Mattel Barbie

barbie #UNAPOLOGETIC campaign

Campaign: #Unapologetic
Role: Senior Designer, Art Director
Services: Visual Identity, Cross-Channel Campaign Design, Social & Press Assets

The Challenge

Barbie has held over 150 careers—astronaut, CEO, president—but public conversation often returns to the same critique: her appearance. To shift the narrative, Mattel partnered with our agency to create a provocative cultural moment that re-centered Barbie as a symbol of ambition, intelligence, and confidence.

The bold idea: feature Barbie in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, an unexpected context that would spark attention and disrupt entrenched perceptions. By placing Barbie alongside icons like Christie Brinkley and Cindy Crawford, we positioned her not just as a beauty standard, but as a cultural mainstay reclaiming the narrative on her own terms.

The Concept

The campaign tagline, #Unapologetic, embodied the new tone: fearless, self-assured, and future-facing. We weren’t backing down from the conversation around Barbie’s image, we were owning it. The creative celebrated Barbie’s legacy as a modern, multifaceted icon who’s never needed permission to take up space.

Execution

As Senior Designer and Art Director, I developed and executed campaign visuals across multiple touchpoints:

High-impact social media content that drove engagement and virality
Billboard and large-format out-of-home design in key metro areas
Press kits and editorial graphics for distribution through national outlets

I helped lead the visual strategy and messaging tone to ensure cohesion across all assets, aligning tightly with both Mattel’s internal PR and external campaign goals. The visual approach leaned into Barbie’s iconic pink while pairing it with bold, unapologetic typography and elevated, editorial-style compositions.