Barbie Doll Effects
Mattel's top-selling doll could have started a cultural revolution. Barbie could indeed be responsible for shaping gender identity and norms in American culture in particular. The demand for ethnic Barbies and themed Barbies points to the fact that all little girls, whatever their family or cultural backgrounds, are aspiring to be like Barbie. Pop star icons like Brittany Spears and Jessica Simpson bolster the Barbie image ideal. hether girls are being subliminally programmed or whether Barbie simply reflects an already extant cultural norm is up for debate. Heidi Burton states that the roots of Barbie's body image extend into antiquity (1). However, Greek statuary does not depict women who could fall flat on their faces; rather, the artists of antiquity portray the physical body far more realistically than Mattel does. Perhaps Barbie is a manifestation of changing norms and ideals, but it seems that the Barbie-doll body ideal….

" The poem used heart wrenching language to describe one young girl's constant attempts at and eventual frustration towards living up to society's ideals. This can be seen when after being "advised to play coy... exercise, diet, smile and wheedle" the girl's "good nature wore out like a fan belt."
Towards the end of Herbert's poem the speaker experiences a revelation, which occurs when the speaker feels that God has spoken to him. Once he realizes that God loves him enough to consider him as His "child" then the speaker no longer feels any resentment towards his Master. He thus becomes more morally conscious of continuing to fulfill his Christian duties. Piercy's poem ends with the girl's eventual suicide and funeral, which leads to the story's sad irony that even though the girl hoped to escape society's ideals regarding womanhood through death, it is only after she died that society came….

Barbies, Ourselves" and "Barbie, G.I. Joe, and Play in the 1960's," Emily Praeger and Gary ross, respectively, discuss the cultural importance of children's toy dolls, and of Barbie and G.I. Joe in particular, although from different perspectives. Praeger focuses primarily on messages about femininity, lifestyle, appearance and personal identity absorbed by little girls as they play with, dress, and acquire new outfits for their Barbies; ross explores the advent of Barbie and G.I. Joe as early consumer objects for children and the durability (although less so than for G.I. Joe than for Barbie) of their popularity.
At the beginning of her essay, Praeger states that upon first learning Barbie had been designed by a man, "suddenly a lot of things made sense to me . . . Let's be honest: Barbie looks like someone who got her start at the Playboy mansion. She could be a regular guest on the….

Barbie's official website does feature an adult doll collection of "Dolls of the orld" which has a slightly more diverse range of images, but even these dolls are fairly uniform in style: the Asian doll is decked out in a midriff-bearing sexy, sari, for example, but looks just like a 'regular' Barbie.
In terms of body image, the typical Barbie doll has branched out to slightly more diverse interests than fashion: Barbie now skis and surfs, and even rides dirt bikes. Barbie is athletic, as well as feminine, in the official image she projects to young girls, suggests that one can be outdoorsy and girlish at once. Barbie's "I can be" collection features a Barbie news anchor and computer engineer, the latter in plastic pink 'geek chic' glasses. Barbie's adult line now features less artificial looking dolls that are supposed to represent famous characters from film and fiction, including the….

Nairn sees these Barbies as being tortured to destroy the doll's perfection, but the same children (I have noticed from observing female relatives) may demand a new Barbie, even after treating the old one carelessly.
Additionally, not all Barbies are disposed of. In fact, there is a thriving industry of adults who collect Barbies. These Barbies embody characters from famous old films, new films, or characters from around the world. Even some Barbies marketed at younger girls that are reasonably priced like those of the Twilight series of Barbies, are clearly not disposable. Barbies run the gamut from the cheap to the beautifully coiffured, yet all of them suggest a model of femininity that is similar: adult and girlish at the same time. Even as early as the 1960s, according to the website "Barbie's Career History," Barbie was used to embody 'acceptable' female occupations for young women, including that of….

Barbies, Ourselves
Emily Prager's "Our Barbies, Ourselves" examines the impact that the Barbie doll has had on American culture, perceptions of gender, and heterosexual relationships. Prager begins by noting that Barbie was designed by a man, a fact that makes sense to Prager given the outrageous physical proportions of the doll. As she states, Barbie "looks like someone who got her start at the Playboy Mansion," (766). Barbie's body is completely out of proportion and unrealistic, even if she had breast augmentation surgery. In fact, Prager suggests that the current fad of breast enlargement might be related to the subconscious desire to look more like Barbie. Barbie, the author suggests, has influenced generations of women and programmed them to try to look a certain way.

In her analysis of the doll's cultural, social, and psychological implications, Prager investigates the potentially sinister motives behind the doll's creation, even if those motives were….

S. woman." (288).
In response to this negative impact of Barbie not being found in the 7 1/2 to 8-1/2-year-old girls, the researchers admit that the finding was unanticipated and assert that, "For these older girls, if they have already internalized the thinness ideal, then the depiction of a full body could represent a possible, but feared, future self." (290)

The study is weak in several areas. The research sample is small, predominately white and middle class and comes from the same geographic region, causing one to wonder how much socio-economic factors play a role in the results of this study. it's not clear if the use of picture books rather than just dolls introduced bias into the study. Clearly, the researchers tried to emulate similar scenes for Barbie and Emme, but there are differences such as there as the use of an image of Barbie in the supermarket and Emme in….

Mattel Faced in China
In 2009 Mattel opened a six-story House of Barbie in Shanghai, expecting it to be an enormous hub for an emerging market in China. However, just two years later Mattel was forced to close the doors on the $30 million facility. This paper will explain why Mattel failed to make an impact with its House of Barbie in Shanghai. It will show the problems that the company faced going in, which it failed to sufficiently consider, and how those problems might have been overcome.

The main points that this paper will examine are the specific market problems that Mattel faced by opening its store in China as well as the cause of the failure in terms of values and attitudes, gender differences, polite behavior expectations, forms of communication, importance of emotion, and education. The last points will focus on recommendations. In short, the American company expected the….

BABIE AND GILS' BODY IMAGE
Does Barbie Make Girls Want to Be Thin? The Effect of Experimental

Exposure To Images of Dolls on the Body Image of

to 8-Year-old Girls

Jill Someone

BABIE AND GILS' BODY IMAGE

BABIE AND GILS' BODY IMAGE

Does Barbie Make Girls Want to Be Thin? The Effect of Experimental Exposure To Images of Dolls on the Body Image of 5- to 8-Year-old Girls

I'm fat. I want to be thinner. I want longer legs. I want a perkier butt and breasts. I want straight hair. I want curly hair. I want a smaller nose. I want more toned calves. I wish I were taller. These are very familiar thoughts to most girls and a lot of boys, too. These thoughts plagued me most heavily during and immediately after puberty. I was embarrassed about my maturing body and wished I were developing faster while simultaneously wishing I weren't developing at all. It's an important….

Barbie Lost Her Groove
Mattel- why managers changed their decision-making over time, and the kinds of cognitive errors therein

A formidable business intelligence gathering program identifies threats in good time. However, according to George Day, intelligence is only one aspect of the whole. Day has studied numerous business giants that failed to pick cues from the market and paid dearly for such flips. Day is a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School. There is need to have both human and technological systems to deal with and interpret data. You also need the know-how to deal with the information. Mattel stumbled at this point. Several ex Mattel managers such as Bruce; a Bruce Stain; the chief officer in charge of operations and the head of Mattel globally from 1997 to 1999, and consultants such as Day confirm this fact. According to expert analysis, two factors weakened Mattel's reaction. One….

Advertising
Company Overview

Mattel is a producer of children's toys, including the well-known industry brands Fisher Price, Barbie and Hot Wheels. The company has strategic partnerships with several other major brands such as Disney, WWE, Nickelodeon and Warner Bros. The company did nearly $6.5 billion in revenue in the last fiscal year, and turned a profit of just of $900 million. Nearly half of its revenues come from international markets.

The Barbie brand is the most important for the company, with just over $1 billion in annual revenues. The company's marketing is focused around the end-of-year, when gift-buying for children reaches its peak. The company utilizes most forms of media for its advertising, including traditional 30-second television spots. Mattel spent $733.2 million, or 12.2% of net sales, on its marketing efforts in the last fiscal year (Mattel 2014 Annual eport). In terms of distribution, its three largest customers are Walmart, Toys Us….

Anna Quindlen's "The Name is Mine," the author uses a personal anecdote to convey her experiences grappling with battling patriarchy. Marge Piercy presents a much more pessimistic view of female empowerment in "Barbie Doll," a poem in which the central subject is completely consumed by the catastrophic effects of a sexist society. Both these works of literature make powerful social commentary about the source and nature of sexism and patriarchy. However, Quindlen and Piercy use dramatically different literary strategies to achieve their respective, unitary goals. In "The Name is Mine," Quindlen uses the first person point-of-view and a straightforward narrative prose. In "Barbie Doll," Piercy uses a poem written in third person. In "The Name is Mine," Quindlen's tone is lively and upbeat, ultimately optimistic and encouraging. On the contrary, Piercy's tone in "Barbie Doll" is bitter, scathing, and righteously angry. Their tone and point-of-view might be different but….

The tone is personalistic and is parallel with the narrative style used by the author in her analysis. Furthermore, McDonough's choice of words is simplistic, primarily because she aims to give understanding to her audience the main arguments she presented. All throughout the article, there is a conscious effort to sensitively discuss the issue for the sake of its audience, which are primarily, women, and secondarily, parents of female children.
Contrasting McDonough's essay with that of the editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled, "Beauty and the Barbie Doll," it is evident that the arguments presented are oversimplified. A reader may get the idea that what the editorial points out is the argument, "Barbie is the only factor that strongly influences female children's concept of beauty and sex." It does not take into account other factors that may influence children's attitudes and behavior, such as what McDonough centers on in….

Barbie doll top ten viral commercials as of 2013 rely mostly on You Tube, Dailymotion, Facebook and Twitter.
The third doll brand, subject to this study is Bratz. As evidenced from the four commercials assessed in the course of this study, Bratz deploys a slightly different mode of advertising, which involves marketing adult entertainment to kids. Social psychologists have argued that this strategy is very effective within the realm of modern-day material culture. Adult entertainment, which often involves depiction of violence, sex, strong language and obscenity, has become very popular among children

. For Bratz, one of the most popular commercials involves cowgirls in Texas fighting crime modelled along the risque film group Charlie's Angels. The use of guns to depict violence is central to this commercial, which has since increased the brand's digital reach through pervasive advertising on TV and in the internet. In a similar commercial, Bratz acquired the….

B.

Human development and evolution across all cultures mean that there will be a gap between older generations, who tend to cling to outdated ideals and paradigms, and younger generations, who tend away from the traditional and towards new developments. While there are merits in both positions, subscribers to each respective position seldom see the value in the viewpoint of the other. Hence, the conflicts that arise are often difficult to manage and impossible to overcome.

Such conflict is clearly portrayed in Nash Candelaria's "El Patron," and also to a degree in Oscar Hijuelos's "Visitors, 1965. n the former, the traditional viewpoint is represented by Lola's father, Senor Martinez, while the more progressive viewpoint is represented by the other three major characters in the story; Lola, her brother Tito, and her husband, the narrator of the story. The difference in viewpoints can be seen on a variety of platforms, including gender roles,….