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Barbie® embodies all our hopes and dreams.
She can be anything. No matter, being a small girl or a
big girl. We all like to dream...
By 1958 Mattel had become a leading maker of action toys
for boys and saw Lili as a perfect way to even the market
and collect more parents' money. After buying all rights
to Lili and various studies of the market, they transformed
blonde sexpot Lili into brunette Barbie, the paradigm for
little girls. In a study where 100 mothers and daughters
were shown the Barbie separately, nearly all the mothers
said that the Barbie Dolls were too mature looking and didn't
want their children playing with them (let alone buying
them). Nearly all of the girls in the study said that they
loved the doll and wanted to own one.
So Barbie was put on the market and set several sales records
still unparalleled. The Mattel people attribute the success
to (great marketing and) the need of little girls to play
with a symbol of themselves in the future, and not just
with baby dolls, which train them to be mothers. Barbie
allows children to dream about becoming teenagers and going
out and wearing stylish clothing. They marketed her as the
super model who has everything that little girls should
want: fame, wealth, attention. Successful gimmick, obviously.
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