Why Rocket Mortgage's Barbie Commercial Has Twitter So Divided
While sports fans watch the Super Bowl for the hard-hitting sports action, other viewers tune in for the new commercials. As far as the latter, Rocket Mortgage endeavored to bring audiences laughter, joy, and nostalgia with its newest ad in the 2022 game.
At the beginning of the commercial, a young girl plays with her Barbie and her iconic Barbie Dream House. Suddenly, Anna Kendrick appears, providing commentary on how badly Barbie wants this dream home and how she found out about it through an alert from Rocket Mortgage. To Barbie's dismay, other interested buyers — such as Better Offer Betty, Cash Offer Carl, and House Flipper Skipper — try to outbid our plastic hero and steal the dream house right out from under her. Just in time, Rocket Mortgage comes through with verified finances to put Barbie over the edge, winning her dream house. When the other interested buyers plead for their own dream home, a Rocket Mortgage alert sends them to the Castle of Grayskull, the famous "Masters of the Universe" seat of power for He-Man.
While some found this commercial endearing and nostalgic, though, social media shows that others were not quite as sold on the advertisement.
Rocket Mortgage has Twitter divided
Rocket Mortgage used nostalgia — an increasingly popular tactic — to appeal to its audience. They partnered with Mattel to accomplish this, by bringing both Barbie and Masters of the Universe properties to the forefront. While some people loved the commercial, others weren't as impressed.
For example, Twitter user @foe_of_the_show expressed ire at the sentiment behind the theme, pointing out how it was actually pretty depressing that Barbie is now being prevented from getting her dream home due to greed, describing the commercial as "Late Stage Capitalist Barbie." Another Twitter user, @neco_ornot, wrote that after having to just recently go through the process of buying a home, the ad's fictitious depiction of the process was too stressful to enjoy.
Perhaps the best summary came from @Phil_Lewis_, who stated that "this barbie/rocket homes commercial is dark."
That said, opinion seems split, and the Twitter users who loved the ad were just as plentiful. "sorry, but I'm obsessed with mortgage commercials that used real Barbie dolls because, for decades, any ad with 'Barbies' in it uses fake Barbies unless it's an actual Mattel ad," said @kofchicago, citing their background knowledge. For some, just enjoying the ad isn't enough: @jrcharney is already calling for a sequel, writing that the ad "wins the first half of the [Super Bowl]. Hopefully, after whoever buys Castle Grayskull, they can fix up #Catradora's condo."
It's really the nostalgia that got people excited, though, and while this year's slate of commercials had all kinds of nostalgia going on – including the Sopranos in a Chevy ad — user @katie_grover was happy to see it. "Barbie House/Castle Greyskull was a Gen X nostalgia and then some," they wrote.