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TGIF

I decided to close this week with a song.

Just click on TGIF and you're there.

If you don't like this, you don't like me.

Is Barbie the New Barbie

Written by Lisa Hanock-Jasie and originally published March 11, 2009, at The Halo Project ~ Enlightened Market Communications ~ New York.

Is 50-Barbie Still a "10" for Mattel?

If you hadn’t heard, Barbie had a birthday. Yup, in March the plastic hottie celebrated her big 5-0.

To celebrate, Mattel-Our Toys-Barbie promoted the heck out of its idollic (sic) Ms. B, grabbing nearly as much media attention as the First Lady’s bare arms, the $40,000 Jennifer Aniston haircut and the Cathay Pacific tantrum lady combined.

And while Mattel’s hot, flashy babe celebrate, this hot-flashing Baby Boomer wonders how, if not why, Barbie always seems to transcend the decades. After all, the anorexic-looking model has become a fashion don’t, the bejeweled beauty crown has somewhat tarnished, and recently a West Virginia state lawmaker has introduced legislation to ban the sale of Barbie and similar dolls who he finds promote physical beauty to the detriment of girls’ intellectual and emotional development. But through all this, the ubiquitous pink one continues to endure the winds of change.

Admittedly Barbie’s sense and sensibility perplexes me. She came out of the Sixties Feminist Movement practically unscathed. She later entered the world of business with her own successful beauty salon. Like such notable fashionistas as Donna Karan/DKNY, Kimora Lee Simmons and Daisy Fuentes who have taken large space at Macy’s, JC Penney, and Kohl’s, Barbie has earned her rightful place at FAO Schwartz. She not only has been able to ascend the glass ceiling, she earns well more than the average woman’s salary of 80 cents on the dollar,

The question is: How has Barbie continued to mirror the images in advertising, film, and MTV, from early days of Mad Men to Madison Avenue?

The answer: Mattel has continued to play its Barbie brand card well.

Barbie’s 50th party celebration is just another example of her parent company’s integrated strategic/creative success. First it rounded up all the usual rich and famous subjects, including Karl Largerfeld who custom-dressed Barbie for display in the windows of Paris’s trendy Colette boutique. And a "Barbie room" was being installed on the first floor to present Jeremy Scott’s new collection of Barbie clothing.

Next there came Fashion Week, where Barbie seemed to dominate the runways, with a variety of designers dressing their models as the female wonder. Even Tarina Tarantino debuted a Barbie Doll collection.

The Wall Street Journal published a piece on Mattel’s New Shanghai Barbie Store, a six-story emporium complete with a spa, a cosmetics counter, a cocktail bar and offerings from chi-chi designers Vera Wang, Patricia Field, and Judith Lieber. Barbie’s sleeveless ivory wedding dress from Ms. Wang costs $15,000.

I read in The Motor Report about the deal between Fiate Centro Stile and Mattel, who joined forces to offer a special Fiat 500 dedicated to the "pink one," formerly known for her Ferrari.

Even the hospitality industry jumped on the Barbie "brandwagon." According to Hotelchatter.com , the Milwaukee Iron Horse Hotel was throwing a Barbie birthday bash, inviting guests to bring a Barbie to its Branded bar, entitling them to drink specials and their very own pink boa. And if you’re headed to the UK for more celebrating, the May Fair London’s pink Schiaparelli Suite is ready for your arrival.

And seemingly unfettered by the mortgage industry climate, Mattel moved Barbie into the fire and flood zones of sunny Malibu, building an expensive 3,500 sq. ft. manse overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I hope Mattel provides her plenty of insurance. According to a report in Associated Press, Barbie’s real-life Malibu Dream House designed by Jonathan Adler boasts wall-to-wall pink flooring that would make even pop singer Pink blush, a closet full of pink peep-toe heels that Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods would feel comfortable in, and a pink Volkswagen New Beetle with motorized pop-up vanity in the trunk that a Mary Kay saleswoman would die for. An Andy Warhol portrait of Barbie valued at over $200,000 hangs on the wall.

Following the festivities, the majority of Barbie’s custom decor will be shipped to the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, to furnish a special pink-tinted Barbie Suite soon available for bachelorette parties, birthdays or anyone who wanted to live the Barbie dream. Other items will be available from the "Jonathan Adler Loves Barbie" collection would launch in September.

As always, Mattel remains zealous in its attempts to protect Barbie’s image over the years, launching a series of perceived copyright violation and defamation lawsuits, including the Danish group Aqua, whose hit song "Barbie Girl" had lyrics, like "Kiss me here, touch me there, hanky panky." Mattel lost.

This all being said, we all know that if Barbie were a REAL woman, her physical proportions would have her toppling over the runway. I imagine if Tim Gunn were consulted, he would tell Barbie to dress less like a 21-year old and more like the graceful, aging woman she has become. And while skimpy tight fashions may work for the Real Housewives Orange County (ugh!), bet your bottom dollar that even Rachel Zoe would prefer to see Barbie appear like Elizabeth Hurley rather than Elizabeth Berkeley in Showgirls on the red carpet.
I even hear Barbie may be getting a tattoo soon. Who knows where? Maybe Ken.


http://thehaloproject.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/is-50-barbie-still-a-10-for-mattel/

TGIF

What a week!

Clicking to read all the news, updating my LinkedIn and Facebook status, writing my best 140 for @lisahanockjasie AND reading all the next-best lines @tweetmealine on Twitter...

...I worked my fingers to the bone.

Next up?

Starting it all over again next week, of course.

Enjoy the weekend!

Oh Happy Day... or not

Too much to say today, no time to say it.

Cya Friday.

Advising the Ill-Advised

As a public relations expert, I would like to offer some not-so-well-liked personalities in the news some sage words of advice:

Fire your publicists!

I have never trusted in the notion that "There is no such thing as bad PR." Nor do I believe that "All publicity is good."

So to all you recent fools, er, folks making headlines, let me say your PR stinks! It's stupid. It's bad. Get rid of it.

Right now I'd like to address three of those so many other fools getting BAD press:

To A-Rod: You would've been far wiser to kiss-off for a while, rather than kiss-on yourself in the mirror (READ: Details Magazine).

To Sarah Palin: You would've been far wiser to have kept your mouth tightly shut, rather than opening it wide to discuss pal-ing around with terrorists, lipstick on a pig, Joe-the-(not)Plumber and, of course, Thanksgiving.

To Octo-mom: You would've been far wiser not to give birth. End of story.

To quote our 16th President Abraham Lincoln: "What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself."

Lá Fhéile Pádraig (READ: St. Paddy's Day)

As the blessing goes in the Emerald Isle:

Wherever you go and whatever you do, may the luck of the Irish be there with you.

Amen.

Now show me the money!

Monday, Monday

The Dow goes down just a bit.

Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" goes to Michigan.

President Obama to go on Leno.

Anna Nicole Smith's psychiastrist goes to jail.

AIG goes for bonuses with bailout monies.

Meghan McCain goes up against Coulter and Ingraham.

Elvis memorabilia goes to auction.

Don Imus goes to the hospital. Sigh.

And an Oregon man named Rip Van Winkle goes to work.

Ask yourself, do you feel lucky?

Don't let black cats cross your path.
Walk around an open ladder.
Step over the cracks.
It's Friday the 13th!

So in the words of Dirty Harry:
You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?

Me? Not so much.

So the rabbit's foot goes with me when I pass through the upside down horseshoe over the door. On the street I'll be picking up all the pennies I see Abe's face up and shoving 'em into my pocket with a great big wish.

I'll be keeping my eye out (and up) for a red-chested robin; the lady bugs get to stay put on my arm, and if you see a four-leaf clover, it's mine.

To heck with a little bit, I want lotsa luck.

Reckoning Day for Bernie Madoff

UPDATE: IT'S DIRECTLY TO TO JAIL, UNABLE TO PASS GO-HOME. BERNIE TRADES (PUN INTENDED) PENTHOUSE FOR 8x7 PRISON CELL.

BYE BYE, BERNIE!

As the bell sounded on Wall Street, the sounds of heliCOPters whirring above New York's Center Street courthouse was deafening. It's reckoning day for the infamous lion of ponzi schemes, Bernie Madoff.

In front of his prosecutors this morning, Bernie plead "guilty" to all 11 criminal counts, which range from money-laundering and mail fraud to perjury. Procedural issues follow before the judge pronounces sentence, up to 150 years jail time as the gavel falls. That's more than 75 years per $65 billion fraud, if you do the math.

Well, he's always looked good in a pinstripe suit.

Bernie faces-off face-to-face this afternoon with the financial victims of his cowardly gray-haired mane. Business colleagues, not-for-profits, close friends and relatives. Oh my! All are now six degrees closer to Kevin Bacon, who along with wife Kyra Sedgewick are life-savings casualties of his ponze.

Right now his attorneys are arguing he stay pent-up in his luxury penthouse, at least for now. Way I see it, it's a weak end at Bernie's.

Emancipation Redux

Opening a gold pocket watch that belonged to Abraham Lincoln, the Smithsonian's National Museum of History discovered a message secretly engraved there by a watchmaker who repaired it in 1861.

It was the first watch that Lincoln ever owned.

The inscription: Jonathan Dillon April 13- 1861 Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. J Dillon...April 13- 1861 Washington thank God we have a government Jonth Dillon.

As in America's previous era of discord -- unifying the country, the civil rights debate -- ordinary citizens always are affected by events of the day.

The times they are a changin'. Always!

READ: New York Times, Timeless Lincoln Memento Is Revealed by Robin Pogrebin (3/10/09)

Color me sad

Wall Street?
Main street?
More like Sesame Street these days.

The dollar bill isn't worth a buck.
Our environment isn't clean.

As Kermit has been known to sing,
it's not easy being green.

NO!

The DOW is falling and it can't get up

And that's why I use Life Alert.