should Barbie
have changed faster?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
In your view?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Look, I think the business would have suggested that Barbie
should have changed faster.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
A brand that has decades and decades of history, probably
any one of those brands goes through, you know, cycles
of peaks and pits, and we had gone through a pit. However,
the work that we did to understand the dynamics of
how to get out of that, reflecting back to the
(11:24):
origin story of the brand, is really what we could
be most proud of that has led.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Us to today's Barbie, which is.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Double where it was five years ago, is unbelievably culturally relevant,
is on the cusp of this theatrical film that we
couldn't be more proud of.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
The circuit continues after this quick break.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
All right, so now we're going to enter probably you know,
one of the most important parts of the doll design
and development process, which is.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Of course Barbie's hair.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yes, come on hairport part of the play pattern, and
also a really proprietary way that we design Barbie's hair.
Incredible expertise, the finest of fabrics, and the various different
ways that we present Barbie as the most inclusive and
diversityal line in.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
The world, and a lot of it has to do
with her hair and her look.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
All right, These are our amazing creators who are This
is Kim who runs design for all of Barbie as.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Well as other parts of the Mattel system.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
And this is Robert Best, one of our most famous
designers in the Barbie organization, but also really an avid
expert in everything Barbie has a fan following all by
himself in terms of his own dollar design and we
could not be more lucky to have these two on
(12:49):
the Barbie team.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So tell me about Barbie's hair.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
We're gonna start at the beginning of the design process, actually,
so everything starts with a sketch, and it starts with
the designer's vision, and then we have an incredible group
of hair designers and face designers that bring the designer's
vision to life in three D. And then we move
into fiber choice. There's a board of colors and lens
of fibers, all the varied textures.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
As I'm sure.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
You've been talking about, diversity and inclusion and representation is
centered in everything that we do.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
What were the challenges that you face trying to make
her more diverse and experiment with these materials that you've
been were using for decades but then had to change.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Well, and some of it's in research and development. So
we develop hair fibers that are more varied than we
had had in the past. And you can see here
this amazing knit fiber that gives you an absolutely fantastic,
authentic texture for the afro on that doll. And then
we continue to do that R and D, whether it's
in raids or other sorts of fibers that allow the
(13:49):
designers and our hair designers to bring to.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Life the vision of a real woman in her hair.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
So why don't we go see Aki, who's one of
our hair rooters, and you can see how we make
that magic.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Let's do it, Hi Aki, This is Aki. Nice, Nice
to meet you. This is an original machine that was
used on the first barbies that we used. We still
use the originals here to build our prototypes.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
And she's going to show you how we take the
hair from those spools and put it into the doll.
Oh my goodness, don't be afraid, because sometimes people are.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
It's a little districting.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
See how the sausage is maybe, and I don't think
people think about how does that hair actually get in
that head? You know. So she's going to show you
so and so often what we do is we heat
the heads a little bit so the plastasaol is a
little softer. But then she has a needle that draws
the hair fiber, which is a continuous filament into the needle,
(14:47):
and she guides along the periphery of in the head
and each stitch is locking into.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
The head as she goes through. It's so intricate. You
just don't realize how interest okay that is.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
And what she'll eventually do. Once she roots the entire head,
she'll then root apart line, she can root highlights in,
she can begin the styling process. But each of our
prototypes are done by hair working with the specifications from
the designers, and we're also very specific about the number
(15:21):
of stitches per inch. Barbie's hair is a very heroic
part of the.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Doll, and she's famous for her amazing hair. So is
everyone who's making these doing it by hand? Or do
you have machines do this in the in house factory?
Speaker 5 (15:34):
In house here for prototypes, we actually do them by hand.
We have some automation process when we reach the manufacturing stage,
but the ones that we make here while we're ideating
and creating the next Barbie's are all created by hand. Okay,
you'd be amazed how much handwork is actually done.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Throughout the process of the creation of a Barbie.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Even in manufacturing, there's handbraiding, there's other aspects just to
get the design exactly right.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I had no idea.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Most people now, and it's a fairly fast process. I mean,
within a little bit now, she'll start to speed up.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I'm not telling you to.
Speaker 5 (16:08):
Speed up up.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I'm just describing it.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
What She'll start to speed up and the next thing
you'll see, the entire crown.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Of ahead will be covered. And then there's a stage.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Where she'll rush it out and it'll look like the
barneys that you see on job.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
How do you think about, like what comes next? What
should we do? What's that process?
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Like?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Do we do this? Do we do that?
Speaker 6 (16:29):
I think it's a collaborative process between the creative teams,
the marketing team, sort of everybody just looking at ideas
and looking to be as expansive as possible. We know
that it's like it's not perfect, it's not like a
fully finished thing. It's something that can always improve. I
think you see that in terms of we are always
looking at sort of what representation means and how important
(16:52):
that is, and sort of seeing who do we serve currently,
how can we serve more people better? And what does
that mean. It's not always just a simple thing of
a visual thing about aesthetics. It's about differently abled communities.
It's about representation in its broadest forms. So we're always experimenting,
talking to outside people, talking to our customers, listening to
(17:16):
our customers, and that's how you kind of get to
this idea of pushing yourself to kind of explore how
that can look and how it could continue to expand
because we know we're not done right. It's not like
you can just kind of rest on our laurels la
resting here.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
Yeah. I think insight instinct equals innovation, starting with insights,
talking to parents, kids, families, fans, taking the instincts of
our designers, some of which are newer to the brand
and some have a history on the brand. That's what
gets us to the innovation. All of our prototypes are handmade,
but then we have to get to mass production. So
(17:55):
then the process of all of our manufacturing sources really
figuring out how to bring this to Life's great in
this space, it's great in the design center, it's even
better on shelf. Yeah, if we can't get it made,
then the idea, you know, is art versus an actual
product that can serve the consumers that love the brand.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
So I think it's really also like when we talk
about the customer you're serving, everyone from like the oldest
consumer or collectors who really like have an appreciation of details,
are maybe not looking to play with this style as
much as display or sort of like have it be
part of their collection, whereas like a younger audience, younger kids,
it's about brushing the hair, styling the hair, playing with it.
(18:34):
So these really long hairstyles, like this incredible crimped style
that would have been so fun to brush.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, yeah, I did a lot of brush. Like, I
did some cutting too. How do you know that I
got it cut away?
Speaker 6 (18:49):
Yeah, Like, I think it's the whole thing of giving permission.
That's the play the play aspect is like not limiting
what that means and kids to find it themselves. Right,
So cutting the hair is a big part of it
because it's this thing of like you see it happen
in real life and you're like, that seems like a
good idea. I'm going to do that to Barbie. And
the next thing you know, it's tears and a horrible hairstyle.
(19:12):
I've learned a lesson.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Yeah, but that's actually the best part of Barbie. Right.
We put the doll in the box, but she comes
to life when she gets in the hands of a kid,
and that's the beauty, that's the.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Magic of the Barbie brand. That's actually an amazing place
to end. Thank you course, so much, good, Thank.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
You, thanks so much for listening to the Circuit podcast.
Check out the full episode to hear more from Attel
CEO Eenon Cries, the architect of the company's new content strategy.
We also sit down with OSCAR nominated producer Robbie Brenner,
the heavyweight behind the upcoming Barbie film. If you want
even more Barbie content, check out our recent episode of
(19:51):
Bloomberg's The Big Take to hear about Barbie's high stakes,
big screen debut.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I'm Emily Chank.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Emily
Chang TV. You can watch new episodes of the Circuit
on Bloomberg Television or on demand by downloading the Bloomberg
app to your smart TV and let us know what
you think by leaving us a review. I'm your host
and executive producer. Our senior producer is Lauren Ellis, Our
associate producer is Lizzie Phillip. Our editor is Sebastian Escobar.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Thanks so much for listening.
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