Did you hear about the Barbie doll that helped a PR student win $5,000? Liesbeth De Smedt, a graduate student at the University of Southern California-Annenberg School for
Communication, won the Grand Prize in the Arthur W. Page Society's 2006 Case Study Competition. De Smedt's winning entry detailed how Neil B. Friedman, who became
president of the Mattel Brands Division in October 2005, successfully used PR strategies to turn around decreasing sales of the Barbie brand while answering a variety of
anti-Barbie campaigns, competitors, and parodies. De Smedt will receive a $5,000 prize while her faculty advisor, Craig Carroll, will receive a $1,500 prize at a ceremony to be
held during the Page Society's Spring Seminar in New York from April 6-7. The Case Study Competition is sponsored by the Page Society and the Institute for Public
Relations.