Barbie, the 50-year-old blonde, seems to be losing the battle for the imagination and cash of young girls to a bunch of doe eyed teens in trashy outfits.
But Mattel, soldiering on, are trying to tap into a market where cute is always in style and being an adult doesn't always mean putting away childish things.
Time magazine reports that early this month [March 6], the company will open an eight-storey House of Barbie in Shanghai pitched at grown ups complete with adult sized clothing and a pick up bar where Barbies and Kens can meet over pink cocktails.
"Asian culture loves cute," Time quotes Richard Dickson, general manager of the Barbie brand, as saying. "They're much more comfortable with character art as part of fashion."
How true. A certain big-eyed cartoon cat is coveted and collected openly, not covertly, by plenty of otherwise sane adults. Hello Kitty, the cute and rich feline, has a way of rendering just about any otherwise unremarkable product into something that elicits the "Squee!" response from toddlers through to those well into adulthood. And she's not just for eight-year-old Japanese girls and celebutantes anymore. Far from being buried on shelves in Tokyo and Bangkok, she can be found sweetly encouraging water consumption on the side of coolers in Target, or emblazoned on the side of this year's Canberra Show's hottest showbag.
On March 16, cosmetics company MAC will release its latest collaboration in stores and online. It has teamed up with Sanrio to release a make up and accessory range featuring the familiar mouthless cat with a bow askew over one ear. The collaboration makes more sense than their partnership with mauve-haired housewife Dame Edna Everage - do that many Australian women wish to resemble Barry Humphries in drag?
The Kitty collaboration is also apt given that Hello Kitty exists to sell products and is already associated with things cute and cool.
MAC's range includes glittery eyeliners that cost $35, a $40 lip gloss named "Mimmy" (it's named after Hello Kitty's twin sister, who wears her bow over the opposite ear to Kitty), and an $85 plush doll.
Tapping into consumers' inner child may be just the thing to sell these products which cost up to $130.
Take away Kitty's image and you're left with lots of very expensive make up with about as much appeal as any another cosmetics on the market. This cool cat is one lucrative feline.