1On March 9th, 959, the world's first blonde doll was officially released, and Ruth named her after her youngest daughter Barbara. From then on, the blonde was called "Barbie". For 42 years, Barbie has maintained a youthful and beautiful image, with exquisite curves and radiant. Mattel launches an average of 90 Barbie dolls every year. In order to humanize Barbie, Mattel specially designed friends, family and a boyfriend named Kenny for her. Barbie is also engaged in various occupations. She was a star, a teacher, an engineer and even a veterinarian. What fascinates children most is that Barbie has countless beautiful clothes.
Barbie is the best-selling and most popular doll for little girls in the world, setting an amazing record of selling two Barbie dolls per second. So far, more than 10 billion Barbie dolls have been sold out in 150 countries around the world. American girls aged 3 to 1 1 have an average of 10 Barbie dolls, Italian and British girls have an average of 7 Barbie dolls, French and German girls have 5 Barbie dolls, and Asian Hong Kong girls have an average of 3 Barbie dolls. Barbie has become a symbol of culture and politics.
Barbie doll was selected as the most valuable toy brand by Interbrand company, with a value as high as 2 billion dollars. The brand value is only slightly lower than the Wall Street Journal, but higher than Starbucks, Armani, Pampers, Deer and Siemens.
In the past, the image of Barbie has been controversial. For example, many people think that she is a representative of intolerance, and define the image of a woman as a woman with slightly parted lips, big breasts and a water snake waist. In addition, many people regard Barbie as a representative of another capitalist force besides Coca-Cola and McDonald's (because many Barbie appear in the form of luxury and wear gold and silver).
Nevertheless, opposition from all directions can't stop this plastic beauty who always stands on tiptoe and wears high heels. With the accumulation of time, her image and influence are still rising positively. Christopher Varaste, the author of The Face of the American Dream published in the United States, described Barbie as not only a toy, but also a representative of American women's independence, autonomy and self-expression.
In many universities in the United States, "Barbie Studies" can even become a special course to explore women's psychology, role, relationship between men and women and the interaction between women and society through Barbie phenomenon. Perhaps the biggest certainty is that at the beginning of 20 12, the American government buried Barbie in a time capsule to commemorate women's medical care work and regard her as a representative of women.
Mattel Toys produces about 150 Barbie dolls every year, of which 120 is the new model, which not only keeps up with the fashion trend, but more importantly evolves with the evolution of women's roles in the times. In the 1970s, there were hippie Barbie wearing anti-war headscarves, female astronaut Barbie, aerobic dance coach Barbie, pilots, rappers, presidential candidates and even female bodyguard Barbie. The aura of Barbie toy brand has extended to the field of mobile phones. Mattel Toys hopes that its new toy-themed mobile phone can occupy the market of girls under 14 and reproduce the glory of Barbie.
In a densely populated metropolis like new york, mobile phone shops can be seen everywhere. The entire American mobile phone market is also saturated. Several major wireless communication companies advertise in this cruel arena, "Eight Immortals cross the sea and show their magical powers": AT & amp； T sponsored the most popular program "American Idol", and let crazy listeners vote for their favorite idols with their mobile phones; T-Mobile uses Catherine Zeta-Jones, who has the reputation of "Welsh Diamond", as its spokesperson, and tells you all kinds of wonderful uses of mobile phones with a smile. Cingular, a rookie in the mobile phone market, seized the concerns of mobile phone users about telephone charges, extended the quantification time and extended the unused time of the current month to the next month.
Such marketing activities seem to capture all men, women and children, but these wireless communication companies have never been able to break through a fortress: the hearts of the younger generation. No matter how hard you rack your brains and how much you spend on advertising, it seems to have little effect. This can't attract their attention or loyalty, but it may keep them away from you. This group of young people has a strong "peer pressure". Once some opinion leaders send out messages, they can't help following them. On April 27th, 2002, Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, died of illness at the age of 85. For more than 40 years, her success story has been closely linked with Barbie, and her Barbie image has been deeply rooted in people's hearts and even become one of the symbols of American culture.
Ruth Handler was born in Denver. Her parents are Polish immigrants. She is the youngest. /kloc-At the age of 0/9, she came to Southern California and soon married her high school boyfriend.
In the mid-1940s, Ruth Handler and her husband started a company specializing in the production of wooden photo frames. Her husband designs shapes and she is in charge of marketing. From 65438 to 0945, Mr. and Mrs. Handler cooperated with their friend mattson to set up a toy company-Mattel.
At that time, children's toys were all dolls. One day, Ruth Handler suddenly saw her daughter Barbara and a little boy playing with paper-cut dolls. These paper-cut dolls were not common babies at that time, but teenagers with their own careers and identities, which made her very addicted. "Why not be a mature doll?" Handler's thinking was inspired by generation.
The road to realize this inspiration is arduous. The original name of the doll she designed was "Lily", which was introduced by a German toy company she bought at 1955. However, "Lily" is dressed as a wild and sexy woman instead of a "pure and beautiful doll", which is far from Ruth Handler's original intention.
Later, at Ruth Handler's insistence, Mattel finally accepted her idea and began to design. 1958 introduced Barbie and applied for a patent.
From 65438 to 0959, "Barbie" participated in the new york Toy Fair, and that year became a turning point in her life. Everyone was attracted by her: perfect figure, measurements of "39, 18, 33", blond hair, fresh appearance and several drawers of beautiful clothes. No one has ever seen such a toy. If it were a real person, how charming she would be!
Barbie shocked the world, and the whole world got to know Ruth Handler.
For Ruth Handler, "Barbie" is like family, because the name is named after her daughter Barbara. Not only that, Ruth Handler also found a boyfriend "Ken" for Barbie, which is the name of her youngest son.
Whenever these names are called out, Ruth Handler will feel very cordial, because she and the Barbie family have been integrated.