Hail to the (Plastic) Chief!
No recount needed—this presidential doll made her maker a winner.
Just another pretty face she isn't. Political naysayers'
jaws dropped in June 2000 when Vanessa, one of five dolls in the
Get Set Club collection, announced she would run against Barbie in
the 2000 presidential election. Vanessa is college-educated,
entrepreneurial and African American. "We thought the idea was
a great way to [show] we were different," says company founder
Jennifer Baker, 36.
Intrigued reporters and consumers soon flooded Baker's
Philadelphia company with calls for the presidential doll. However,
there was no Vanessa for President doll to go with the campaign.
Baker and her staff hustled to make the special dolls, eventually
selling 1,700 of them. "It was so backwards, but it turned out
to be such a success," Baker says. Vanessa's cabinet
members, the four other Get Set Club dolls, also sold well and led
to a sales increase of 30 percent, with sales for 2000 exceeding $1
million.
Baker says the campaign was a very positive experience that led
to other creative ideas, like a political fund-raiser for Vanessa,
attended by CNN. The Ms. Foundation also selected Baker's dolls
as the official products for Take Our Daughters to Work Day 2001.
And the winner of that 2000 presidential election? You be the
judge.
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