Speaker 1: This is iconic fun. I mean, come on the famous.
Speaker 2: Elevator, all right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is a really fun part of the
Speaker 3: Design Center and celebration of a part of Barbie's dreamhouse.
Speaker 4: I'm Emily Chang, and this is the circuit. The most
Speaker 4: popular doll of all time is finally getting her big
Speaker 4: screen debut. Barbie is an icon, a legend, a cultural
Speaker 4: lightning rod, and an eleven and a half inch piece
Speaker 4: of plastic who's represented and projected are biggest aspirations and
Speaker 4: flaws for more than sixty years. Her movie debut marks
Speaker 4: a big bet by Mattel, which hopes to turn legacy
Speaker 4: brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels and Rockham Sockam into blockbuster franchises.
Speaker 4: Think Marvel if they're lucky. With so much riding on
Speaker 4: her tiny but mighty shoulders, I've stepped into Barbie Land
Speaker 4: to find out more about how her makers are inventing
Speaker 4: her next act. We start with a visit to the
Speaker 4: Mattel Design Center with President and COO Richard Dixon to
Speaker 4: get a behind the scenes look at how Barbie is
Speaker 4: made and has evolved over the decades.
Speaker 3: The feedback that we were getting from consumers was she
Speaker 3: just didn't seem relevant.
Speaker 4: I also meet two of the minds behind Barbie's new looks,
Speaker 4: Kim Colmoney and Robert Best to discover all the work
Speaker 4: and experimentation that goes into designing a more inclusive and
Speaker 4: diverse collection.
Speaker 2: Will you want to pull them off? And Tommy does story?
Speaker 2: Anyone that speaks to me? I mean, gosh, they're all
Speaker 2: so beautiful.
Speaker 5: Pretty incredible, Okay, pretty incredible, braid.
Speaker 4: Here's the circuit from inside Mattel's design studio.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Big Garage. This is the design center, okay,
Speaker 3: and right when you come in, you see, as I said,
Speaker 3: a tribute to our founders, Ruth and Elliott.
Speaker 2: Okay. And what did she want to create?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: What was the goal and.
Speaker 3: The origin story of the company was an entrepreneurial couple
Speaker 3: trying to create essentially the future of play Barbie was.
Speaker 1: Of course, Ruth Handler's claim to fame.
Speaker 3: She was inspired by watching her daughter play out through
Speaker 3: paper dolls, imagining that she could be anything that she.
Speaker 1: Wanted to be.
Speaker 3: But what she realized also was her son Ken could
Speaker 3: also play out with action figures and figures, and Barbie,
Speaker 3: of course, was invented with the idea that a girl
Speaker 3: should have those aspiration and inspirational ideas as well. And
Speaker 3: so the invention of the doll was really about Ruth's
Speaker 3: connection with her own daughter, inspiring her to imagine that
Speaker 3: she could be anything that she wanted to be.
Speaker 2: Okay, and Barbie wasn't her daughter's name, right.
Speaker 1: Barbie, Barbie was Kenneth.
Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah, Barbara and Kenneth where Ruth and Elliott's son
Speaker 3: and daughter.
Speaker 2: Okay, just blew my mind. Yeah, that's cool. All right.
Speaker 3: So as you walk through the Design Center, it's a
Speaker 3: huge building with engineers and creatives and artists and designers
Speaker 3: from fashion and automotive and just an incredible place of
Speaker 3: pure creativity. And really that's why I reference it as
Speaker 3: just a bigger.
Speaker 1: Girl, big garage.
Speaker 2: And you've been working here for a pretty long time.
Speaker 3: I have been working here for a pretty long time.
Speaker 3: This was actually my second chapter. I left and somehow
Speaker 3: they got me back in. And of course I've been
Speaker 3: here now a combination of eighteen years.
Speaker 2: So you've personally seen a lot of Barbie's sisty.
Speaker 3: I've seen a lot of Barbie's history, and I've been
Speaker 3: fortunate enough to be a part of that history as well,
Speaker 3: and our job here is to certainly leave it better
Speaker 3: than we found it and create the next generation of
Speaker 3: leadership to take it on to the next level.
Speaker 2: Wasn't she based on a gag gift?
Speaker 3: Well, there's a lot of narratives with Barbie, and Barbie
Speaker 3: is a cultural conversation. But as far as we are
Speaker 3: concerned in the context of how Ruth spoke about Barbie,
Speaker 3: and that's the quote, my whole philosophy of Barbie was
Speaker 3: that through the doll, the little girl could be anything
Speaker 3: she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that
Speaker 3: a woman has choices, and the fashions themselves at that
Speaker 3: time was really about girls experiencing what their choice would
Speaker 3: be and what their aspirational life would take them, and
Speaker 3: ultimately how the brand was invented.
Speaker 4: And I didn't realize so as I understand it was
Speaker 4: she the first adult doll.
Speaker 3: She wasn't necessarily an adult doll. Never said she's an
Speaker 3: adult doll.
Speaker 2: Well, she looks like she looks.
Speaker 1: Like a grown up, but she was actually a teenage.
Speaker 3: She was positioned as a teenager, okay, and her intent
Speaker 3: was really for.
Speaker 1: Younger girls, younger at that time.
Speaker 3: It's called it tween to be inspired, to imagine that
Speaker 3: she could be anything that she wanted to be, and
Speaker 3: ultimately the doll itself when it was taken to New
Speaker 3: York Toy Fair to be presented to retailers, was really
Speaker 3: regarded as this adult toy, if you will. That got
Speaker 3: a lot of pushback from retailers at the time. That
Speaker 3: being said, with the pursuit that Ruth in particular had
Speaker 3: around the empowerment position that she took with this doll,
Speaker 3: it did break through and the industry actually played back
Speaker 3: the definition which became the fashion doll, and that's how
Speaker 3: the fashion all market segment was invented.
Speaker 2: The first Barbie was a fashion model, right.
Speaker 1: The first Barbie was a fashion model, that's right.
Speaker 2: And then she expanded and then.
Speaker 3: She evolved into many, many different careers and ultimately today
Speaker 3: with thousands of careers represented and today is the most
Speaker 3: diverse and inclusive doll brand in the world.
Speaker 2: So she certainly had a complicated history.
Speaker 4: How do you reconcile that sort of preserving the history
Speaker 4: but also rewriting it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the world that talks about Barbie the way
Speaker 3: they are inspired to talk about Barbie. It's our job
Speaker 3: to make sure that we present Barbie based on her
Speaker 3: meaning and purpose and that she matters in people's lives
Speaker 3: as an inspiring tool for girls and boys around the world.
Speaker 4: She used to hold a book that said don't eat, Like,
Speaker 4: how do you think about that?
Speaker 3: The brand has always had controversial moments in the context
Speaker 3: of some of the toys, either that we invented or
Speaker 3: some of the narratives that were associated with the brand.
Speaker 4: Right, there was another Barbie that had a book, or
Speaker 4: there was another a teen Barbie I think that said
Speaker 4: math class is tough.
Speaker 2: Yikes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, there were there were lots of parts of
Speaker 3: our history that ultimately, in the moment that they were created,
Speaker 3: probably with the right intent, either were misinterpreted or ultimately,
Speaker 3: you know, became part of a cultural conversation that had
Speaker 3: more negativity associated with it. Now, what's interesting about our
Speaker 3: brand is we actually present the brand to inspire other
Speaker 3: imaginations to whatever they want to be.
Speaker 1: And however they think of the brand.
Speaker 3: Barbie is an open ended brand, so there is no start, middle,
Speaker 3: and end to it.
Speaker 1: It's really what you make of it.
Speaker 3: And so while there's been controversy and cultural conversations around it,
Speaker 3: our job has been to keep the brand relevant and
Speaker 3: current in the context of culture. Still an eleven and
Speaker 3: a half inch doll from nineteen fifty nine until now,
Speaker 3: but we've diversified her. We've included lots of different ways
Speaker 3: that girls can see themselves in the brand, and we
Speaker 3: take a lot of pride in the fact that we
Speaker 3: have evolved her into a meaningful conversation that matters in
Speaker 3: people's lives. So now we're entering the Barbie section of
Speaker 3: the Design Center, and of course you'll see everything Barbie,
Speaker 3: but in particular our purpose on the wall there to
Speaker 3: inspire and nurture the limitless potential in every girl. Throughout
Speaker 3: this section, here as far as you could see, is
Speaker 3: where the Barbie team sits. They work in a very collaborative,
Speaker 3: team based environment. It's very much like a fashion company
Speaker 3: in miniature version.
Speaker 4: Interesting because you're sort of your setting trends or you're
Speaker 4: taking the pulse of.
Speaker 3: Well, we're a real fashion trende. Barbie's wearing clothes. She
Speaker 3: has different looks in different outfits. Every one of them
Speaker 3: is designed by an apparel and fashion designer with backgrounds
Speaker 3: in the apparel space. We then have face painters and
Speaker 3: pattern makers and sewers and stitchers and all sorts of
Speaker 3: skill sets and talents and artisans that basically bring the
Speaker 3: brand to life much like real fashion brands.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, super cool, very cool.
Speaker 4: Especially in more recent years, you started doing consumer surveys
Speaker 4: and talking to kids about Barbie.
Speaker 2: What were they.
Speaker 3: Telling you, Well, we've gone through an evolution of the brand,
Speaker 3: and back in twenty fourteen it was really marked a
Speaker 3: pivotal moment for us where the brand was not doing
Speaker 3: well in the marketplace. The feedback that we were getting
Speaker 3: from consumers was she.
Speaker 1: Just didn't seem relevant.
Speaker 3: Not only didn't she seem relevant, but she didn't look
Speaker 3: as relevant as she had in the past. She wasn't
Speaker 3: as aspirational, and she didn't represent the intrinsic values that
Speaker 3: we were promoting. But it wasn't breaking through in terms
Speaker 3: of our audience. So we took a hard look at
Speaker 3: essentially who we were and what we were saying and
Speaker 3: turn the conversation from what was I call a brand
Speaker 3: monologue where we were telling the world what Barbie is,
Speaker 3: into a dialogue where we were actually listening to our
Speaker 3: consumer tell us what they thought of our brand. And
Speaker 3: that was hard and some of the things that we
Speaker 3: heard were difficult, that she wasn't a reflection of how
Speaker 3: the world looked, of how our world looked in terms
Speaker 3: of diversity inclusiveness. She didn't represent the career aspirational values
Speaker 3: that we had built the brand on.
Speaker 2: Did kids say that? How would kids frame that?
Speaker 3: Sort of The feedback that we got from kids was
Speaker 3: the play experience was not as fun. It didn't represent
Speaker 3: sort of real and in our world that play system
Speaker 3: is really role play and if we're not providing the
Speaker 3: right system of play for girls and kids to be inspired,
Speaker 3: then we're missing the mark. So ultimately, we took a
Speaker 3: hard look at ourselves. We diversified the brand. We introduced
Speaker 3: twenty four different skin tones represent the ethnicities around the
Speaker 3: world that girls see. We changed her body and introduced
Speaker 3: nine different shapes, tall, petite, kurvy, and etc. We kept
Speaker 3: the original, but we expanded for choice, and we started
Speaker 3: to recognize women of achievement and honor them with their
Speaker 3: own Barbie to be able to show girls you can
Speaker 3: be whoever you inspired to be based.
Speaker 1: On the accomplishments of women around the world.
Speaker 3: So highlighting those stories for girls also helped us create Thats.
Speaker 4: You didn't start releasing the new body types until twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: What do you say to folks who think it's too
Speaker 4: late for a rebrand, like it just took too long.
Speaker 3: Well, look, I think when we look at the connection
Speaker 3: that we have with those who love us and with
Speaker 3: those who are starting to understand more about the value
Speaker 3: of Barbie play, that's who we want to make sure
Speaker 3: connects to our brand. We can't please everybody. We have
Speaker 3: a strong purpose, we have a reason for being. We
Speaker 3: have a brand that matters, and it's our job to
Speaker 3: ensure that those who really respond to our play pattern
Speaker 3: are inspired by it and can feel connected in a
Speaker 3: moment where their development needs are being met.
Speaker 4: Do you think Mattel should have changed faster, Should Barbie
Speaker 4: have changed faster?
Speaker 2: In your view?
Speaker 3: Look, I think the business would have suggested that Barbie
Speaker 3: should have changed faster.
Speaker 1: For sure.
Speaker 3: A brand that has decades and decades of history, probably
Speaker 3: any one of those brands goes through, you know, cycles
Speaker 3: of peaks and pits, and we had gone through a pit. However,
Speaker 3: the work that we did to understand the dynamics of
Speaker 3: how to get out of that, reflecting back to the
Speaker 3: origin story of the brand, is really what we could
Speaker 3: be most proud of that has led.
Speaker 1: Us to today's Barbie, which is.
Speaker 3: Double where it was five years ago, is unbelievably culturally relevant,
Speaker 3: is on the cusp of this theatrical film that we
Speaker 3: couldn't be more proud of.
Speaker 4: The circuit continues after this quick break.
Speaker 3: All right, so now we're going to enter probably you know,
Speaker 3: one of the most important parts of the doll design
Speaker 3: and development process, which is.
Speaker 1: Of course Barbie's hair.
Speaker 3: Yes, come on hairport part of the play pattern, and
Speaker 3: also a really proprietary way that we design Barbie's hair.
Speaker 3: Incredible expertise, the finest of fabrics, and the various different
Speaker 3: ways that we present Barbie as the most inclusive and
Speaker 3: diversityal line in.
Speaker 1: The world, and a lot of it has to do
Speaker 1: with her hair and her look.
Speaker 3: All right, These are our amazing creators who are This
Speaker 3: is Kim who runs design for all of Barbie as.
Speaker 1: Well as other parts of the Mattel system.
Speaker 3: And this is Robert Best, one of our most famous
Speaker 3: designers in the Barbie organization, but also really an avid
Speaker 3: expert in everything Barbie has a fan following all by
Speaker 3: himself in terms of his own dollar design and we
Speaker 3: could not be more lucky to have these two on
Speaker 3: the Barbie team.
Speaker 2: So tell me about Barbie's hair.
Speaker 5: We're gonna start at the beginning of the design process, actually,
Speaker 5: so everything starts with a sketch, and it starts with
Speaker 5: the designer's vision, and then we have an incredible group
Speaker 5: of hair designers and face designers that bring the designer's
Speaker 5: vision to life in three D. And then we move
Speaker 5: into fiber choice. There's a board of colors and lens
Speaker 5: of fibers, all the varied textures.
Speaker 1: As I'm sure.
Speaker 5: You've been talking about, diversity and inclusion and representation is
Speaker 5: centered in everything that we do.
Speaker 4: What were the challenges that you face trying to make
Speaker 4: her more diverse and experiment with these materials that you've
Speaker 4: been were using for decades but then had to change.
Speaker 5: Well, and some of it's in research and development. So
Speaker 5: we develop hair fibers that are more varied than we
Speaker 5: had had in the past. And you can see here
Speaker 5: this amazing knit fiber that gives you an absolutely fantastic,
Speaker 5: authentic texture for the afro on that doll. And then
Speaker 5: we continue to do that R and D, whether it's
Speaker 5: in raids or other sorts of fibers that allow the
Speaker 5: designers and our hair designers to bring to.
Speaker 1: Life the vision of a real woman in her hair.
Speaker 5: So why don't we go see Aki, who's one of
Speaker 5: our hair rooters, and you can see how we make
Speaker 5: that magic.
Speaker 2: Let's do it, Hi Aki, This is Aki. Nice, Nice
Speaker 2: to meet you. This is an original machine that was
Speaker 2: used on the first barbies that we used. We still
Speaker 2: use the originals here to build our prototypes.
Speaker 5: And she's going to show you how we take the
Speaker 5: hair from those spools and put it into the doll.
Speaker 5: Oh my goodness, don't be afraid, because sometimes people are.
Speaker 2: It's a little districting.
Speaker 5: See how the sausage is maybe, and I don't think
Speaker 5: people think about how does that hair actually get in
Speaker 5: that head? You know. So she's going to show you
Speaker 5: so and so often what we do is we heat
Speaker 5: the heads a little bit so the plastasaol is a
Speaker 5: little softer. But then she has a needle that draws
Speaker 5: the hair fiber, which is a continuous filament into the needle,
Speaker 5: and she guides along the periphery of in the head
Speaker 5: and each stitch is locking into.
Speaker 2: The head as she goes through. It's so intricate. You
Speaker 2: just don't realize how interest okay that is.
Speaker 5: And what she'll eventually do. Once she roots the entire head,
Speaker 5: she'll then root apart line, she can root highlights in,
Speaker 5: she can begin the styling process. But each of our
Speaker 5: prototypes are done by hair working with the specifications from
Speaker 5: the designers, and we're also very specific about the number
Speaker 5: of stitches per inch. Barbie's hair is a very heroic
Speaker 5: part of the.
Speaker 2: Doll, and she's famous for her amazing hair. So is
Speaker 2: everyone who's making these doing it by hand? Or do
Speaker 2: you have machines do this in the in house factory?
Speaker 5: In house here for prototypes, we actually do them by hand.
Speaker 5: We have some automation process when we reach the manufacturing stage,
Speaker 5: but the ones that we make here while we're ideating
Speaker 5: and creating the next Barbie's are all created by hand. Okay,
Speaker 5: you'd be amazed how much handwork is actually done.
Speaker 2: Throughout the process of the creation of a Barbie.
Speaker 5: Even in manufacturing, there's handbraiding, there's other aspects just to
Speaker 5: get the design exactly right.
Speaker 2: I had no idea.
Speaker 5: Most people now, and it's a fairly fast process. I mean,
Speaker 5: within a little bit now, she'll start to speed up.
Speaker 2: I'm not telling you to.
Speaker 5: Speed up up.
Speaker 2: I'm just describing it.
Speaker 5: What She'll start to speed up and the next thing
Speaker 5: you'll see, the entire crown.
Speaker 2: Of ahead will be covered. And then there's a stage.
Speaker 5: Where she'll rush it out and it'll look like the
Speaker 5: barneys that you see on job.
Speaker 2: How do you think about, like what comes next? What
Speaker 2: should we do? What's that process?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: Do we do this? Do we do that?
Speaker 6: I think it's a collaborative process between the creative teams,
Speaker 6: the marketing team, sort of everybody just looking at ideas
Speaker 6: and looking to be as expansive as possible. We know
Speaker 6: that it's like it's not perfect, it's not like a
Speaker 6: fully finished thing. It's something that can always improve. I
Speaker 6: think you see that in terms of we are always
Speaker 6: looking at sort of what representation means and how important
Speaker 6: that is, and sort of seeing who do we serve currently,
Speaker 6: how can we serve more people better? And what does
Speaker 6: that mean. It's not always just a simple thing of
Speaker 6: a visual thing about aesthetics. It's about differently abled communities.
Speaker 6: It's about representation in its broadest forms. So we're always experimenting,
Speaker 6: talking to outside people, talking to our customers, listening to
Speaker 6: our customers, and that's how you kind of get to
Speaker 6: this idea of pushing yourself to kind of explore how
Speaker 6: that can look and how it could continue to expand
Speaker 6: because we know we're not done right. It's not like
Speaker 6: you can just kind of rest on our laurels la
Speaker 6: resting here.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I think insight instinct equals innovation, starting with insights,
Speaker 5: talking to parents, kids, families, fans, taking the instincts of
Speaker 5: our designers, some of which are newer to the brand
Speaker 5: and some have a history on the brand. That's what
Speaker 5: gets us to the innovation. All of our prototypes are handmade,
Speaker 5: but then we have to get to mass production. So
Speaker 5: then the process of all of our manufacturing sources really
Speaker 5: figuring out how to bring this to Life's great in
Speaker 5: this space, it's great in the design center, it's even
Speaker 5: better on shelf. Yeah, if we can't get it made,
Speaker 5: then the idea, you know, is art versus an actual
Speaker 5: product that can serve the consumers that love the brand.
Speaker 6: So I think it's really also like when we talk
Speaker 6: about the customer you're serving, everyone from like the oldest
Speaker 6: consumer or collectors who really like have an appreciation of details,
Speaker 6: are maybe not looking to play with this style as
Speaker 6: much as display or sort of like have it be
Speaker 6: part of their collection, whereas like a younger audience, younger kids,
Speaker 6: it's about brushing the hair, styling the hair, playing with it.
Speaker 6: So these really long hairstyles, like this incredible crimped style
Speaker 6: that would have been so fun to brush.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I did a lot of brush. Like, I
Speaker 2: did some cutting too. How do you know that I
Speaker 2: got it cut away?
Speaker 6: Yeah, Like, I think it's the whole thing of giving permission.
Speaker 6: That's the play the play aspect is like not limiting
Speaker 6: what that means and kids to find it themselves. Right,
Speaker 6: So cutting the hair is a big part of it
Speaker 6: because it's this thing of like you see it happen
Speaker 6: in real life and you're like, that seems like a
Speaker 6: good idea. I'm going to do that to Barbie. And
Speaker 6: the next thing you know, it's tears and a horrible hairstyle.
Speaker 6: I've learned a lesson.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but that's actually the best part of Barbie. Right.
Speaker 5: We put the doll in the box, but she comes
Speaker 5: to life when she gets in the hands of a kid,
Speaker 5: and that's the beauty, that's the.
Speaker 2: Magic of the Barbie brand. That's actually an amazing place
Speaker 2: to end. Thank you course, so much, good, Thank.
Speaker 4: You, thanks so much for listening to the Circuit podcast.
Speaker 4: Check out the full episode to hear more from Attel
Speaker 4: CEO Eenon Cries, the architect of the company's new content strategy.
Speaker 4: We also sit down with OSCAR nominated producer Robbie Brenner,
Speaker 4: the heavyweight behind the upcoming Barbie film. If you want
Speaker 4: even more Barbie content, check out our recent episode of
Speaker 4: Bloomberg's The Big Take to hear about Barbie's high stakes,
Speaker 4: big screen debut.
Speaker 2: I'm Emily Chank.
Speaker 4: You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Emily
Speaker 4: Chang TV. You can watch new episodes of the Circuit
Speaker 4: on Bloomberg Television or on demand by downloading the Bloomberg
Speaker 4: app to your smart TV and let us know what
Speaker 4: you think by leaving us a review. I'm your host
Speaker 4: and executive producer. Our senior producer is Lauren Ellis, Our
Speaker 4: associate producer is Lizzie Phillip. Our editor is Sebastian Escobar.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening.