In 2023, a meme could quite literally make or break a campaign. Whether or not that’s exciting or profoundly depressing will depend on many things (including, of course, your age) but it can’t be denied the memes generated in the wake of the social media battle between two of 2023’s most anticipated films has been anything other than entertaining, at the very least.
Both Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer films are set for a global launch this Friday (July 21st) and both come from critically acclaimed writers and directors. That, however, is where the similarities end. The former is a fish out of water tale about a literal children’s toy while the latter is a grim meditation on the creation of the atomic bomb.
It’s a battle of pink vs grey and, in such a polarising age, it would appear millions of us have an appetite for both.
Kicking against the counterprogramming
The concept of counterprogramming is an age-old one in marketing and in Hollywood – release two things at the same time with completely opposite target audience to achieve market saturation. In this instance, however, the attempts at satiating both serious film buffs and casual audiences appears to have backfired in a pretty unexpected way.
This has led to hundreds of incredibly well-made memes and fake posters positing the films as a double-feature of cringe and chaos; misery and joy. And Gen Z is a generation perfectly placed to create such a bizarre partnership.
They are, after all, the generation raised on social media, where charm and dismay share equal space and climate change anxiety can be consumed comfortably alongside a sparkly influencer’s lifestyle post. This is the only generation that could have created Barbieheimer. It’s edgy, contradictory and as dark as it is fun. And adland should be taking notes.
Life in plastic
On an individual level, of course, the brands have been out enforce to align themselves with Barbie, as it’s comfortably the most marketable of the two films. From suncare brand Soltan to Xbox releasing their own Barbie console and the Barbie “Malibu Mansion” on Airbnb, there are dozens of smart and irreverent ideas out there waiting for your clicks.
Creative Opinion
According to Daisy Domenghini, Managing Director at VaynerMedia EMEA: “The marketing teams behind the new Barbie Movie launch have led a masterclass in understanding consumer attention and using it to choose brand partnerships. From selfie generators to Barbie Dream Home tours with Margot Robbie, the brand has shown they know who their many audience segmentations are - or, as we call them, cohorts - and created tie-ins and experiences that appeal to them.”
Branding a film like Oppenheimer, meanwhile, is a markedly more difficult thing. How do you make an engaging brand partnership out of such a grim film? That’s where the genius of Barbieheimer really shines through – by making the impossible possible and making an unbrandable film brandable. I mean, what was the alternative? An Oppenheimer Happy Meal?
