Mediaboss Marketing

CARACAS, Venezuela Socialism has embraced Barbie, just in time for Christmas.

Mothers, grandmothers and beaming little girls are grabbing armfuls of the dolls in toy stores across Caracas, taking advantage of the governments order that large chains sell the plastic figurines at fire-sale prices during the holiday shopping season.

No sooner had saleswoman Crystal Casanova begun mounting a display of gleaming pink boxes on a recent weekday than a horde of women descended. Soon, she and her co-workers were letting customers grab the Barbies straight out of the Mattel-stamped cardboard cartons.

Within minutes, the entire stock was gone, with the dolls selling for as little as 250 bolivars $2.50 at the widely used black market conversion rate.

Venezuelas socialist government has long imposed price caps on essential products, from milk to laundry detergent, and threatened merchants who hoard goods or sell them at unfairly high margins with jail time.

Now President Nicolas Maduro is making the Barbie doll, often derided by leftists as a training tool for capitalist consumerism, a highlight of this years Operation Merry Christmas, which he presented as an effort to prevent speculators from ruining the holidays.

Maduros mentor, the late President Hugo Chavez, once denounced the stupidity of Barbie and called for Venezuela to develop its own iconic childrens toys.

Venezuelans have been snapping up the dirt-cheap Barbies.Photo: AP

Feminists, too, criticize the doll for presenting an unhealthy image of the female body, though in Venezuela, a land of beauty queens and abundant plastic surgery, its an image many women strive to meet.

The toy isnt the only product affected by the initiative. Across town from the Barbie bonanza, the government is selling big-ticket products directly to shoppers at a fraction of what they usually cost.

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Socialisms Christmas gift to the people: $2.50 Barbie dolls