Barbie hits theaters on July 21 and has quickly become one of the most anticipated films of 2023. In a re-contextualization of the character from the mind of Greta Gerwig, Barbie will leave “Barbieland” and enter the real world to discover the truth about herself. Starring Margot Robbie as Barbie Prime and Ryan Gosling as Ken Prime, the film already has millions hyped. This has only been exacerbated by the efforts of social media and the Barbie marketing team. From the official marketing team, there has been a wave of themed products and related merch. There was also the reveal of a hot pink Barbie Dreamhouse that could be rented on Airbnb. Meanwhile, social media hyped a culture war between Barbie and Oppenheimer, which releases on the same day. Elsewhere, there was the viral moment in which fans discovered that a French translation of an official poster essentially read “she can do everything, he just fucks.”
However, one company that is unexpectedly benefitting from the Barbie hype is Pinterest. Founded in 2009, Pinterest was a quintessential part of early 2010s internet culture. It fitted in perfectly with the photo filter, Hot Topic nostalgia, justgirlythings, “aesthetic” cultural wave that also gave rise to things such as Tumblr’s popularity in the same era. If you were an “aesthetic” person, you likely had a Pinterest and you likely had a plethora of themed “moodboards”. However, Pinterest, despite being reportedly worth a $1 billion, has died off in recent years. Except, it hasn’t because while still just chugging away in the background, it has seen a massive spike in usage thanks to the Barbie movie.
Pinterest Flooded With Barbie Searches
Per TMZ, Pinterest has been flooded with searches related to Barbie. Compared to May 2022, May 2023 saw a host of searches spike. “Barbiecore” was up 980% while “Barbie Mood Board” was up 1280%. Elsewhere, “Barbie live-action” and “Barbie Margot Robbie” rose 1305% and 1630%. Finally, “hot pink chrome nails” rose 1465%. The world is getting on the Barbification train. “Dua Lipa Barbie” (the singer both has a song in the film and will play “Mermaid Barbie”) saw a 43-fold increase in searches. “Barbie adult birthday party” is up 12-fold.
However, Pinterest isn’t the only place where Barbie has taken a firm hold. While much more fickle in its searches, Tumblr has also seen Barbie trend several times over recent months. However, given Tumblr’s attention span, tastes, and long-standing culture war with “aesthetics”, the site has been much more about the memes than the visual styles of the film. Furthermore, the release of Netflix’s Nimona has aggressively taken over the site in recent days. Despite this, it’s clear that the impacts of Barbie are wide-reaching, even bringing things like Pinterest back into the spotlight.
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