There’s a new doll on the block, and her name is slightly off-the-grid Barbie. At least that’s what Mattel and HMD, the makers of Nokia, would like you to believe.
The two companies have unveiled a new dumbphone, a product intentionally devoid of internet access, though heavily equipped with the Barbie aesthetic. It doesn’t have social-media apps, but it does have stickers. Released Wednesday to U.K. consumers only, the phone costs £99, or $130.74, according to CNBC. The U.S. edition of said phone is “coming soon,” according to HMD’s press release.
The flip phone is almost aggressively catered to Gen Z. It taps in not just to the generation’s Y2K aesthetic taste, but also to their proclivity to take a break from the smartphones they grew up with.
It “brings back the joy of simpler, sweeter days,” said HMD, imploring users to call their “besties, set up a catch-up date, and text them the meeting spot.” Good luck trying to get Apple users to comply, given their disgust even for green text bubbles.
This phone’s unveiling comes alongside a yearslong fashion cycle reminiscent of the 2000s, as heralded by Gen Zers in baby tees and low-rise pants. And yes, it’s somewhat ironic that it’s targeting the youngest generation, who were born around this era and probably don’t remember it at all, despite HMD’s press release mentioning “nostalgia.”
Above all, though, this phone is designed to appeal to Gen Z’s penchant for digital detoxes, which was also mentioned in the press release. Just this summer, Y2K icon Paris Hilton partnered with Razr to introduce their own hot-pink flip dumbphone.
Growing up with social media and fully immersed in the digital age, Gen Z has started to put up guardrails on their usage. Often fueled by mental-health concerns, some young adults have started constantly using their smartphone’s Do Not Disturb function, or even turned to flip phones.
In other words, the first generation to grow up in a world that always included smartphones has at least a subset of individuals who long for a life without them, or want rules to mitigate their influence. And across generations, nostalgia sells, especially during times of perceived chaos or pessimism.
“Today, with all the turmoil, there’s so much that we’re unsure of,” Krystine Batcho, a professor at Le Moyne College, told Fortune in 2022. “That is the perfect storm for nostalgia.”
It hasn’t gotten easier. Gen Z is coming of age in a time of socioeconomic turmoil, genocide, and financial anxiety—and there’s a dwindling belief in the American dream amid rising wealth inequality. The internet inundates everyone with this information. So, in the words of Don Draper, nostalgia is still potent.
Tech has been kicked off its 2010 pedestal, too. People are now more skeptical of what it purveys—its jobs are less dreamy (given layoffs), AI is a product that induces skepticism, and its CEOs are so off-putting that even Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg got a makeover. It makes sense, then, that this collective nostalgia would be paired with a rolling back of the clocks on our devices.
So, here comes a Barbie phone. Advertised as “perfect for taking a smartphone break,” it comes with some Barbie Easter eggs: digital wellness tips like self-care reminders, and a mirror on the front. Its lack of a feature is marketed as one, as “living in the real world without digital distraction” is listed as part of the product.
HMD’s press release says the device is “designed for less browsing and more fun this summer.” Fittingly, the summer is almost over, and Barbie’s time in the sun really was last year. In 2023, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie raked in more than $1.4 billion, creating not just a franchise but a moment of intentionally released product-design that seeped into the cultural zeitgeist.
But according to the chief marketing officer of Nokia Mobile and HMD Global, the season isn’t over yet on flip phones. “It’s not a small trend,” Lars Silberbauer told the Wall Street Journal in 2023.
