Barbie’s Japanese distributor apologizes for its parent company’s reaction to Barbenheimer memes

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese distributor of the Warner Bros. movie “Barbie” has apologized for its U.S. parent company’s reaction to social media posts about the “Barbenheimer” blitz that combined images of Barbie and an atomic bomb mushroom cloud. The memes triggered criticisms in Japan for what many described as minimizing nuclear attacks. The simultaneous release in July of the Barbie movie and Universal’s Oppenheimer — about Robert Oppenheimer, who helped develop the atomic weapon — sparked the Barbenheimer craze for watching both. The official Barbie account said in response to combined memes of the two movies and the Barbeheimer boom: “It’s going to be a summer to remember.”