Skip to content
NOWCAST KCCI News at 5am Weekday Morning
Live Now
Advertisement

A funeral home in El Salvador offers pink coffins with Barbie linings

Latin America has jumped on Barbie mania with pink-colored tacos and pastries, commercial planes bearing the Barbie logo, political ads, and even Barbie-themed protests

A funeral home in El Salvador offers pink coffins with Barbie linings

Latin America has jumped on Barbie mania with pink-colored tacos and pastries, commercial planes bearing the Barbie logo, political ads, and even Barbie-themed protests

The basement of her. Knoxville bungalow looks *** whole bunch like *** Barbie Bazaar. You're how old? Hm. 70 aren't you? *** little too old to be playing with dolls? No, it all began back in 1979 when Marion Welch read *** bit on Barbie in *** collector's magazine and that was it. She was bitten by the bug. How badly has it bitten? You? You can tell by how many dollars you got around here. Ok. So how many do, do you have 1243? That's inventory are listed and tagged and most have never been out of their boxes. What is it about? I don't know, it's just that I like him. But if Marion had to pick one thing, the eyes have it, each doll's eyes are different. There's *** different markings on the eyes, the eyes are very expressive. If you really look at them very expressive. Marion has no idea how much dough she's doled out for all of these dolls, but they are insured for $16,000. Now, the original, I do not have this one is close to it. The first Barbie hit the shelves way back in 1959. And ever since there's been some controversy about her curves. Don't tell Marion that Barbie's measurements are unrealistic because she will quickly tell you that every inch of Barbie equals six inches on you and me and that means everything and I mean, everything is within the realm of reason. She made 36 inch. That's not. No. Marion says her devotion to this doll isn't out of proportion either, but she is planning to downsize, look around. I don't have room. So at 70 years of age you're not too old to play with Barney. No, not yet. Give me about five years. Maybe. I'm Steve Carlin covering Central Iowa for news channel eight.
Advertisement
A funeral home in El Salvador offers pink coffins with Barbie linings

Latin America has jumped on Barbie mania with pink-colored tacos and pastries, commercial planes bearing the Barbie logo, political ads, and even Barbie-themed protests

A funeral home in El Salvador has taken Barbie mania to an extreme, offering pink coffins with Barbie linings.It's all designed so you can be a Barbie fan till the day you die — and even after that.The pink metal coffins are on sale at the Alpha and Omega Funeral Home in the city of Ahuachapán, near the border with Guatemala.Owner Isaac Villegas said Friday he had already offered the option of pink coffins before the July premiere of the Barbie movie. But the craze that swept Latin America convinced him to decorate the cloth linings of the coffins with pictures of the doll. The coffins are also decorated with little white stars."I said, 'We have to jump on this trend,'" Villegas said of the coffins, noting "it has been a success."He said the funeral home has already launched a promotional campaign around the Barbie boxes, and has sold 10 of them. Though that doesn't mean 10 people have actually been buried in them — many people in El Salvador buy a pre-paid package for future burial.Villegas said that until a year ago, families had preferred traditional coffins in colors like brown, black, white or gray. But a year ago, he sold his first pink coffin to a family who wanted their very happy relative buried in a happier-colored coffin.Now he has no plans to turn back, though he still offers darker colors."We are going to have more pink coffins because people are asking for it," he said.Latin America jumped on Barbie mania with pink-colored tacos and pastries, commercial planes bearing the Barbie logo, political ads, and even Barbie-themed protests.The famous doll's theme has also taken a macabre tone.In July, anti-government demonstrators dressed up two women in pink and put them in giant Barbie boxes in the main square of Lima, Peru's capital, to protest President Dina Boluarte, under whose administration police have often clashed with protesters.And in Mexico, a sister of one of Mexico's 112,000 missing people began sewing doll outfits to make a "Searching Mother" Barbie, referring to the volunteers who fan out across Mexico's dusty plains to search for gravesites that might contain their children's remains. Her creator, volunteer searcher Delia Quiroa, hopes to publicize the plight of mothers who have to carry out the searches and investigations that police won't do.

A funeral home in El Salvador has taken Barbie mania to an extreme, offering pink coffins with Barbie linings.

It's all designed so you can be a Barbie fan till the day you die — and even after that.

Advertisement

The pink metal coffins are on sale at the Alpha and Omega Funeral Home in the city of Ahuachapán, near the border with Guatemala.

Owner Isaac Villegas said Friday he had already offered the option of pink coffins before the July premiere of the Barbie movie. But the craze that swept Latin America convinced him to decorate the cloth linings of the coffins with pictures of the doll. The coffins are also decorated with little white stars.

"I said, 'We have to jump on this trend,'" Villegas said of the coffins, noting "it has been a success."

He said the funeral home has already launched a promotional campaign around the Barbie boxes, and has sold 10 of them. Though that doesn't mean 10 people have actually been buried in them — many people in El Salvador buy a pre-paid package for future burial.

Villegas said that until a year ago, families had preferred traditional coffins in colors like brown, black, white or gray. But a year ago, he sold his first pink coffin to a family who wanted their very happy relative buried in a happier-colored coffin.

Now he has no plans to turn back, though he still offers darker colors.

"We are going to have more pink coffins because people are asking for it," he said.

Latin America jumped on Barbie mania with pink-colored tacos and pastries, commercial planes bearing the Barbie logo, political ads, and even Barbie-themed protests.

The famous doll's theme has also taken a macabre tone.

In July, anti-government demonstrators dressed up two women in pink and put them in giant Barbie boxes in the main square of Lima, Peru's capital, to protest President Dina Boluarte, under whose administration police have often clashed with protesters.

And in Mexico, a sister of one of Mexico's 112,000 missing people began sewing doll outfits to make a "Searching Mother" Barbie, referring to the volunteers who fan out across Mexico's dusty plains to search for gravesites that might contain their children's remains. Her creator, volunteer searcher Delia Quiroa, hopes to publicize the plight of mothers who have to carry out the searches and investigations that police won't do.