Call me naive but I don’t really think this was some elaborate scheme. From what I can tell, the hype and whatnot came from the hilarious fact that both Barbie and Oppenheimer were released on the same day and both were anticipated to be the movies of the summer, naturally putting them in competition. Two very big films with vastly differing aesthetics is the perfect pairing for such a phenomenon. Thus the memes came out in full force and definitely contributed to the further marketing of these films.

There definitely went many millions in the advertising of both. The generated hype will probably die down in one or two months, I suppose.