Sanchez 1

Fernanda Sanchez

Oscar Martinez

English 1301

08 October 2023

Barbie Movie Poster Analysis

The Barbie doll has been an iconic symbol for young girls all around the world for many

generations. With Barbie becoming a real life interpretation movie, Warner Bros. released

various posters for this film in order to generate excitement. This poster was first published in

early 2023 by the world famous company. Directed by Greta Gerwig, she helps bring this

beloved doll to life on the big cinema screens around the world. The most eye-catching prospect

of this poster is the big, bold, vibrant, capitalized B right in the center of it all, including

international movie star, Margot Robbie, as ‘Barbie’ and world known actor, Ryan Gosling, as

‘Ken’. Even though the Barbie movie poster might not have the complete title of the movie,

with Barbie being such an iconic name for decades, amongst young girls, adults, and even

elderly, seeing a bright pink poster with a capitalized B, with a picture perfect blonde girl, and a

handsome looking guy, we can assume this symbolizes Barbie.

As most of the world knows, movie posters are designed to be eye catching and

entertaining to the targeted audience. The poster for this newly released, live action, Barbie

movie might be seemingly simple, but it serves the purpose it needs to serve and gets the point

across and makes the viewer understand what it means. It features a central image of Barbie, a
 Sanchez 2

universal icon, sitting in a big bold, vibrant color pink, capitalized letter B. Not only does Barbie

make an appearance but so does Ken, right below Barbie. With Barbie being slightly above Ken,

the viewer can determine that she has some type of power over him, and this is her world. The

audience can also see that Barbie is looking straight at us. Ken on the other hand is staring and

admiring Barbie. The viewer can conclude that Ken is obsessed with Barbie and he would do

anything and everything for her. Ken exists for Barbie. Ken was made to go along with her in

sets that kids would buy. The viewer can express that Greta Gerwig wanted to make a sure the

audience knew that both Ken and Barbie were going to appear in the movie but having Ken be

under Barbie as hinting the audience that Barbie is superior to Ken.

In this movie poster, we can see that the two major colors that are being used are blue

and pink. These two colors symbolize Barbie and Ken. The color pink and the color blue contrast

with each other but somehow manage to make a visually appealing visual. They make eachother

stand out in their own way of being its own unique color, but not shadowing the other. The color

pink takes up most of the picture, with it being the center of attention. There are two shades of

pink being used, a baby pink and a bright pink. The baby pink is used to highlight and make kind

of a contrast with the bright pink. It is used to give a slight effect of 3D. The bright pink used to

be the base color of the B. The color blue is used in the background of the picture to make the

pink stand out and take the attention, like Barbie and Ken. Viewers can also see that the color

pink is in front of the color blue, giving the color pink more importance than the color blue,

again, just like Barbie and Ken. The blue is used as the background, which also makes it seem

like the letter B might be floating since the audience don’t see a ground, but could also be used to

symbolize the sky.

The visual text in this poster doesn't say much. There are actually only 4 small, short and

descriptive sayings. The main visual text in this poster is “She is everything. He’s just Ken” right

in the middle spaces of the two holes the letter B has. The author uses this to give background

information of the two main characters in this movie. It gives us a tiny piece of perspective on

what this movie will be based on, supporting Barbie. The last text of this poster is “Only in

theaters July 21”. This gives the audience information of when the movie will premiere in

cinemas. This is an important part of the poster since it builds excitement and eagerness for all

the people wanting to see this movie.

These two characters are properly placed to imitate the dolls, which evoked a sense of

nostalgia in the older audience. The big, open mouth, fixed smile with perfect white teeth,

replicates the smile of a doll. Dolls are designed to be pretty and perfect, a perfect white teeth

smile does this. The shine in their skin imitates the shine of real life Barbie dolls that are made

out of plastic. This gives the audience the imagination to see them as real dolls. The outfit worn

by Barbie in this poster is replicating the 1964 “Dancing Barbie Doll ''. The shoes worn by

Barbie represent the moderation over the years that the dolls have gone through. Barbie isn’t

wearing the ‘iconic’ pink heel but she is using pink wedges. Viewers can conclude that this is

one of the many renovations to these dolls. The older generation audience can make this

assumption if they played with this doll when they were younger. The outfit Ken is wearing is

“Beach Ken'' . The doll rocks a pastel pink and mint green striped top. The matching shorts even

feature working pockets. He looks as easy and breezy as film Ken with his surfboard, platinum

blond hair, unbuttoned top, and white sneakers. The form of their hair being perfectly still and

the way it is positioned replicates the appearance of the dolls in the original Barbie boxes. Barbie
 Sanchez 4

dolls are produced to be presented in a certain way, the perfect way. Barbie is known to be

perfect, she was made to be perfect, sp her presentation should be too.

Every movie poster will always be different, but what differentiates them is the style it is

presented in. This poster shows everything needed for a Barbie poster. The big, bold, letter B

represents the iconic actor. This letter is the center of attention, and uses most of the space in this

poster. The two major colors being pink and blue representing Ken and Barbie. If they were

different colors viewers wouldn’t be able to make the assumption of the colors representing the

two major characters. The visual text “She is everything. He’s just Ken” is the most important in

this poster. This represents that Barbie is in fact everything and anything she wants to be, and

Ken is simply, just Ken. Both Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are properly placed in this poster

to imitate the iconic dolls. Their skin, outfit, smile, hair, and even shoes are both replicas of the

old fashioned real life Barbie dolls. This poster shows exactly what one would think of when

thinking of Barbie. The pink, the big bold letter B, and a picture perfect blonde Barbie. The

Barbie movie poster might not have action figures, various colors, many people to pinpoint, but

rather simple and serves its’ purpose of just getting straight to the point.
 Sanchez 5

Appendix

Figure 1, movie poster for Barbie by Greta Gerwig, 2023.

Work Cited

Warner Bros "Barbie (film)." Warner Bros, Web. 7 Dec. 2023.