Brandjack News

By Quentin Langley

After five days of silence, Ken is tweeting his anger at Barbie again. Even the tweet from 04 August was a thank you to Leonardo DiCaprio for supporting the campaign. (Is Leo going to play Ken in the movie, I wonder). Suddenly, both the Ken and Barbie accounts are active again.

I had thought that when Mattel suspended its contracts with APP this classic brandjack was approaching its finale. I rather assumed – and perhaps Greenpeace did too – that after its review, Mattel would drop APP as a supplier and announce a new sourcing strategy that would enable the toy manufacturer and the campaigners to kiss and make up and, more importantly, allow Ken and Barbie to kiss and make up. But it seems things are moving too slowly for the guys in green. They may even have had indications from within Mattel that the company is not going to settle after all.

This is going to be a fascinating one to study. Why would Mattel not give on this one? Presumably, its packaging supplies are a fairly small part of its cost base. The advantages of being able to market the Dream House as being eco-friendly would seem considerable. 

Has the Greenpeace campaign not been as effective as anticipated? The storylines have been excellent, and backed by the usual stunts. Are social media not proving the right channels to reach the target audience? Is it perhaps unclear whether children or parents are the correct targets?