I'm a Barbie girl who almost got tricked by a plastic-free hoax
- A fake campaign by environmental activists said Barbie-maker Mattel would go plastic-free by 2030.
- The stunt duped some news outlets. I almost fell for it, too.
- Mattel has previously pledged to use less plastic.
I almost got duped by Barbie, my favorite childhood doll.
As Barbie-mania takes over movie theaters, inspires countless pink clothing and accessory lines, and themed parties, I've taken part in the fun.
I even considered trying to find a sustainability angle, before deciding that'd be a total buzz kill. Most people probably don't want to talk about how Barbie is problematic for the planet. Let's be real: Myself included.
But then on Tuesday, I saw an opening.
Outlets like People, The Washington Times, and Dow Jones Newswires reported that Mattel, the maker of Barbie and other toys like American Girl dolls and Hot Wheels, would go plastic-free by 2030. Instead, toys would be made from materials like bamboo, seaweed, and mycelium that's found in fungus. A new line of EcoWarrior Barbies would be modeled after environmental activists like Greta Thunberg and actor Daryl Hannah of "Splash" fame.
My editor and I shared "Wow"s in our Slack channel before starting to dig up more information. Pretty quickly, it became clear that the news was a complete hoax.
I reached out to Mattel to confirm the news, but a spokesperson responded that it was a "hoax and has nothing to do with Mattel or any of its products."
That sparked a search for the pranksters. I reached out to Daryl Hannah on Instagram, who had posted a video to her nearly 72,000 followers showing her finding a barnacle-encrusted Barbie at the bottom of the ocean.
"Barbie and I are about the same age, except she will never die," Hannah said in the video. "During my lifetime, Barbie and over one billion of her friends have been abandoned in our landfills and our waterways where they will live on forever."
Hannah didn't respond. Meanwhile, I tried to track down the fake press release cited by news organizations, which had quotes attributed to Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz.
"With our plastic-free commitment, we denounce the empty promises of plastic recycling and take a bold step towards real ecological sustainability. Only sustainably produced toys can provide sustainable joy."
By the end of the day, Yahoo News had the exclusive on the team behind the stunt: The Barbie Liberation Organization. The group was formed in 1993 to campaign against gender stereotyping after Mattel launched Teen Talk Barbie, who said math classes were hard.
"Thirty years later, we got the group back together again because we saw this obsession with the Barbie movie and all these new products, many of which are made from fossil fuels that are polluting the environment," Igor Vamos, better known as his activist alter ego Mike Bonnaro, told me.
Vamos is a member of The Yes Men, which works with activist groups and students on spoofs that call attention to problematic political and social issues. Vamos said The Yes Men is part of the Barbie Liberation Organization, as are Hannah, some members of the Russian feminist rock band Pussy Riot, and employees at Yellow Dot Studios, a nonprofit media studio founded by Adam McKay that aims to mobilize action against big polluters.
"Although Barbie has changed on the surface — she represents different ethnicities and can have any occupation — under the surface she's still made of the same crap," Vamos said. "Pinkwashing is the core issue, because Barbie is made out of oil by sweatshop workers."
Vamos said the depressing part so I didn't have to.
It's true, most plastics are made from natural gas, a fossil fuel that produces methane emissions warming the planet. Only 9% of plastic gets recycled, while the rest ends up in landfills, is incinerated, or leaks into the environment. These products break down into microplastics that have been found in human blood and the food supply, and scientists are increasingly studying the potential health impacts.
There are global efforts underway to curb plastic pollution, and some companies are pledging to reduce single-use plastic packaging and make products recyclable. That includes Mattel, which aims to make 100% of its products from recycled or bio-based plastic by 2030.
Vamos said more Barbie stunts are in the works, but didn't share more detail.
"We don't want to lecture anyone," he said. "We want to have fun and engage people in a way that isn't depressing, but is uplifting and shows there are better ways to make things."
The stunt did make me envision what seaweed Barbie would look like — but it's unclear if that's possible. Scientists are working on making plastic from the starch and sugars in plants, which are considered the future of a circular economy.
For now, Barbie is still living life in plastic.
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