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Fortune
Fortune
Emma Hinchliffe

This Mattel executive had to strengthen the Barbie brand before the company could 'have fun' with Greta Gerwig's movie

Barbie Greta Gerwig Mattel Lisa McKnight Margot Robbie
(Credit: Courtesy of Mattel)

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! The House of Representatives finally gets a new speaker, unemployment fell in December, and the Barbie movie isn't what you think it is. Have a meaningful Monday.

- Come on Barbie. The December debut of a trailer for this summer's highly anticipated Barbie movie was a moment decades in the making. The teaser for the Greta Gerwig-directed film opens with actor Margot Robbie as a hundred-foot-tall Barbie, dressed in her original 1959 styling.

For Lisa McKnight, the overwhelming public response to the clip—and to on-set photos of Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken months earlier—represented the culmination of years of her own career, too. She joined Mattel almost 25 years ago and today serves as the company's EVP and global head of Barbie and dolls portfolio.

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