Mattel has filed suit against a adult entertainment porn site who is profiting from the clean-cut image of its most famous toy-Barbie.
Mattel went to court to complain that the website of an adult entertainer named China Barbie has tried to benefit from the success of the 48-year-old line of dolls. They include Barbie's sister, Skipper, her best friend, Midge, and Skipper's boyfriend, Kevin. Hmm. . . Kevin, Ken-I can see some similarities.
China Barbie's site says she's a curvaceous, "cordial young lady" who worked at leading investment banking firms and advertising agencies in New York before getting into porn. It says her filmography includes
Ethnic Cheerleaders 8 and
Passport to Paradise , and it charges $19.95 for monthly access to its photos and video clips.
According to the lawsuit, the offending website is registered to Global China Networks LLC and is operated by Terri Gibson of Hollywood, Fla. Do you not love technology? You can have a name like China Barbie and have people assume you are in a different country and lo and behold, you are right there in Florida.
So at this point, you can’t tell me China Barbie can claim innocent. Everyone knows what stealing is and you can’t tell me she isn’t trying to play on the innocence of the Barbie image.
I agree with Mattel. This crosses the line. It does reflect badly on their company. I can see parents not wanting to encourage this type of admiration because of the effect it could have on their children when they do grow up.
What parent wants their child to grow up to be a porn star? As a parent of a two-year-old girl, I can tell you we live Barbie and none of it was my doing. My daughter has the Barbie purse, doctor kit, shoes, car and Elmo Barbie.
I am not sure as a teenager or older adult if she saw something about China Barbie she would be able to differentiate that it isn’t from Mattel. I am not sure I would have known.
The lawsuit asked the court to order the transfer of the domain name registration to Mattel, to award damages of up to $100,000 and to order that any profits Global China Networks achieved be given to Mattel.
Mattel said the website is toying with an image carefully crafted since company co-founder Ruth Handler created the Barbie doll in 1959. She had discovered that her daughter, Barbara, preferred to play with paper cutouts of adult female fashion dolls, rather than baby dolls. Mattel has sold more than 1 billion Barbie dolls worldwide, and a typical American girl owns eight of them.
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