Word: shanghais
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...sense of just how far Mattel is deviating from script requires a trip to the retail district in downtown Shanghai. There, on March 6, the company plans to open a 38,000-sq.-ft. (3,500 sq m) House of Barbie - the first of its kind in the world. This is nothing like the Main Street toy shop of yesterday. To enter the eight-story showpiece space, customers pass through a pink neon-lit tube, where the prerecorded sound of giggling girls grows progressively - some might say demonically - louder. After registering for a Barbie passport, visitors can get their hair...
...company had to recall nearly 20 million Chinese-made toys. Mattel later admitted that most of the defects, which included toxic lead paint and magnets that became lethal if ingested, were a result of design flaws, not manufacturing mistakes, but China's reputation had already taken a beating. The Shanghai store helps to repair the company's image in China...
...filed for bankruptcy in December). But Mattel is opportunistically positioning itself to thrive, not merely survive, in a tough environment. Today, two-thirds of Barbie sales come from 150 foreign markets; international sales increased 12% in 2007, even as U.S. sales sagged by 15%. "What we're doing in Shanghai is an indication for the future of the Barbie brand," Dickson says. Mattel is already planning similar stores in Brazil and Mexico...
...making is in the doll itself. The company has produced ethnic dolls in the past, including a few it might like to forget, like the 1981 Oriental Barbie or the 1967 Colored Francie. But other than the fact that there is a brunette version, very little about the new Shanghai Barbie doll is different. Same long legs, same wasp waist. Barbie may be entering her golden years, but Mattel is betting there's life...
...things to do in Shanghai...