Barbiemania and FIFA: Summer of female icons is enticing brands

Unless you’ve been living under a (hot pink) rock for the last month, you will have seen Barbie absolutely smash box-office records and take over the internet (and our lives) with Greta Gerwig's Barbie Land. Described as a “riotous, candy-coloured feminist fable”, Barbie has got everybody talking, with busting stereotypes and female empowerment the film’s hot topics. 

Speaking of empowered females: at the same time that Barbie tops one billion in global box-office ticket sales and becomes the highest-grossing film directed by a woman, the biggest female sporting competition in the world, the Fifa Women's World Cup, is hotting up Down Under.

Combine Barbiemania and the Women’s World Cup and we’ve got ourselves a record-breaking summer of cultural moments that are driven by female icons. 

If Barbie’s taught us anything, it’s that defining a narrow target audience by assuming interest isn’t the way forward. The line in the film’s trailer is: “If you like Barbie, this film is for you. If you don’t like Barbie, this film is also for you.” Barbie has shown that in 2023 it’s possible to market something “for girls” to everyone. And there is definitely an appetite for it.

And so many brands.

Even those that have no association with the film whatsoever couldn't resist putting their own spin on Barbie Land, showing that for brands, the combination of females and fun might just be the future.

When Natalie Portman set up NWSL’s Angel FC last year, she said: “Watching my son idolise players like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan the same way he did Lionel Messi or Karim Benzema, I realised that amplifying female athletes could rapidly shift culture.” It’s almost as if she was on to something.

If Greta Gerwig brought in unexpected audiences to show us that "the Barbies of yesterday are not the Barbies of today", then the same can definitely be said for the Fifa Women’s World Cup and the future of women’s football.

The competition has gone up a level in this tournament. And with brands like Adidas and Nike leading the charge and focusing on individual icons like Ada Hegerberg, Sam Kerr, Wang Shuang, Megan Rapinoe, Lena Oberdorf, Alessia Russo and Mary Earps, the Women's World Cup ads have reached new highs, too.

The Women's World Cup of today sees the most countries ever compete at the tournament – the first time 32 teams have featured in a women’s football competition.

There have been over 1.7 million tickets sold.

This Women’s World Cup has a truly global audience: with China PR producing the highest audience for a single group stage match anywhere in the world, when a total of 53.9 million viewers watched their match against the Lionesses.

Traffic on Fifa’s digital platforms in the first 15 days has already surpassed the entirety of France 2019.

The World Cup of today is a tournament of giant killers: the USA was knocked out in the group stages for the first time ever.

Morocco beat Colombia and knocked out Germany on their first-ever appearance at the tournament to make it into the finals.

Not to mention Jamaica reached the knockout stages for the first time in their history, saying goodbye to Brazil and the original women’s football icon, Marta, in the process.

In Marta’s post-match interview, she spoke about growing up without any female icons to aspire to. With a new generation of footballing heroes and some help from brands finally starting to put these names front and centre, women’s football is starting to resemble Barbie Land, where “Basically, everything that men do in your world, women do in ours.”

Viv Bowdler is strategy director of Dark Horses.