Mattel is about to launch its new combination Barbie/MP3 player and to take its Barbie Girls site out of beta. The starter set for the BarbieGirls site is sold for $59.99 That investment brings young children into a culture of materialistic greed …. before the values that might temper that greed have been formed.
When her feet are plugged into the iPodesque docking station that she comes with, MP3 Barbie unlocks a site filled with games, virtual shops and online chatting functions on the BarbieGirls.com Web site. Every mini-skirt and pair of shoes gives bought with mom and dad’s very real credit cards give you more privilege in online Barbie’s Second Life for the 6-12 set.

Interestingly, the new doll and its world will be promoted virally, mainly through the site, with minimal (for Mattel) traditional advertising. That is a sea change in itself.
Yet, with all the money and talent available to them, Mattel has not come up with anything that isn’t a direct copy of already existing sites like Webkinz, neopets and Club Penguin.
The better way
If you wanted to copy someone else’s program Mattel, here are some places you could have looked. Harper-Collins Children’s Books is soliciting teen writers through a collaborative writing program. The American Express Members Project will help fund world-changing ideas suggested and selected by members. Starbucks Expedition for Change is another project hoping to bring about positive social change.
Webkinz, to its credit, rewards kids who solve math problems, teaches kids how to make their own videos, and at least tries to instill values beyond “I have more expensive toys than you.”
Children’s Models?
But none of the online communities for children that I’ve been able to find suggest that children think of ways to help other children who are less fortunate, or that they improve their reading and math or problem-solving skills while having fun.
Will MP3 Barbie succeed? The New York Times says that about 3 million people have registered since April 27 on the BarbieGirls Web site, and “that’s without Mattel advertising the site, even on its Barbie.com home page.”
Related:
Int’l Herald Tribune: Barbie and other toy companies use physical goods to unlock online goodies
Blogging Stocks: An MP3 for Barbie – who needs it

• How far should I go in the dialogue with the users? Can I accept controversy on my website? What moderation level is acceptable?
• Are there examples of 2.0 initiatives made by traditional brands that went totally out of hand?
• Why on earth do people use sites like Second Life?

About the questions, Kris says, “I know that they might seem trivial to many of us, but they are day to day reality for many people that try to convince advertisers to try out new media.” Kris and company are posting the answers to their questions on the their own blogs as well as the Interact blog of IAB Europe Congress.
Steven Verbruggen is offering his two pesos on several of the questions. Joe Jaffe took on Kris’s first question here, with uncharacteristic brevity. The question that most intrigued me, however, was the last one.
It reminded me of HP’s Eric Kintz’s post this past week on why he remains on the sidelines of virtual worlds like Second Life. Here’s my own take on Kris’s last question:
“Why on earth do people use sites like Second Life?”
First–I can’t say I fully understand it, either. I have enough trouble finding time to empty the dishwasher in my First Life. But as Eric wrote this past week, “Second Life is another example of a web 2.0 property that marketers should explore and understand. It opens up a window into the future of 3D web.”
That’s just it: Even if you aren’t using it, others are. Or they will. For marketers, Second Life is a great place to learn what role business and brands can play in various 3D virtual environments, and (in turn) what environments like these require of them. What kinds of approaches work? What sorts of activities relate to results? It’s a test playground. A place to walk the walk… even in wobbly baby steps.
And, by the way, this applies beyond marketing and sales. There are many potential business applications in virtual worlds–including employee training and development, customer service, peer collaboration, you name it. Greg Verdino has a great take on that issue in a Q&A we did a few months ago.
Why is it important to know about 3D virtual environments? Because that’s where the Web is headed. Of course, this is only a guess. But I base that not on my own use–(see point about First Life, above!)–but by observing how my kids interact with the Internet.
Kiddie sites like Club Penguin(“Waddle around and meet new friends!”) and Webkinz (“Come in and play!”) are grooming my 10-year-old and her friends to actively and willingly seek out and embrace formats like Second Life, There.com, and any other virtual world that ultimately evolves from them.
EVERY kid (yeah… every!) in my daughter’s 4th grade classroom of 23 has at least one Webkinz; many have more. They trade screen names at school. They meet at each other’s virtual houses after school. They buy virtual presents for each other–her friend Hannah sent my daughter Caroline a swimming pool for her backyard.
It’s cute. It’s quaint. But it’s also becoming the status quo for how a whole generation of kids is interacting with the Web. To Caroline, 2D Web sites are “boring.” She complains, “There’s nothing to do on them.”
Second Life is a hog. It’s clunky, complicated, and “inelegant,” as MarketingProfs Publisher Allen Weiss would say. But it’s only the start. The technology is only going to become smoother, easier to grasp, more elegant.
And when it does… well, there’s a whole generation of users who will be ready for it. The question is–will you?