Barbie film used so much pink paint it fuelled a global shortage

June 05, 2023

The world is apparently running low on pink paint - and the new Barbie film is one of the reasons why. 

The production of Greta Gerwig's upcoming film required so much bright pink paint it wiped out an entire company's global supply.

Gerwig and the film's production designer Sarah Greenwood spoke to Architectural Digest about creating the bubblegum-hued set.

Everything in Barbie's Dreamhouse needed to be pink.

"I wanted the pinks to be very bright, and everything to be almost too much," Gerwig said.

As a result of the production's demands, "the world ran out of pink", Ms Greenwood told the magazine.

The company that makes the particular shade of fluorescent pink, Rosco, confirmed the Barbie film had cleaned them out.

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"They used as much paint as we had," Lauren Proud, vice president of global marketing, told the Los Angeles Times.

But, she said, they were already suffering from supply chain issues thanks to the impact of the pandemic and extreme winter weather in Texas damaging materials used to make the paint.

"There was this shortage and then we gave them everything we could - I don't know they can claim credit," she said.

But she acknowledged: "They did clean us out on paint."

There was just enough to complete the set for the production, which was mostly shot at Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden, Hertfordshire.

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