corporate brand

Referred to by its parent company as a "global power brand," Barbie and her extended family together compromise the best selling toy ever. Barbie's universe - the breadth of products associated with her directly and those linked by name – extends into various markets and helps to ensure Mattel's continuing success. Profits from the dolls alone would constitute a small fortune – in 1995 alone approximately 100 Barbie dolls were brought to the market. Barbie has numerous friends and family members - her younger sister Skipper, and boyfriend Ken are well-known sidekicks. Mattel has also introduced many ethnically diverse companions over the years, but they have usually been relegated to subordinate rolls. For Instance, Teresa, Barbie's Hispanic friend, who by 1996 (in the 21 versions that had been issued) had not once been depicted with a career or job, school or education, marriage or family. Instead, her roles are sex object, athlete, shopper, and Barbie wannabe (Rogers, 1999: 51).

Accessories are also abundant in Barbie's universe. When she came onto the scene it was her clothes and accessories that were drawing in profits. The original doll itself was only sold for $3, but each sale of a doll virtually guaranteed a future purchases – the shoes, the car, the house, the pets. Mattel licenses its brand to other corporations – prominent among them are Disney, Hallmark Cards, and Toys R Us. Agreements with other companies can be expensive, royalty expenses totaled $121 million in 1996, but these contracts enhance their profit from the sale of extremely popular licensed toys (Rogers, 95).

Barbie, herself, is the epitome of material comfort. Treasury of Barbie Doll Accessories 1961-1995 surveys the material riches of Barbie's own world. While her family and friends have had five residences, Barbie has had nineteen houses including among many the Dream House, the Country Living Home, and the Glamour Home. Her animal friends and pets have included thirteen horses, three cats, five dogs, a tropical bird, a zebra, and a giraffe (. Her interests place her in the expensive segment of the marketplace where goods and services are countless and consumers are conditioned to be insatiable. So, not only is Barbie a Mattel product, she is an icon of consumerism – taking consumption to its highest limits. Her world seems to revolve around consumer goods and leisure services, her essence is ascribed by her material possessions.

Barbie's identification as a corporate brand creates inconsistencies between her outer appearance the story of her creation. The extreme contrast between her glamour and the circumstances of her production (drab factories and ill-paid, unrewarded workers) remains invisible to the average consumer. The ruling institutions that define standards and practices of consumption are overlooked. While Barbie is frequently covered by the media, little is reported about Mattel the employer. The company's image becomes more vulnerable as its status as a creator of icon and its exertions of control become more evident. However Mattel's ability to keep out of the media spotlight seems to attest to the power of their publicity machine. As an innovator in television advertisements at a time when other toy companies weren't willing to take the risk, Mattel is a genius in knowing how to construct an icon without exposing too much of its underside. Recognizing Barbie as a global power brand should impel us to recognize the greater implications of this identification and to understand our role as individual consumers in the American capitalistic mass market. Mattel promotes Barbie to consumers the wya captialists promote capitalism to the opeple who least benefit from it. The discourse maintains that the limits come only from within you - you can be rich if you set your mind to it; you can make Barbie be anything you what her to be. The goal of the discourse is to mask external limits so that you have appeared to choose freely" (Rand, 1995: 27). Mattel's succcess testifies to their mastery of getting people to act on its own behalf. Barbie is a "global power brand" because Matell is a global power company.