Come on Barbie, Let’s Sell Barbies

American Toy Companies, Led by Mattel, Have Entwined Marketing and Entertainment for Over Half a Century

The year was 1997.

“Un-Break My Heart” by Toni Braxton dominated the radio waves. Wallet chains and JNCO jeans were red-carpet staples. And plastic? It was fantastic.

Cool Shoppin’ Barbie wasn’t just made of plastic, she was the first ever doll to come with her very own piece of it. She came equipped with a cash register, bar code scanner, credit card reader, and two credit cards—a life-sized cardboard Mastercard, and a doll-sized plastic one.

In a year where a record 1.35 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy, and the director of the …

by Jackie Mansky | July 21, 2023

Anaheim Shows Ron DeSantis How to Build a Better Mickey Mousetrap

To Fight Disney, Local Containment Works Better Than a Culture War Assault

by Joe Mathews | June 27, 2023

How best to fight Mickey Mouse?

There are two schools of strategy for making war with the Burbank-based Walt Disney Company.

One strategy, from …

Frozen’s Queen Elsa Is a Dangerous Autocrat

Disney’s Animated Franchise Sends Children an Anti-Democratic Message

by Joe Mathews | November 26, 2019

So far, our republic has survived the Civil War, the Great Depression, two world wars, and even the 2016 election. But can it survive the new sequel to the mega-hit …

How Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse Elevated the Everyman

The Disneyfication of American History Began Long Before the Theme Parks

By Bethanee Bemis | January 3, 2017

There are few symbols of pure Americana more potent than the Disney theme parks. To walk down any of the destinations’ manicured Main Streets, U.S.A.—as hundreds of thousands of …

How ‘Bambi’ Hoodwinked American Environmentalists

The Sentimental Disney Cartoon Cemented the Myth That Man and Nature Can’t Coexist

By Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann | April 19, 2016

Perking up her ears, the dog was the first to notice them, just a few blocks from our homes in east-central Illinois. One-by-one the does strolled from the woods …

Disney’s Bob Iger for President

Running a Major, Publicly Traded Multinational Requires Many of the Same Skills That Make for a Good Commander in Chief

By Andrés Martinez | October 5, 2015

Early in Donald Trump’s time on NBC’s The Apprentice, I wrote a column for the New York Times wondering why the network had cast someone with such a spotty business …

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