All the ways the ‘Barbie’ promotional tour is giving us life
It all started with the Barbie selfie generator — that was the calm before the pink storm that’s rightfully taken over our days and turned them into Barbie Land.
The Barbie promotional tour has been a roller coaster, to say the least, from the ample amounts of covetable merch and clever branding to the pearls of wisdom dropped by Ken (Ryan Gosling), not to mention Margot Robbie’s commitment to being our real-life Barbie Girl. From themed movie screenings to international movie posters with jaw-dropping innuendo, life has been so plastic for the past couple of months — and it’s absolutely fantastic.
As Barbie‘s release gets closer, we’ve rounded up all the ways the film’s promotional tour has been giving us life. Nothing is safe from being Barbie-fied, and there’s no other way we’d have it.
Margot Robbie’s many Barbie-inspired looks.
Margot Robbie is living the dream — unapologetically wearing pink to every occasion while casually referencing our favorite Barbie dolls and other classic girly moments. Throughout Barbie‘s press tour, Robbie’s been serving look after stunning look, all while paying homage to her onscreen alter ego. Her Versace outfit for the Seoul premiere recreated the 1985 “Day-to-Night” Barbie doll, right down to the brick cell phone, and in Australia, she sported a black-and-white Hervé Léger mini-dress based on the original 1959 Barbie’s swimsuit. And when she’s taken a break from being Barbie made flesh, Robbie has been wearing archival looks from ’90s Versace and even channeling Cher Horowitz from Clueless. Robbie has made it her mission to slay in this press run — and she’s winning.
Robbie’s outfits in Barbie‘s promotional tour alone are endlessly swoon-worthy, so one can only imagine the stellar costumes we’re going to get in the movie itself.
The entire Barbie Seoul premiere.
Barbie co-star America Ferrera, Robbie, and director/co-writer Greta Gerwig were all one finger-heart away from a perfect Inkigayo ending fairy shot at Barbie‘s Seoul premiere. While the K-pop idol-ification of Barbie‘s main stars was already perfect, this event was extra special because Robbie got to celebrate her birthday right in front of a giant Barbie DreamHouse.
Once again, Margot Robbie keeps living our dream.
Barbie and Ken’s Malibu DreamHouse is real — and on Airbnb.
Screw the dollhouse — you can now actually spend a night in Barbie and Ken’s Malibu DreamHouse. In fact, you can rent it on Airbnb. Yes, a full-scale, perfectly pink home equipped with a roller rink and a disco is now available for anyone lucky enough to nab a spot to rent for a night on either July 21 or 22.
It seems fake, but it’s not. This is something that’s actually happening in our timeline. Bookings open on July 17, and may the odds be ever in your favor.
The many, many posters.
We all remember where we were when Warner Bros. tweeted the first ever poster for Barbie in 2022. Lives were changed. The world shifted. And suddenly, pink was in. Since then, we’ve been blessed with an array of Barbie promotional posters united under one slogan: “She’s everything. And he’s just Ken.” (No truer words have ever been written.) But one poster took this cheeky motto even further.
The internet was quick to note that the French poster for Barbie has a pretty wild double entendre. Given the current meaning of “ken” in French slang, the film’s slogan can also be read as “She knows everything. Him, he just knows how to fuck.” Honestly? Still pretty valid and makes even more sense.
What Barbie wants, Barbie gets — even themed movie theaters.
Early screenings of the Barbie movie are dedicated to bringing Barbie Land to life along with the opening credits. Alamo Drafthouse is hosting dress-up screenings and slumber parties to celebrate the occasion. And even Nicole Kidman’s favorite child, AMC, is hosting early Barbie blowout parties. All of these events come with merchandise, but Cinemark might be winning for the best Barbie-inspired goodies.
Not only can you get Barbie-themed cups, popcorn bags, and blankets, but you can also get a Barbie beach ball cup. Is it practical? Absolutely not. Do we still want it? A thousand times yes.
Xbox goes Barbie.
Nothing is safe from Barbie-fication, not even Xbox. Microsoft is doing a series of Barbie promotions where fans can enter to win a one-of-a-kind Xbox console built into a DreamHouse and/or Xbox controllers with cute faceplates inspired by Robbie and Gosling’s outfits in the movie. And you can even race in Barbie’s car in Forza Horizon 5. Eat our dust, Ken!
One word: Barbenheimer.
Barbenheimer is a cultural moment. It’s perhaps our favorite thing to come out of the zeitgeist. And it’s finally Barbenheimer month.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Gerwig’s Barbie have the subject of endless hilarious memes for the past few months, ever since it was announced they’d premiere in theaters the same day. The Barbenheimer memes and merch have been marrying the two films in a chaotic clash, and honestly? The lines are starting to blur.
Are they actually the same movie in disguise? Does Barbie’s existential crisis in the trailer mean she understands J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) on a fundamental level? Should you buy a Barbenheimer shirt? It seems difficult to imagine when we’ll have another great movie war like this again, so let’s relish this moment. Long live Barbenheimer.
When Robbie and Gerwig bought tickets for Oppenheimer.
Do we think that Gerwig and Robbie actually went to see Oppenheimer after posing with those tickets? No, we don’t. But did this picture give us so much life? Yes, it did. The Barbenheimer lore is officially canon.
Barbie clothes. Barbie skates. Barbie everything.
There is so much Barbie merch out there at the moment that we’re convinced you can’t leave your house without seeing a glimpse of neon in every corner. From Barbie-themed collections at Forever 21 and H&M, to an entire shoe catalog at Aldo, your local mall has been Barbie-fied, and it’s time for you to concede and buy something pink. Oh, did we also mention the Barbie pop-up at Bloomingdale’s, complete with outfits, accessories, shoes, and denim dog vest? Do you need some Barbie makeup? How about some Barbie glassware or heatless hair curlers? You can even snag a pair of Impala inline skates, just like those Robbie and Gosling were papped in way back when.
Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj’s remix of “Barbie World” with Aqua.
Admittedly, we were all worried that Aqua’s ’90s bop wouldn’t make it into the Barbie movie. But would it even have been a Barbie film without it? Luckily, the queen and princess of rap have delivered a stellar remix of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” (changed to “Barbie World”), modernizing the tune and gifting us with an anthem that will be playing all summer.
In fact, the entirety of Barbie‘s soundtrack is filled with bops and is arguably itself a multiverse of pop stars, merging everyone from Dua Lipa to Charli XCX to the recently announced Billie Eilish, all into one album. A Barbie concert for all!
Ryan Gosling is Ken-ough — and so are we.
We sincerely hope that anyone who doubted Gosling’s ability to play Ken is sitting in a corner and thinking about what they’ve done. Throughout Barbie‘s press tour, Gosling has been embodying Ken so profoundly that he’s begun bestowing Ken-coded pearls of wisdom on us all. And now we can stop talking like Gosling-as-Ken.
We are all Ken-ough. The Ken-ergy is within us at all times. Ryan Gosling, you are a blessing on earth, and we thank you for your Ken-ervice.
The leaks that launched a thousand tweets.
Real fans would know that the Barbie promo actually started over a year ago — the day set leaks took over Twitter. The day we first saw Robbie and Gosling in their neon roller skate outfits.
No words can describe the sheer euphoria of that moment. As soon as we saw Robbie’s pink-and-blue visor and jarringly neon yellow safety pads, we knew we were all going to be in safe hands. These photos looked and felt like a beloved childhood Barbie doll had come to life, and she’s only been thriving since.
To my mermaid Barbie, this one’s for you.
How to watch: Barbie releases in theaters on July 21.