Mattel Planning Big Web Series Push For Barbie’s Beau Ken

Barbie gets all the attention—the outfits, the special editions, the SNL parody sketches—but what about her forlorn beau Ken?

Mattel has been looking to reinvent Ken with an ever so clever product placement as a central character in Toy Story 3D this summer. Now it looks like they are turning to the world of web series to revamp their plastic bachelor.

We came across this site for a new reality web series Genuine Ken: The Search for the Great American Boyfriend that seems to have just gone up this week. It looks like a casting call for now to find the real-life eligible bachelors who will star in the 8-episode series this fall. Is it just me or would Bannen Way star Mark Gantt be a shoo-in for this?

Genuine Ken: The Search for the Great American Boyfriend is an online competition reality show unlike any other. For eight drama packed episodes, eight eligible men will duke it out in challenge after challenge to be named the ultimate boyfriend – “A Genuine Ken” (What a Doll!). They’ll be evaluated on date-ability, personal style, personality, general hotness, and overall KEN-ability.

The intro video (not embeddable) on the site boasts this will be “a competition reality show like the web has never seen,” which got us thinking about these competition reality shows which seem to be the rage right now. MSN just launched their Tastemaker series with social media buffs, while Alloy is doing a talent search competition to cast its latest teen reality web series Talent. So why not one for the dashing gentlemen of the web?

According to the site, at the end of October the series producers will select eight top finalists who will actually be in the Genuine Ken web series. Until then, some more Toy Story 3D: