Comments on: Barbie crashes and burns in China

By: Dirk Ahrens

Dirk Ahrens — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:38:00 +0000

This is a 2 year old story. The store closed already in early 2011. Great bb and CNN catched up.

By: jbond

jbond — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 09:36:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZyhrYis509A#! Obviously

By: jbond

jbond — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 07:01:00 +0000

Bruce Sterling, Zeitgeist, 2000, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zeitgeist-Bruce-Sterling/dp/0553104934/ref=la_B000AQ0S3S_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1353653902&sr=1-12

The “G-7″ girls, the cheapest, phoniest all-girl band. There’s The Japanese One, The French One, The American One, The …

That stuff sticks in the mind and gets re-used.

By: Dave Jenkins

Dave Jenkins — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:27:00 +0000

I counted at least 5 ethnic stereotypes in your post. Congratulations.

By: Dave Jenkins

Dave Jenkins — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:24:00 +0000

Actually, it has a fair amount of looking “Western”. Yes, pale skin = upper class (not suntanned from working in the fields), but there is also a huge market in cosmetics and plastic surgery for a “Western” look.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:42:00 +0000

Yes.

By: Spitty Sumo

Spitty Sumo — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 16:50:00 +0000

china’s kurhn dolls have been successful and fall more into that “cute” aesthetic. they’re sort of like the japanese licca-chan dolls (also more successful than barbie over there) in that they’re younger-looking and don’t generally look like a bunch of streetwalkers. barbie originally didn’t do well in japan, either; she was made younger and more anime-looking over there until the 90s, i think. pic of of the original bandai barbie and ken:

By: ravenlunatick

ravenlunatick — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 13:18:00 +0000

Bishounen Ken! Better than creepy helmet-hair Ken…

By: peregrinus

peregrinus — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:32:00 +0000

It’s real life, and I’ve seen it, and I have relatives who’ve had eyes altered for the “double lid” look or whatever it is that chinese women wish they had from western faces.

By: TheMudshark

TheMudshark — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:25:00 +0000

Hmm … seems it says so in the news. CNN no less. Can´t argue with that, can you?

By: paulcarcosa

paulcarcosa — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:10:00 +0000

“Plastic surgery boom as Asians seek ‘western’ look”

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/19/korea.beauty/index.html

By: ImmutableMichael

ImmutableMichael — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:05:00 +0000

I was confused for a moment – i thought you’d just invented a machine for constructing boy bands.

By: Chentzilla

Chentzilla — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 10:43:00 +0000

Toycott, did you just invent this word?

By: Ping Kee

Ping Kee — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 09:19:00 +0000

Actually, one key aspect of Mattel’s failure is that it rented six floors to sell dolls in a “fashionable part of Shanghai”. Shanghai is not as expensive as Hong Kong (where Burberry rents a 7,000 square foot shop for just under USD 1 million per month), but I’ll bet Mattel was paying at least half that for its six floors. For dolls… You can analyse it all you want, but the real reason for this fiasco is good old fashioned stupidity.

By: Ashen Victor

Ashen Victor — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 08:48:00 +0000

Cant wait for Yamamba Barbie and Gyaruo Ken!

By: jbond

jbond — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 08:46:00 +0000

Mattel needs to think outside the box here. Introduce a new line of Barbie “Friends and Companions”; ethnic stereotypes that can be sold back to their source cultures as well as sold in the USA. Back in the source culture, Barbie can be the obnoxious tourist friend who’s come to stay.

So in this case we’d have Bi Bah and Sum Yung Guy, middle class, aspiring upper class Chinese immigrants, Sum Yung Guy used to work with Ken and Barbie at the startup in SOMA but has been laid off. While Bi Bah makes ends meet by working as a waitress in Chinatown. There’s loads of potential here for red and blue silk long dresses with the thigh length side slits.

By: nachoproblem

nachoproblem — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 08:15:00 +0000

What can I say, the Japanese make better toys. Might have something to do with a love of… well, not objects per se, but craftsmanship. Closest thing we have to that anymore is our love of money. You see where that gets you.

By: BarBarSeven

BarBarSeven — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 07:49:00 +0000

Funny, but this isn’t the first time a toy company attempted a toy launch of a major Western brand that fell flat for what now seem like very obvious reasons.

In the late 1960s, Japanese toy maker Takara licensed the G.I. Joe figure to sell & market in Japan as “Combat Joe.” Can anyone think of why a U.S. military figure would fail in 1960s Japan? It’s got nothing to do with a crazy war in Southeast Asia or the role U.S. soldiers played in post-World War II Japan would it?

So what did Takara do? They made lemonade out of lemons and created the Henshin Cyborg line of action figures that were based on the G.I. Joe body-type, but were unique & cool: Transparent, cyborg-like & interchangeable. That line was very popular in Japan & led to the Microman line which then was imported to the U.S. as Micronauts. History is here:
http://www.microforever.com/henshinindex.htm

But yeah, branding sometimes blinds people to obvious culture clashes in product lines overseas.

By: nachoproblem

nachoproblem — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 07:31:00 +0000

A whole lot of somebody.

By: nachoproblem

nachoproblem — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 07:30:00 +0000

I’m being a jerk. I originally said “white” and I edited it to say “Caucasian” just to mess with Sedan. Of course, I assume he was being gratuitously literal to mess with me.

But yes, we know that Chinese and other Asians have a thing about pale skin, and it has nothing to do with looking Western. So there.

By: Carlos Duplar Mello

Carlos Duplar Mello — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 07:19:00 +0000

And Ken reported it on CNN? I see what you did there

By: Karl Heine

Karl Heine — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 07:16:00 +0000

So you think skin whitening is supposed to make you look more Caucasian? I don’t think that’s the case usually.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 06:02:00 +0000

The problem isn’t that the Chinese don’t want Barbie. The problem is that they were not MADE to want Barbie. Somebody in marketing is fired.

By: SedanChair

SedanChair — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 06:01:00 +0000

Not necessarily

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110329225156.htm

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:32:00 +0000

Believe it or not, there are still people who think that the quaintly costumed villagers of the rest of the planet are desperate to adopt US culture. You’d think that a visit to the local mall would disabuse them of the notion, but they probably think that Hello Kitty is just a division of Mattel. If they ever figured out that Kitty comes from the same place as those job-stealing little cars, they’d organize a toycott.

By: Sekino

Sekino — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:28:00 +0000

I’m sure the billboard with the 12′ tall close-up of Barbie’s head didn’t help. It makes the dead, frozen expression and unitooth extra creepy. “welcome… to… my… dreeeaaaam… house…”

By: Jody S

Jody S — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:18:00 +0000

I’m amazed they haven’t made a Harajuku Barbie yet.

By: nachoproblem

nachoproblem — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:16:00 +0000

They also might have overestimated how much Chinese girls want to look Caucasian. (facepalm)

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 04:36:00 +0000

Well first of all, good. And point B: Who the fuck thought Barbie dolls would go over in China? Really?? How much do THESE marketing geniuses get paid I wonder. FTW.