Clever Creative: Dads: In a Barbie World
Posted Thursday January 26th, 2017 by Caitlin Artigliere in Creativity + Art.Barbies all across America have new men in their lives: dads. In today’s “Clever Creative” from Mattel, Barbie is once again breaking the mold. In the past, people perceived Barbie as a toy only girls play with. But the “Dads Who Play Barbie” campaign is another effort by Mattel to change the outdated stigma that has followed this beloved toy into the 2000s. The new set of ads show not only little girls, but their grown, burly dads playing with Barbies. It also promotes the positive impact those moments can have on girls’ futures with the message: “Time spent in her imaginary world is an investment in her real world.” Check out the 1:24 long-form ad, as well as the 30-second TV spots that show that Dads can play in a Barbie world too.
Why our GEMites liked this Clever Creative:
When you think of Barbies, you think of the color pink, dresses and accessories, her fabulous dream house and little girls playing. We can guarantee that you do not think of grown men playing with them, and it’s that perception that Mattel aims to change with these ads. What makes them even better is that the campaign’s first appearance was during an NFL playoff game last Sunday. This type of risk to reach a completely different target market gains major points in our book, and it is just one reason we love the ads so much.
The GEMites also love the authenticity in the ads. According to the creative team at Barbie, the fathers and daughters were real, and the scenes of them playing were totally unscripted. If they had chosen to hire child and adult actors, they would not have be able to create the genuine moments that these daddy-daughter pairs shared. We love when companies ditch the professional actors and scripted scenes, and instead, let things just happen naturally. In our professional opinion, it creates a better ad, with a more relatable and realistic feel, which is exactly what Mattel is trying to achieve with Barbie.
Why our fellow creatives should like this:
In the past few years, Barbie came under fire for being stuck in the past, unrealistic and a bad role model for young girls. The popular toy’s producer, Mattel, decided it needed to make Barbie (and all her friends) more relevant to our current culture. It started with a plan to make Barbies come in all the different shapes, sizes and races of real women and their male counterparts. This new set of ads that are trying to change the idea that only girls play with Barbies seems to be the next step in their modernization campaign. We think our fellow creatives should like this creative not just for it’s heartwarming messages, but because the company recognized the cultural changes and is making a conscious effort to flow with them. It’s one thing to realize your product has a negative stigma attached to it, but it’s a very different, and more difficult, thing to try and modify that. Not many companies would be willing to completely change their physical product, along with their messaging, just to regain the respect of consumers. This new campaign is doing just that, however, which is why we think it deserves your love and respect.
Mattel’s efforts to change the customer’s mind about the product and the risks that come with something like that should be reason enough to like this creative. However, on top of that, the ad is genuine and heartwarming. Barbie’s efforts to promote imagination in minds, young and old, male and female, in these new ads just go to show you that she can really do anything.
Let us know what you think, and be on the lookout for next week’s installment of Clever Creative!
If you’re looking for some clever creative of your own, feel free to contact us.
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