I’m on record as saying that “trolling” is much less prominent in Web publishing than many people think. At the same time, when you hear about Mattel and Sports Illustrated teaming up to create a Swimsuit Issue Barbie, I think you’d have to say that the world is being trolled.
After all, there’s no publicity quite like free publicity and trolling the public is a decent way to get that free publicity. There are apparently three prongs to this campaign. One is a set of photos of Barbie dolls that will appear in the swimsuit issue, the second is an advertorial campaign along the #unapologetic theme, and the third is an actual doll for sale exclusively at Target.
