Angry over bad haircuts, tight shoes and efforts to muzzle their magazines, Barbie collectors are boycotting the doll's maker, firing off angry letters on pink stationery.
The flurry of correspondence organizers are calling the Pink Tidal Wave is part of a monthlong anti-Mattel rebellion dubbed the Pink Protest.Angry doll collectors are even threatening the unthinkable: stocking up on Barbie rival, Ashton-Drake's Jean.
"It's just like the '60s," said 48-year-old Norita Bergmann, whose Great Lakes chapter of the Barbie Collectors Club had a run-in with Mattel over using Barbie in its name. "It's us vs. them."
As silly as it might sound to some, Mattel is taking collector complaints seriously. In an extraordinary summit, the toymaker recently sent three top executives to meet with two leading collectors, but talks ended after six hours with key issues unresolved.
Boycott organizers hope many of the estimated 250,000 Barbie collectors worldwide will not buy from Mattel Inc. for the month of May.
The boycott isn't likely to dent sales of Barbie, among the world's best-selling toys with $1.7 billion in 1996 sales, but market experts agree that avid Barbie collectors contribute to the doll's mystique, elevating a child's plaything to a cultural icon.