‘I looked closely in the background’: A mom’s TikTok about a Barbie box has viewers comparing the crowd to an alleged Nazi salute

A TikTok video of a Barbie doll’s box has drawn attention after the mom and content creator who posted it said illustrated figures in the background show alleged Nazi salutes, according to the Daily Mail. She shot it in an aisle at a CVS, TMZ reports. In the clip, she holds the package up to the camera, then moves closer to the spectators. “Then I looked closely in the background,” she says.

The product is a gymnast doll from Mattel’s “You Can Do Anything” line. She wears a leotard and holds ribbons along with batons. Behind her, the box shows a sporting event, with an illustrated crowd in blue tones filling the stands. Several of the figures have one arm raised, a pose the creator says echoes the salute.

Her caption reads, “She better win the Olympics, cause her coach will be heil-y disappointed.” She also set the clip to a German marching song called “Weit Ist Der Weg Zurück Ins Heimatland,” which translates to “Far Is the Road Back to the Homeland.” The song dates to 1931 and was later adopted as a Nazi marching song.

Viewers are split over what the crowd shows

Viewers flooded the comments, and many likened the figures to the salute. One wrote, “It looks like they are doing THE salute.” Another wrote, “No because literally what else could that be? That’s crazy.” The video sparked debate online, and the reaction included calls for a boycott of Mattel, with one viewer writing that they were “100 percent boycotting Mattel at this point.”

Others see ordinary spectators. Some people online said the figures appear to be cheering, and others note that several of them have both arms raised rather than one. Outlets covering the video describe the claim as resting on how shoppers read the illustration, and it has not been independently confirmed. Coverage also notes there is no evidence Mattel intentionally included the imagery.

As of Saturday, October 10, the company had not publicly addressed the video or announced any change to the packaging. Two outlets that asked it for comment had not received a reply when they published. Separately, Mattel released a Serena Williams Barbie doll on October 8, ahead of the October 11 observance of International Day of the Girl, License Global reports.

The doll recreates the outfit Williams wore on her way to the 2005 Australian Open title, including a top in green and white with cutout and mesh trim. It comes with a skirt in white, a matching sweatband, tennis shoes, a tennis racket and a ball. Nathan Baynard, who leads the Barbie brand at Mattel, said in the launch announcement that Barbie “has always inspired girls to believe they can be anything.”