Barclays’ WSL Barbie-gate – Offensive or engaging a younger fanbase?

THAT tweet… posted today by Barclays’ Women’s Super League Twitter account around 11am, hopping on the Barbie film bandwagon.

It featured four WSL stars, each with their own caption about what ‘This Barbie’ had achieved, whether it be breaking an all-time appearance record (Tottenham Hotspur defender Kerys Harrop) or reaching a 50-goal milestone (Chelsea striker Sam Kerr).

The now-deleted tweet depicting Chelsea Women’s striker Sam Kerr

Within two hours it had been taken down, with a Football Association spokesperson calling the tweets “an error of judgment”.

It was certainly divisive and opinions were split among our writers and editors. But was it harmless fun? A bit of light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek content in a slow WSL week? Or did it miss the mark?

‘It’s only a meme’

Among staunch defenders of the post were the ‘it’s only a meme’ crowd. The Barclays Twitter admin (without a WSL fixture in sight for the next two weeks) simply sent out a culturally-relevant tweet joining the hype around the release of the new Barbie film. In doing so, they had shown they were ‘down with the kids’ and had also highlighted some achievements of WSL stars.

Fans of the tweet were quick to say it was too easy to get wrapped up in a moral and ethical debate about whether it was an appropriate way to display female role models in the game; that the discussion didn’t need this level of discourse, unpacking and uber-analysis.

Some of the more witty tweet supporters created their own ‘This Barbie’ tweets featuring Arsenal striker Beth Mead (currently recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury), with the caption: “This Barbie is running again”. For Kim Little, the 32-year-old Arsenal captain, they created one saying: “This Barbie is not allowed to retire”.

The most comical was a mock-up of Arsenal and England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy, with the caption: “This Barbie is running the country” — a throw to Wubben-Moy’s recent successful campaign to secure a government pledge for all schoolgirls to have equal access to football and sport in schools.

A few of our own writers embraced the Barbie content and felt it was an effective way of engaging a younger fanbase.

‘The tweet was tone-deaf’

The other side of the Twitter fence was outraged. Some said the tweet was tone-deaf, associating the players with a figurine that has caused significant controversy since it hit the market 60 years ago.

In this new era of women’s sport and empowerment, the post felt clunky and outdated, calling England’s No 1 and Women’s Euro 2022 winner Mary Earps a ‘Barbie’ (despite there also being a reference to her clean-sheet record this season). There was anger that the account was “comparing professional athletes to a toy”.

The choice of caption for prolific Manchester City striker Bunny Shaw was particularly problematic. It read: “This Barbie is a Bunny”. The absence of any reference to Shaw being Manchester City’s highest-scoring player across a single season (scoring 26 goals in 22 games) or her being the WSL’s current leading goalscorer (16 goals) was painful.

The post depicting Bunny Shaw made no reference to her record-breaking season

It could be considered offensive to the talent and achievements of Shaw, especially when her WSL colleagues have been so well-credited in their posts. A large portion of comments below the tweet felt Shaw deserved something more than a simple statement about her name. It felt lazy.

Another witty Twitter user commented: “I’d love to see the brainstorming plan for Bunny… couldn’t have taken long”.

“The potential push-back here should have been better anticipated and any involvement prepared a little better,” said one of The Athletic’s social media team.

“There’s nothing wrong with getting involved in trends on social media — it’s part of the dance. But it was half-baked and showed there is sometimes too much of a rush for brands to be involved in trends, even when there isn’t a natural fit there.”