Barbie is going above and beyond to break gender stereotypes with its new ad by having a boy star in the commercial, which is a first for the popular doll brand.
The young and blond boy, with a killer Mohawk, is seen smiling and laughing while he plays with the limited edition Moschino Barbie alongside two young girls. "Moschino Barbie is so fierce!" he says to the camera as he holds the doll's tiny purse in his hands. The boy appears again at the end of the ad, adorably winking at the camera.
The boy is styled to look like popular fashion designer Jeremy Scott, who actually came up with the idea for the ad. "When I dreamed up the concept for the Moschino Barbie fauxmerical, I felt it was natural to have a little boy representing for all the little boys like myself who played with Barbies growing up," said Scott in a statement, according to CBS News. "Barbie was more than a toy — she was a muse!"
"So happy about all the love and attention my @moschino Barbie commercial is getting," Scott captioned a photo of the young boy winking. "To me it was so natural to have a boy playing with the Barbie as well as the girls. I am thrilled that its started a national discussion about gender neutrality for kids toys. I think we should let kids play and be happy after all play is the work of childhood!"
Several news outlets, including gossip columnist Perez Hilton, are praising the brand for challenging the typical doll sterotypes. "@barbie FINALLY features a boy in a commercial!" tweeted Hilton. Meanwhile, "RuPaul's Drag Race" star Pandora Boxx left an exciting comment on the YouTube page featuring the commercial. "This almost made me cry!" he wrote. "I used to play with my sister's Barbies and felt such shame afterward. I'm so glad we can just let kids be kids. Thank you for this! Boys like dolls too!"
The Moschino Barbie, which is decked out in the Italian luxury fashion brand, debuted earlier this week and only about 700 of the $150 dolls were made, according to Vogue. Within less than a half hour, the dolls had all sold out. They are now available on eBay for $400 to $800.
"With these dolls I wanted to bring all the Moschino elements to Barbie's world, which is the reverse of what we imagined for the Spring 2015 collection, which brought Barbie elements to Moschino's world," Scott told People of the design. "The thing I love about Barbie is she is the ultimate muse and inspired me to become a designer. Moschino style is all about humor coupled with high fashion and Barbie allows us to play out these looks in a whole new way."
Watch the stylish and now iconic ad below!
