Barbie Gets the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Treatment
LatestBarbie and Sports Illustrated are joining forces to tell a world of body conscious pricks to suck it, apparently, with a new magazine cover next week. Or, you know, it could just be a new creative way to make up for all of the Barbies Mattel didn’t sell over the Christmas shopping season.
“The reality is, we just didn’t sell enough Barbie dolls,” Bryan G. Stockton, chief executive, said in a conference call with analysts on Jan. 31. Sales of Barbie fell 13 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the period the previous year.
The 50th anniversary of the Sports illustrated swimsuit issue debuts next Tuesday, reports the New York Times, and Barbie will be all dolled up with a refreshed take on her first black-and-white suit she wore back in 1959. Mattel created an entire campaign around the partnership —or really sponsored content since the company paid for the privilege to take over SI — called #unapologetic. And yes, you’re right that is also the name of Rihanna’s last album.