Barbie is having a cultural moment, with social and traditional media awash in the news about this summer’s blockbuster movie. As bright and optimistic as Barbie’s world might be - and as she discovers in the film - there are darker forces at play in the real world. In fact, a recent Barbie disinformation campaign provides a great case study for not everything being as it appears, and contains a valuable lesson for those running campaigns and political organizations.

At DDC, we educate around three primary bad actors in cyberspace that put campaigns and organizations at risk: cybercriminals seeking to monetize crime, nation states attempting to disrupt, and hacktivists aimed at achieving a political end or righting a perceived injustice. Barbie and her parent (pun intended) company Mattel fell victim to this last group.

In Barbie’s case, a group calling itself the Barbie Liberation Organization issued a fake press release that looked remarkably like a real release from Mattel, including a quote from their CEO, claiming there was going to be a new “Eco-Warrier Barbie” and that Mattel would go plastic free by 2030. The release featured a quote from actress Daryl Hannah, who the release claimed was Mattel’s new brand ambassador, but who was in fact part of the false campaign.

At first you might think this a benign effort of political theater. However, there were some actual consequences. The release the Barbie Liberation Army put out was such an exact facsimile that several news organizations, including People and the Washington Times, picked up as actual news. Of course, they later retracted their stories.

What the Barbie Liberation Army conducted was an extremely effective disinformation campaign. One of their stated goals on their website is:

“Our covert operations are carefully crafted to disrupt the status quo and inspire others to question constructs that confine them.”

This goal with the use of words like “covert operations” to “disrupt,” and “inspire others to question constructs” should not be taken lightly. Manipulating narratives using popular current events and creating partial truths are just the kinds of ideas and tactics that nation states and hacktivists use to disrupt our political system to formulate their playbooks.

Using impersonation -- whether to pose as a person, company or organization -- underlie these efforts because they engender trust and belief that what is being said is true. While the Barbie Liberation Army’s goal seems to be educational, what if it wasn’t? What if their goal had been to spread false rumors about a candidate? What if a nation state engaged in activity like this to create support for candidates they thought were more sympathetic to their policy goals? A disinformation campaign like this in the closing days of a campaign as voters are solidifying their support around a candidate, could have serious negative consequences. For example, it could sway a small percentage of voters in a close election to change their vote and an outcome or discourage people from voting at all.

Plenty of people have mixed feelings about Barbie. But we can probably all agree she is not a role model for subverting our democracy.

Written by Michael Kaiser, President and CEO of Defending Digital Campaigns