Credit: Warner Bros.The French poster for next month’s highly anticipated Barbie movie employs a double entendre that sounds like it could be the tagline for a Brandi Maxx porn remake of the film. What’s interesting about this is that contrary to the internet’s initial beliefs, it seems this was done intentionally.
Let’s have some fun with language, shall we?
There’s No Way That French Tagline for ‘Barbie’ Was an Accident
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The original tagline for Barbie on the American posters is:
“Barbie is everything. He’s just Ken.”
The tagline refers to the many different roles and professions the Barbies have in BarbieLand – roles like doctor, lawyer, nurse, astronaut, and even President Barbie. Kens, meanwhile, just goes to the beach and have beach-offs.
On the French poster, they translated this tagline as follows:
“Elle peut tout faire. Lui, c’est juste Ken.”
If you take this translation at face value, it says, “She can do everything. He’s just Ken.”
However, if you are French, under the age of 30, and don’t live under a rock, you will also know that the French use “Ken” colloquially in the same way we use a particular four-letter word that I’m not allowed to print here, as a euphemism referring to sex.
That, combined with the fact that “c’est” sounds the same as “sait,” the French word for “knows,” means that to the French, the poster reads:
“She knows how to do everything. He just knows how to f***.”
When this poster went up last week, everybody thought it was an unfortunate accident, with the internet in an uproar laughing at the apparent mistake. However, if you know a little French, you might realize that too much effort went into that translation for it to have been an accident.
im sorry for every non-french person who doesnt understand the genius wordplay in this
— char (@livsmayfield) June 16, 2023
The literal translation of the American slogan into French would have been: “Barbie est tout. Lui, c’est juste Ken.” Given how widespread the use of “ken” in young French people is, this would have presented an obvious and immediate problem to them.
A Doll Named F***
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This had to be a problem they were prepared for because they knew Ken’s name. It’s probably been a little joke in France for years – he’s basically a doll whose canon name is “F***.” Middle schoolers alone are going to have a field day with that.
(If you’re wondering how they got there: The French word for “to have sex” is forniquer, which became colloquially shortened to niquer over time. The French also have a custom of doing this sort of pig-Latin thing called verlan slang, where they switch the syllables of their words around. Niquer (pronounced “NEE-keh”) becomes queni or keni, which was eventually just shortened to Ken.)
So instead of trying to solve the issue, the marketing team behind Barbie in France just decided to lean into it, instead changing the first part of the phrase from “She is everything” to “She knows how to do everything,” which essentially say the same thing about her employment opportunities in BarbieLand anyway.
Warner Bros. neither confirmed nor denied this assertion when The Hollywood Reporter asked them for comment. All they said was:
“The speculation around the Barbie marketing campaign shows that there is a high level of awareness and major excitement from the public surrounding the upcoming release of our film in France.”
It seems like a confirmation to us – that was basically a wink.
But Wait…Does He?
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This poster did not rattle the French the way it would have rattled the US – as most people know, France is one of several European countries known to be much less uptight about mentioning sexual subjects in day-to-day life.
However, this contradicts Margot Robbie’s attempts to unsexualize the Barbie doll in this new film. As she has mentioned, Barbies and Kens are well-known for not having the necessary parts even to begin to attempt it (despite generations of kids apparently trying it anyway).
Regardless, given how casually a joke like this will be taken, we doubt it matters much. Everyone over there is just enjoying the wordplay.
Barbie will release in theaters in less than a month, on July 21, 2023. There are also advance screening tickets available for certain cities (but if you’re interested in those, you had better hurry, as there likely aren’t many left.)
What do you think of the French tagline for Barbie? Do you believe they did it on purpose? Weigh in in the comments below.