It’s estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold since the first one appeared in a black and white striped bathing suit in1959.
The toy has been Mattel’s hottest product with spinoff’s ranging from Astronaut Barbie, to Police Officer Barbie, to African-American Barbie in 1980, and to Presidential Candidate Barbie in 1992.
Ken showed up in 1961 and has been Barbie’s companion ever since. As far as I know, there is no Divorced Barbie.
Now a blockbuster movie is set to be released in a few days about the fictional character with pink and plastic prominently featured in the film. The producers even had to get permission from General Motors to turn Barbie’s Corvette pink.
All good fun, right?
Not so fast. Vietnam has banned the film over a small dotted line on a crude, crayon drawn map that was briefly shown in the trailer.
Now it’s become an International brouhaha because for years China has drawn a dotted line around the South China Sea on all of their official maps claiming the territory as their own, and Vietnam and the rest of their neighbors aren’t happy about it.
Then the Barbie people had the gall (according to Vietnam) to add 8 dots going nowhere on their child scribbled map which the producers of the movie say meant nothing.
Are we being a little sensitive here or what?
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