Rare Diamond Nominally Attached to Barbie For Sale (VIDEO)

Ah, yes, the breast cancer donation, the savviest of all humanitarian contributions. How many marketing meetings have ended with just such a plan to win feminist support? Mattel Inc. has long known that its image among mothers with little girls could use some work, and now it's going to patch things up with the benefit auction of a half-million-dollar Barbie doll.

The auction, set for October 20, will be a sort of cap-and-trade program for retail karma; every fifty years of insistence on the feminine ideal can apparently be offset with a $500,000 donation to breast cancer. What will the money pay for? The biggest selling point is that the doll's necklace is set with diamonds, including a rare pink diamond from Australia. And the world tour for the "most expensive Barbie ever" couldn't have hurt. And maybe the figurine in the little black cocktail dress added a couple of bucks.

WNYC's blog posted the groovy video below, along with an interesting interview with Stefano Canturi, the jeweler who designed the doll and even "picked the eyelashes," here.