Parodies and lawsuits




Barbie has frequently been the target of parody:

  • Mattel sued artist Tom Forsythe over a series of photographs called Food Chain Barbie in which Barbie winds up in a blender. Mattel lost the lawsuit and was forced to pay Forsythe's legal costs.
  • In 2011, Greenpeace parodied Barbie, calling on Mattel to adopt a policy for its paper purchases that would protect the rainforest. According to Phil Radford, Greenpeace Executive Director, the organization's “forensic testing and global research show how Mattel products are using mixed tropical hardwood from Asia Pulp and Paper, a company that is ripping down the paradise forests of Indonesia… Sumatran tigers, elephants and orangutans are being pushed to the brink of extinction because Mattel simply isn’t interested in the origins of Barbie’s pink box.” Four months later, Mattel adopted a paper sustainability policy.
  • Mattel filed a lawsuit in 2004 in the U.S. against Barbara Anderson-Walley, a Canadian business owner whose nickname is Barbie, over her website, which sells fetish clothing. The lawsuit was dismissed.
  • The Tonight Show with Jay Leno displayed a "Barbie Crystal Meth Lab".citation needed
  • Saturday Night Live aired a parody of the Barbie commercials featuring "Gangsta Bitch Barbie" and "Tupac Ken". In 2002, the show also aired a skit, which starred Britney Spears as Barbie's sister Skipper.
  • In November 2002, a New York judge refused an injunction against the British-based artist Susanne Pitt, who had produced a "Dungeon Barbie" doll in bondage clothing.
  • Aqua's song "Barbie Girl" was the subject of the lawsuit Mattel v. MCA Records, which Mattel lost in 2002, with Judge Alex Kozinski saying that the song was a "parody and a social commentary".
  • Two commercials by automobile company Nissan featuring dolls similar to Barbie and Ken was the subject of another lawsuit in 1997. In the first commercial, a female doll is lured into a car by a doll resembling G.I. Joe to the dismay of a Ken-like doll, accompanied by Van Halen's "You Really Got Me". In the second commercial, the "Barbie" doll is saved by the "G.I. Joe" doll after she is accidentally knocked into a swimming pool by the "Ken" doll to Kiss's "Dr. Love". The makers of the commercial said that the dolls' names were Roxanne, Nick, and Tad. Mattel claimed that the commercial did "irreparable damage" to its products, but settled.
  • In 1993, a group calling itself the Barbie Liberation Organization secretly modified a group of Barbie dolls by implanting voice boxes from G.I. Joe dolls, then returning the Barbies to the toy stores from where they were purchased.
  • Malibu Stacy from The Simpsons episode "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy" (1994).

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