Taking a stand is easy. Going all the way requires commitment.

So Barbie teamed up with She Should Run, a non-partisan organization dedicated to expanding the talent pool of future elected female leaders, to help motivate more women and girls to explore leadership opportunities. The pair worked together to highlight female leaders, offer tools that enable leadership storytelling, and to get parents talking to their girls about this important topic.

With just 39 percent of girls saying that they want to be a leader (according to the Girl Scouts Institute), President and Vice President Barbie aimed to serve as an inspiration for girls to pursue their dreams and imagine what they can become.

• Secured media exclusives with The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post to help set the non-partisan tone of the conversation at the launch.

• Gave interviews with Erin Loos Cutraro (Co-Founder & CEO of She Should Run) and Mattel spokespeople -- Michelle Chidoni (Brand Communications), Lisa McKnight (Head of Barbie), and Tania Missad (Lead Child Researcher).

• Put President and Vice President Barbie into the hands of key influencers and media including female senators and congresswomen on Capitol Hill, national morning broadcast stations, other key national media, celebs and parenting influencers.

• Product packages consisted of a set of dolls and a leadership worksheet for the recipient to gift to a young girl as inspiration.

• Distributed press materials (e.g., press release, hero video and product images) and conducted broad outreach to lifestyle, business and trade media.

The launch successfully spurred engage and positive conversation about women and leadership for She Should Run (SSR):

· Social surge: Instagram +300%; Twitter +5%; Facebook +17%.

· 600% increase in peer nominations of women who should run for office.

· 9000+ women inspired to run for office

· 236% increase in women’s and girls’ interest in running for public office some day

· Doubled SSR Incubator enrollment.

President and Vice President Barbie generated 128 placements and 456MM+ impressions. Coverage was overwhelmingly positive with 96% containing positive or neutral sentiment.

· (2) exclusives: The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal

· (2) Op-eds (SSR founder Erin Loos Cutraro): FORTUNE and TIME Motto

Top-tier coverage included The Huffington Post, Yahoo Style!, Today.com, NPR and PopSugar

Doll deliveries to women on Capitol Hill resulted in social coverage from U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill and U.S. Congresswoman Cheri Bustos.

The Barbie doll pioneered preparing girls for future careers. To date, Barbie has had more than 180 different careers, many in fields underrepresented by women – from astronaut to videogame developer. Since the United States has never had a female president, this election presented a unique opportunity. We partnered with She Should Run, a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to growing the number of future woman leaders, and introduced the first all-female ticket for the White House. Through a stakeholder and media relations program, we sparked a national conversation that included both elected and future leaders.

The Ticket to Play campaign was designed to influence and target moms, girls and female leaders. Barbie leveraged the She Should Run partnership to inspire parents to take action, including talking to their girls about leadership. Importantly, we:

• Avoided association with either political party, and carefully considered launch timing to avoid significant political moments (i.e., conventions). We worked diligently to circumvent direct comparison to the only female candidate, Hillary Clinton.

• Prepared a variety of responses for possible negative backlash and a sliding launch date, given the controversial and unpredictable nature of the U.S. presidential news cycle.

• Engaged key media: political writers/publications, women’s lifestyle, parenting, general news outlets.

• Delivered the new dolls to national morning broadcast shows, elected female representatives and select celebrity influencers.

• Collaborated with She Should Run to produce two op-eds by its Co-Founder/CEO Erin Loos Cutraro.

Barbie has changed over the last 50 years. New skin tones and body shapes aside, one thing has always stayed the same – inspiring careers. For 57 years, Barbie has had the ambition to inspire young girls to pursue their professional dreams. So the first time a woman was in the race for the White House -- Barbie had to seize the opportunity.

In 2016, Barbie was preparing to run on the first-ever, all-female ticket with the introduction of the new President and Vice President Barbie dolls. This came at a turbulent time when the real-life U.S. presidential election was becoming increasing polarizing and negative.

Building on the brand’s “You Can Be Anything” campaign, Barbie wanted to use the launch to raise awareness of the need for more women in leadership roles. The campaign was directed at moms and daughters, while inspiring women everywhere to take action.