Greenpeace Calls Barbie A 'Serial Killer'

An environmental organization has accused Barbie, the world's most popular doll, of being a sadistic serial killer.

According to Greenpeace, the 52-year-old fashion icon immortalized in plastic by Mattel, Inc., is involved in rainforest destruction in Indonesia.

"Barbie is trashing rainforests and pushing critically endangered wildlife, like tigers, towards extinction," said Bustar Maitar, head of Greenpeace’s campaign to save the forests in Indonesia.

"This is happening because Barbie's packaging comes from the rainforests of Indonesia, home to species like the Sumatran tiger," Maitar continued.

Greenpeace said they opened the investigation of Barbie after forensic testing revealed the origin of her packaging. The organization also claims they have obtained company certificates that allegedly show that Mattel uses packaging produced by a company that was previously exposed for wrecking rainforests.

"Mattel ... must stop wrapping the world's most famous toy in rainforest destruction," Maitar said.

The dark underbelly of Barbie's alleged activities has damaged her relationship with her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Ken, Greenpeace said. (SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO)

On Tuesday, activists dressed as Ken dolls lowered themselves down the 15-story Mattel headquarters building in El Segundo, Calif., and hung massive 2,500-square-foot protest banners that read: "Barbie, it's over. I don't date girls that are into deforestation."

According to Rolf Skar, a blogger for Greenpeace, Barbie -- or rather a female activist dressed as Barbie -- was present during the protest.

"On ground level, Barbie cruised around in her bright pink 'dream dozer' more worried about her wardrobe than the fate the forests, tigers, and our climate," Skar wrote in a blog post. "When asked what her reaction was to Ken's objection to her role in forest destruction, she smiled, batted her lashes and said, referring to her bulldozer, 'do you think they will let me park this at the mall?'"

Nearly a dozen activists, including "Barbie," were arrested after hanging the posters. They were charged with conspiracy and trespassing, according to Reuters.

Mattel has since issued a statement regarding Greenpeace's allegations, saying they are disappointed in the organization's actions.

"Playing responsibly has long been an important part of Mattel's business practices. ... Over the past months we have been in communication with Greenpeace on a variety of paper sourcing issues. We are surprised and disappointed that they have taken this inflammatory approach," the statement read.

The company said they will "continue to assess our paper sourcing and packaging improvements" as they move forward.

WATCH:

Comments

[Greatest Darthfruit]

12:19 AM on 06/18/2011

Ban barbie anyway! It only show girls how to become skinny airheads

[Vet Barnes]

04:41 PM on 06/09/2011

The real issue in this story is that Greenpeace is more concerned with publicity and power rather than building trust with the business community to make changes which apparently Mattel was doing. So the Nazi force implication holds true as Greenpeace would rather not change minds through trust and real communication, but through force by pulling on the emotions of people. This is what the Nazis did in criminalizing particular groups of people. We see this tactic in animal rights groups like PeTA, HSUS, THLN, and Greenpeace. For them it is the power they weld now rather than the saving the planet. 12 million children die each year from lack of protein in their diets. But the animal rights movement is intent on ending the use of all animals for food, companionship, and medical research. This is no longer about saving the planet, but about power and not for the good either. If they truly wanted to save the rain forest they would be working to build trust with all businesses to effect change. And that means giving the people who actually chop down the trees some means of a living so they don't have to destroy their only resource. But that is too much hard work and requires intelligence not drama. So they choose to instill fear and propaganda, but the lies they tell are backfiring on them as more and more people become disgusted by their lack of professionalism and concern for human beings as well as animals.

[Mark Chellis]

01:56 PM on 06/09/2011

These numbskulls would do well to stop using Barbie and simply focus in Mattel. This method will do no better than the ridiculous PETA protests that do little more than bring in ogling men.

[flwrskmbrly88]

01:54 PM on 06/09/2011

Barbie destroying the rainforest- c'mon. I believe they are over-reaching to say the least. There are many,many products that come in plastic containers/wrapping. This is ridiculus to say the least. Hand Out anyone??

[PoodleMom206]

01:46 PM on 06/09/2011

Methinks Greenpeace is stooping to the headline-grabbing tactics of PETA. What a turn-off.

[mrvnlimar]

12:56 PM on 06/09/2011

Greenpeace used to have an agenda and an action plan that were admirable and worthwhile. Now thier antics are laughable and simple buffoonery. They were always a bit grandiose in their endeavors but the silliness being exhibited by their anti-Mattell campaign is really over the top. I guess that their slogan now could be "Save a tree, throw Barbie and Ken in a plastic bag." Oh wait, that involves oil. What a dilemma. We don't want any anti-oil rig protests now, do we?

[tjdwill01]

01:03 PM on 06/09/2011

Green Peace is just another political grub, looking for money.

[sylvabugg2]

12:50 PM on 06/09/2011

What the heck Huffpost? Are you really that anal that you would remove both my posts because one mentioned pubic hair? Really? I've seen worse things posted on here.

[Greatest Darthfruit]

12:16 AM on 06/18/2011

join the club, I guess we still need to learn the proper vocabulary for those... moderators

[lawlibrarian]

12:26 PM on 06/09/2011

I never had, or wanted, a Barbie. In the 60's they were, and actually continue to be, pretty scary looking. My daughter was given Barbies as gifts when she was young and I fully realized why I didn't like them. They are impossible to dress, their shoes won't stay on and they stand on tip toe. If a girl wants to play with a doll....get her a generic little baby doll that she can feed, change, wash and dress by HERSELF. Or, better yet, buy her a truck!

[penguin0315]

12:43 PM on 06/09/2011

My daughter has been given barbies, and she doesn't usually play with them. She's very into American Girl dolls though. We love them because they don't play to pop culture, they are for young girls who ARE young girls, not 8 year olds going on 22

[lawlibrarian]

11:43 AM on 06/13/2011

My daughter loved the American Girl dolls! She especially loved the books that came with the dolls. She has always been a huge reader and now is going to college to be a writer. Also, Barbies look like hookers or drag queens!

[sylvabugg2]

12:47 PM on 06/09/2011

Funny you should say that. When my daughter turned 3 her dad bought her a toy SUV with a trailer and a horse in it. Her brother always got boys toys for his birthday, and when she would get dolls and girly things, he said she looked disappointed, lol. She was quite happy with the truck though.

[lawlibrarian]

11:44 AM on 06/13/2011

I played with dolls but had MUCH more fun with toy cars, trucks and just digging in the dirt!

[themeekeer]

11:25 AM on 06/09/2011

This group, on the lunatic fringe to be sure, is always amusing. But it IS frightening to think that the members are allowed to roam free when they should really be locked up and medicated. I would definitely keep small children away from them since there seems to be no limit to their idiotic delusions.

[pcoley47]

11:19 AM on 06/09/2011

Seriously....DOUBLE STANDARDS......HEY Ken...what is your box made of????? We need to stop the real serial killers and rapist...and leave the doll playing to kids. Lets call in G I Joe

[MyNinja]

06:18 PM on 06/09/2011

A Real American Hero!

[shakesome]

11:17 AM on 06/09/2011

I'm pretty sure neither of my daughters ever owned a Barbie doll, or wanted one. They weren't that type of girl. But if they HAD wanted one, I wouldn't have refrained from getting them one just because some dreadlocked rainbow-tied-dyed freak said they were 'bad'.

[Kristopher Ballard]

12:02 PM on 06/09/2011

"dreadlocke­d rainbow-ti­ed-dyed freak" is really all you took from the article? Really? You might not like their methods and think them over the top, but do you really fail to see how it's a bad idea to continually cut down the rainforest just so we have a convenient source of boxes for children's toys? Did you just completely miss that point? Posts like yours make me weep for the future.

[shakesome]

11:15 AM on 06/09/2011

"Greenpeace". Put two nice-sounding concepts together and it still doesn't hide their socialist agenda.

[lawlibrarian]

12:20 PM on 06/09/2011

Do you even know what Socialism IS? Socialism is an economic system in which the means of production are publicly or commonly owned and controlled co-operatively. Greenpeace is an environmental organization that focuses its work on world wide issues such as global warming, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling and anti-nuclear. Which of these two are the Boogey Man?? Seriously, what are your afraid of??? People working together or the common goal of cleaner air, water and earth?

[peapers]

02:19 PM on 06/09/2011

People working together is never the case with organization that are socialistic in nature.

Socialistic and "cooperative" systems are always introduced by an elite few and usually with disastrous results on the "unwashed" masses.

The biggest fear we "regular" folk have is the inevitable conversion of socialist ideals into NAZI-like regimes. Socialist systems, when left to the elite, always have to be implemented with deadly forced in the end. Anyone who says no to the edict that has been passed down has to be controlled, ultimately, by deadly force.

That's what we're afraid of.

[sidecarman]

11:05 AM on 06/09/2011

this doll should be illegal.

[truposer]

11:44 AM on 06/09/2011

WHY?

[sidecarman]

11:05 AM on 06/09/2011

not only that but the sexist shape of barbie dolls is probably responsible for hundreds of rapes and attacks on women.

[pcoley47]

11:21 AM on 06/09/2011

seriously....why do you play with them

[wrenaroo]

10:58 AM on 06/09/2011

Proof Mattel is responsible for Ken not having any "wood"