The only toy brand shortlisted for the awards, Barbie’s 60th anniversary campaign was ‘highly commended’ at the awards. 

The EMEA Purpose Awards, launched by PRWeek, Campaign and Third Sector, recognise campaigns that use creative ideas successfully to further positive causes and acknowledge the organisations behind them.

Barbie – the only toy brand shortlisted for the awards – has been ‘highly commended’ for it’s 60th anniversary campaign, which set out to inspire the limitless potential in every girl and to close the ‘Dream Gap’, the time when girls start to doubt that they can be anything.

In its powerful PR-led campaign, the world’s No.1 fashion doll brand drew on its 60-year history to reconnect consumers with the brand’s original mission – to empower girls through real-life female role models, inspiring new products and events.

Since 1959, Barbie has been dedicated to inspiring the limitless potential in every girl and that message has never been more relevant than now. Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie, had previously said: “My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.”

In 2019, as part of the brand’s evolution, Barbie leveraged its history to create noise celebrating the history and positioning future of the brand. PR campaigns included an ambitious global Shero programme for International Women’s Day, in which inspiring women are honoured with a one-of-a-kind doll made in their likeness. In the UK, Barbie honoured the British activist and fashion icon Adwoa Aboah alongside 20 women around the world.

Empowering anniversary events across the UK and an inspiring product line rounded out Barbie’s 60th in a mission to show girls ‘You Can Be Anything.’ Mattel, the owner of Barbie, says the brand made significant strides in its efforts to close the Dream Gap.