How the Barbie movie marketing machine tapped into a cultural zeitgeist

The Barbie movie arrives in theatres on Friday, but a tidal wave of hot pink — Pantone 219-C, to be exact — has preceded it, thanks to a supercharged marketing campaign that lends a whole new meaning to rose-coloured glasses.

Mattel, the company behind Barbie, has inked crossover deals with dozens of companies to promote both the movie and the famous doll herself. It comes a few years after the iconic toy, long criticized for promoting unrealistic beauty standards for young girls, was rebranded to be more inclusive.

Fashion brands like Forever 21, Gap and Primark have designed official clothing lines with Barbie in mind; luggage company Beis released a collection of bright pink travel gear ahead of the movie; and NYX Cosmetics released a Barbie-inspired makeup set.

Aldo, the Montreal-headquartered footwear brand, also snagged an official branding deal — a collaboration that materialized after a sneak peek of the Barbie movie was released, according to Alison Neill, the company's senior director of global brand strategy.

"We think it can sell at any time of the year, but we have certainly benefited from the cultural moment [that] Barbie is having right now," she told CBC News.

The "Barbiecore" fashion trend — which favours hot pinks and other vibrant colours — started picking up last year as Barbie re-entered the zeitgeist. Neill noted that while trends come and go, they tend to have a longer lifespan when they have a cultural tie-in.

Aldo's collection has been popular on TikTok, where the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt led to some of its success, said Neill. The company saw its e-commerce traffic increase by 48 per cent when the collection was released in late June, and its Barbie platform shoe sold out within 24 hours. (Some other products sold out within 72 hours.)

"We tried to time the collection for this launch to coincide with the kind of peak-marketing hype of the movie," Neill said.

The first Barbie trailer was released in May, along with character posters that quickly turned into an online trend when Warner Bros. released a meme-generator for fans to use.

The campaign to market the movie has only gotten louder — and pinker — since. Though, it seems, not everyone is enjoying it. 

For many, the doll's renewed relevance conjures feelings of nostalgia — one of the elements that Canadian fashion designer Hilary MacMillan tried to capture in her own Barbie-inspired clothing line. Her 15-piece capsule collection features a mix of styles for women and children — and is pink as far as the eye can see.

"We actually didn't know the film was coming out when we first were in talks about the collection, because it was back in 2021," MacMillan told CBC News from her Toronto studio.

When Barbie was announced, she said, "We were like: Here, it's coming, Barbiecore — we're going to be here."

"It's going to be an explosion of all things pink, all things Barbie. And so we felt like it was the perfect time. It all lined up perfectly for us."