Having worked for Barbie and Mattel, people have been asking me about the Barbie Dream Fest debacle

Written: April 3, 2026

Having worked for Barbie and Mattel, people have been asking me about the Barbie Dream Fest debacle. In my opinion, Mattel is going to end up owning Mischief Management within a couple of months. That was a seriously brand-damaging event, and someone is going to have to answer for it.
I can tell you Mattel prides itself on high-quality experiences, so for them to trust one of their most valuable licenses and see it mishandled like that is a very bad look. If you take a look at Ynon Kreiz, does he look like someone you want to cross? He’s known as a pretty approachable guy internally, but I would not want to be on the other end of that phone call. He looks like the kind of guy that can somehow literally punch you through a telephone line.
On another note, the staff at
Nitetime.net
thinks we need to put on our own festival now. We can sit around and talk about being the webmaster for
Barbie.com
and