Google delights fans with sparkly special effect for Barbie movie: ‘This is so cute’

The highly anticipated film will be in cinemas from 21 July

The devil works hard, but the Barbie movie’s marketing team works harder. Now, search engine Google has got on board ahead of the live-action film’s hotly anticipated release on Friday 21 July.

This week, fans noticed that if they typed in the term “Barbie” into the search engine, they were treated to a visual feast of pink sparkles. The screen will also change into a pink hue and some of the text and icons on the search page will turn pink.

The same effect happens when users search for the terms “Margot Robbie” and “Ryan Gosling”, who both star in the film, and “Greta Gerwig”, the director of Barbie.

Fans have been delighted by the special effects, which was added to Google a week before the film’s release.

“IF YOU GOOGLE ‘BARBIE’ IT DOES A CUTE THING,” one enthusiastic user wrote on Twitter.

Another said: “Aww, this is so cute. If you Google ‘Barbie’, little pink sparkles come out, turning the background and some of the icons pink.”

A third praised the movie’s promotional team, writing: “Search Barbie movie and see what happens – they got Google, too! Barbie team didn’t miss a thing.”

The marketing effort that has gone into the film has impressed fans, with multiple high street fashion collaborations as Barbie is being released this week, as well as a Barbie Dreamhouse Airbnb in Malibu and other partnerships with food and beauty brands.

Brands including Zara, Primark, PrettyLittleThing, Aldo, and more have all released Barbie-themed collections, featuring clothes in various shades of pinks, as well as shoes and accessories that pay homage to the iconic doll.

Dating app Bumble also launched a partnership with Barbie to bring users compliments and encouragement from the film’s most notable Barbies and Kens.

There have also been Barbie-inspired dream houses in the UK that fans can rent or take an inside look at, including the property of a woman who describes herself as a “real-life Barbie”, dressing only in pink and living in a home with fully pink interiors.

The Independent’s reviewer Clarisse Loughrey gave the film five stars and wrote: “While it’s impossible for any studio film to be truly subversive… Barbie gets away with far more than you’d think was possible.”

Barbie, starring Robbie, Gosling, America Ferrera, Simu Liu, Issa Rae, Dua Lipa, and other celebrities, is out in cinemas on 21 July.