If you thought Barbie mania was over, think again. It has certainly not concluded for Kraft Heinz Co.
Nine months after the release of Barbie, which brought in more than $1.4 billion to become the highest-grossing film of 2023, the food maker has partnered with Mattel Inc. To produce “Barbiecue” sauce. The condiment is appropriately pink hued and emblazoned with the pony-tailed doll profile. If star Margot Robbie had worked a grill in the movie, the product would have had prime placement.
Heinz is launching Barbiecue, which is discretely labeled on the back of the squeezable bottle as “Heinz Vegan Mayo with BBQ Sauce,” in just two countries, the UK and Spain.
In the UK, it will be sold as a limited-edition offering, with 5,000 bottles available on heinztohome.co.uk starting on Monday. A further limited run of the sauce will be sold nationwide at Tesco supermarkets, from April 17, and then on Ocado, the online UK delivery service, starting in mid-May. In total, Heinz is producing around 105,000 bottles for the UK. The suggested retail price is £3.39 ($4.22) for a 415 ml squeeze bottle.
In Spain, around 12,000 bottles of the sauce will be available nationally at 120 El Corte Inglés department stores, with some online giveaways, starting on April 25.
Barbie merchandise has been flying off the shelf since the movie’s release in July 2023. Mattel’s sales grew by 9.3% in third-quarter 2023, to $1.92 billion, thanks in large part to Barbie. Additional Barbiecore products such as Gap hoodies and Crocs were snapped up, too.
“Our relationship with Barbie started over a year ago, ahead of the movie launching,” says Andre Fernandes, Kraft Heinz’s vice president of Growth, Europe & Pacific Developed Markets. Big food companies aren’t known for moving fast, however, so it’s only now, in spring 2024 with the film playing on airline screens, that Heinz is releasing Barbiecue.
The company first gauged interest on social media in late summer, when a Facebook UK post generated 464,000 likes and 71,000 comments. “One fan even told us they’d dye their hair pink if we brought Barbiecue to life,” says Fernandes. That’s when Heinz decided to make the sauce a reality, at least for a short period. Product development took about six months.
The starting point for the recipe, according to Fernandes, comes from customers’ habit of blending Heinz Classic BBQ sauce with the company’s mayo; the color comes from what is certainly a hefty amount of beet root extract. The result is exactly what you’d expect: a thick, gloppy spread that’s almost the consistency of mayo, with a sweet faux-smoky flavor.
The product is launching in the UK and Spain because that’s where Heinz saw the strongest response from customers following its social media tease. Although there are currently no plans to sell Barbiecue in the US, says Fernandes, “We’d never say never to launching it in other markets. We’ve even had people from Australia asking for Barbiecue.”
As for other Barbie-themed products? “We’d never rule out a Kenchup,” Fernandes says.