China: The next superconsumer?
With the US sinking in debt, the world's biggest corporations are targeting China. And Shanghai is their beachhead…
The resident of 550 Huaihai Road in Shanghai is a rather unusual migrant. Born in Wisconsin on 9 March 1959, Barbara Millicent Roberts is the world's most famous supermodel. She drives a Corvette convertible, owns a dream home with a pool, parties with jocks and adores shopping. In the US, she was a prom queen and a role model. In China, she is emerging as an ambassador for consumer culture.
Better known as Barbie, this 30cm-tall icon was first sold in China in the early 1990s, but it was not until 2009 that she was given her own home in the retail heartland of Shanghai. Mattel, the world's biggest toy company, marked her 50th birthday by opening the planet's largest Barbie emporium. Covered in pink plastic, the six-storey doll's house on Huaihai Road became an instant landmark. Martial arts star Jet Li and the actorChristy Chung were among the celebrities at its launch. This was more than a party; it was the start of a marketing campaign aimed at prolonging and expanding the lifestyle championed by the toy firm. For the Barbie market to continue to grow for another 50 years, the doll would have to make it big in China.
When I lunch at Barbie's place, in the fantastically kitsch restaurant with a menu devised by chef David Laris, it doesn't seem to be hugely popular. Along with Barbie™ burgers with Barbie™ pink sauce, Ken burgers, pinktastic pasta, doll-icious desserts and Barbie™ tini cocktails, the restaurant boasts generous promotional offers: those opting for the special meal receive a boxed set of Barbie plates and cutlery to take away.
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