“The Barbie pandemic with mask and hydroalcoholic gel. Sadness… ”,“ The toy industry is adapting to the times, a symptom of the neurosis that is devouring our time: this unhealthy obsession with disease, cultivated to excess even among the youngest ”… On Twitter , a photo and a video supposed to show dolls for children whose paraphernalia resonates with the Covid-19 epidemic have aroused strong reactions in recent days.
The Barbie pandemic with mask and hydro alcoholic gel. Sadness … 😭 pic.twitter.com/EtLsClIIiS
– 🔻 I still had to know it 🔻 (@AmarilloLeones) October 9, 2021
While the first shows a Barbie wearing a fabric mask, and equipped with hydroalcoholic gel like toilet paper, the 15-second sequence, for its part, boasts (in Spanish) the outfit of a Nenuco doll: laser thermometer, test saliva, bandage, syringe, colored mask …
The toy industry is adapting to the times, a symptom of the neurosis that is devouring our time: this unhealthy obsession with disease, cultivated to excess even among the youngest.
Let’s heal it today, stop maintaining it. pic.twitter.com/xlo97s1uIw
– Childhood & Freedoms (@EnfanceLibertes) October 10, 2021
If the Nenuco doll is well marketed, the “Barbie Covid-19” has on the other hand nothing official since it does not emanate from its manufacturer, Mattel.
FAKE OFF
The appearance of this singular Barbie on social networks is also nothing new: it dates back to April 2020, when Julene Jorgensen, an American designer, had put it online. on his Facebook account in the midst of the confinement period.
“Here is Barbie Pandemic. […] Inspired by the Mattel brand but without any affiliation. This is simply a personal artistic project, ”explained its creator at the time… which did not prevent this photo from going viral and being taken for a Barbie marketed by Mattel, like reported by our colleagues from LCI. On the other hand, the company has indeed created a Barbie bearing the likeness of Sarah Gilbert, co-creator of the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19.
“Nenuco, are you sick? », A doll well and truly marketed
The Nenuco doll visible in the video is however commercially available, especially on several sites of
sold online, in France
like in Italy. However, the product does not make the slightest reference to Covid-19, like the
previous models doll inviting children to check their health.
Entitled “Nenuco, are you sick?” “, This toy from the Spanish company Famosa encourages children to check if the infant” has a fever “and to treat it using the many” accessories included “including a vaccination record.
On the manufacturer’s website, the official description sheet of this “Nenuco, are you sick?” ” contains
advertising video resumed and criticized on Twitter – posted on the Famosa channel on October 14, 2021. Contacted by 20 minutes, the Famosa group had not responded to our requests before the publication of the article.