I recently saw this picture in a magazine and thought OMIGOD they sell fat Barbie, I want to buy a fat Barbie.
It turns out it’s actually an anti-obesity ad (Oh Noes, DEATHFAT IS COMING FOR YOU!!!!). The tagline of the ad is "Keep obesity away from your children". There is another one with a fat superhero and one with fat pirates.
I think it’s a bit irritating but it’s mostly just bad advertising. What is the primary take-away? Are parents meant to look at this and think "Oh no, little Johnny could grow up to be a fat pirate!" Or are you not supposed to buy your kids toys that represent people with bigger bodies – oh, wait, these toys don’t exist. You can, however, purchase a Barbie Doll whose proportions are actually physically impossible to achieve, that ought to be great for your daughter.
And what do they mean "keep obesity away?" Obesity isn’t like a big giant ball of fat that chases after your kids that you swat away. What the crap?
And can we Please PLEASE for-the-love-of-all-that-is-holy PUHLEASE be for health instead of against obesity? I’m not a thin woman covered in fat. I am a fat woman and so the war on obesity is a war against me and others who look like me. We haven’t had a ton of success in wars against stuff lately, how about we try a push for what we want?
At least this gave me a really cool new LJ Icon.
There was a “Fat Barbie” ad awhile back that I loved. The Body Shop (one of my FAVORITE cosmetics companies, btw) had a Reubenesque Barbie-type character named Ruby in an ad that said “There are three billion women in the world that don’t look like supermodels and only eight who do – know your mind, love your body”. Of course, Mattel sent them a cease and desist and they had to pull it. It bummed me out because that was probably one of the most size-positive ad campaigns I’d ever seen.
Here’s a link to Body Shop founder Anita Roddick’s (RIP) blog on the ad and her relationship with the beauty industry: http://www.anitaroddick.com/readmore.php?sid=13
icon LOVE! Thanks for the link, I do remember that ad and I thought it was awesome.
http://www.bestrejectedadvertising.com/ban/A.html here is the ad, it was linked from the blog. Awesome.
*growls about anti-fat idiocy* Yeah, because it’s so easy to be a healthy tiny person… *eye-roll*
The Body Shop advertised with a fat Barbie-style doll named Ruby for a brief stretch in the ’90s. They were, of course, sued by Mattel. But, there was a huge clamor for the doll, who was proportion to be a 5’2″ size 18.
Fat Barbie looks awesome and now I want her. Probably to beat the crap out of evil things, or be a mage and throw fireballs at evil things. But whatever, she is awesome and they should sell her, or at least sell somebody who isn’t physically impossible.