Stilettos by State

High heels; they can cause a woman to feel powerful, confident, sexy, and at the end of the day painfully sore. Who exactly are the type of women that decide to sacrifice their feet and good chunk of change on these fashionable shoes and where do they come from? When I think of high heels I immediately start to think of shows like Gossip Girl and Sex in the City where women are depicted to be surrounded by other women wearing heels that look so beautiful but so uncomfortably high everywhere from the grocery store to the red carpet. They're the type of people in the fashion business who own a closet just for their shoes and can easily spend hundreds of dollars on the perfect high heel.

What's interesting, though, is that the fashion website, GILT, recently conducted research to figure out if this perception of New York women having the highest heels is accurate and it turns out I was completely wrong. New York buyers weren't even in the top list of states wearing the highest heels. In Puerto Rico, Florida, Nevada, and Arkansas high heel hight average out at 2.36-2.9 inches tall among buyers. What's curious is that the heel hight of women in New York was in the median percentile among states in the U.S. average in at 2.08-2.14 inches tall. Why do you think women from Puerto Rico, Florida, Nevada, and Arkansas are wearing the highest heels on average in the United States and Kansas, Nebraska, and Maine have the lowest heel hight?

Reference: http://tech.gilt.com/post/101291680119/stilettos-by-state-a-gilt-infographic-while

Children on Instagram

When I watched the video “Generation Like” earlier this month, I felt glad that social media can provide a platform for young people to present their talents and have a chance to change their lives. Through Facebook, Instagram, twitter or tumblr, not only can they easily lead a trend or culture but also help advertisers market products more efficiently. Moreover, the sponsorship they receive can also support their living.

Breanna Youn, a five-year-old girl of Korean and Filipino descent, seems exactly like a beneficiary of social media. She has over 1.2 million followers on Instagram. She is so adorable that many wealthy people keep buying her fashion clothes and handbags just because they love her. Also, thanks to the wealthy sponsors, the whole Youn family is now living in Dubai rent-free.

I have to admit that I enjoyed looking through hundreds of pictures from her on Instagram. But when I saw her holding LV totes and posing like an adult, I wondered is it really good for such a young child to be widely known and highly exposed to the luxury culture?

“If Breanna is sick and we do not post a picture or video for three or four days, we are bombarded with thousands of e-mails from every country asking what happened”, said her mum. Her parents are somehow worried about how things will be when she grows up. However, it’s actually her parents who post photos of her frequently on Instagram; It’s her parents who receive the luxury gifts from other adults and then make her try them on and pose in front of the camera.

I think Breanna Youn is too young to tell things apart, and so are the majority of kids. The sexualized poses are not suitable for just a five-year-old kid. The fame has transferred her life. She cannot enjoy a pure childhood as other kids. And also as the materialism and consumerism are rooted in her heart in such a young age, I am worried about how she shapes the value towards the world.

Parents and the whole society should take the responsibility to protect children from the overexposure of social media.

#Likeagirl

Girls have always been made weaker than boys by the prejudices of people. "You cry like a girl" or "You throw like a girl" are just a few of the sentences children here a lot and not with a positive meaning. Boys are supposed to be the stronger sex, but is that fair? Fair to the children growing up absolutely happy about who they are, but then learning that they are actually just "running like a girl"? 

In my opinion this is an actual disaster to many of our children. Bullying is one of the biggest problems we have in the education system. Schools are places for bullying and this word-group is just one of the many ways to diss someone. Children are most of the time naturally proud of their sex and believe that they are the strongest person who can do anything in life. Children dream big, but this "like a girl" with a negative connotation is just opposing the freedom. And I do believe that we have to stop this. One way or another. 

This recent video sponsored and made by Always is a great way to start the conversation. It opens up everybody's eyes and focusses on a very important group of girls. The campaign is empowering young girls to believe in themselves and not be demoralized and bullied by people saying "You run like a girl". Girls are encouraged to stand up for how they run, throw or do anything in life. One of the older girls says this as an advice to younger girls watching this:
"Keep doing it, because it is working... Yes I kick like a girl and Swim like a girl and  walk like a girl and I wake up in the morning like a girl, because I am a girl. And that´s not something that I should be ashamed of. So I am going to do it anyway."
This statement is so powerful and it sums up the message the video is supposed to deliver. It is a great message!

As you probably understood from the earlier paragraphs I believe that this commercial is a good thing. I believe that the message and the idea behind it is very good, but I am not sure if I can trust it. I would like to know if these messages of the girls are scripted or if they are actual statements by these children. I would also like to see more than two boys in this video. I feel this is a great beginning, but it is not thought through. Maybe it is just me being paranoid and looking for the scripted commercial message after taking this class on consumer culture, but I am not sure if this is real. It is too good. So can I trust that Always didn't just make this up to promote their brand as a great advocate for women´s and girl´s power? I am not sure anymore.

Snapcash $$

Last week, Snapchat revealed a new service to their app: Snapcash, which will allow the users to send money to a friend to have it deposited into their bank accounts by simply enter ing the account number and amount to be transferred. With the reveal, they debuted an ad that feature a group of tap dancers wearing dollar signs and holding giant fake debit cards bursting into song, claiming that a swipe of three fingers can "make it rain", while a man who looks like the old man in Monopoly assures the Snapchat users that Snapcash is a "wise investment".

With over 100 million active users, the introduction of Snapcash shows just how widely used this app is by tech-savvy teenagers and young adults who grew up in this highly-technological world. However, I personally do not think that Snapchat made a great move with Snapcash because of the lack of security. In fact, quoting an analyst at Global Equities Research, I think that Snapcash is 'dead-on-departure' because there are already so many forms of online and mobile payments that are more secure and established. Snapchat is also a fun app that people use to send pictures and message that vanish within 10 seconds. Furthermore, I think that one hiccup in Snapcash will be very damaging to Snapchat's reliability. 

What do you think? Do you plan to send money using Snapchat?

College Gear

I think it's important to note that when I wrote this blog post I was sitting in the Bradley International Airport. While looking around and thinking about something clever to post about I noticed a variety of college kids all wearing their respective college gear. College gear is an advertisement of its own. Anyone who's in college wears their gear with pride. Whether you're walking to class, playing on a sports field, or waiting for a flight in an airport you're representing your college and advertising its name to the public. College gear is probably the most un-renowned form of marketing out there and arguably the most powerful form.

Earlier that day I had another encounter of witnessing the power of college gear being used as advertising. I took a visit to the Smith campus bookstore and purchased some college gear for my family back home. I purchased your typical car sticker for my Mom, a Smith hat for my Gram, and a t-shirt for my little brother. In a way, that I was unaware of when I purchased these items, I was actually advertising Smith College. I think using college gear as a form of advertisement is not necessarily bad for our consumer culture. I mean by proudly wearing our college gear we the consumers get to do the advertising for once and advertise something that we believe in and cherish.

No Shopping On Thanksgiving

As an international student, Thanksgiving is a strange event to me. Everything I've ever heard about Thanksgiving is all through books, televisions or the Internet. Yet, what is even more popular than Thanksgiving is what happens after the meal: Black Friday. To me, before going to the US, Black Friday has always been a long-lasting legend where customers are showered with amazing deals/sales! I remembered re-watching and admiring Youtuber with "Huge Black Friday Haul". To be honest, just a few days ago, I could not wait to experience my first Black Friday...

Then, I saw one of my American friend share the picture below on Facebook. That provoked my thoughts.

Though I still look forward to Thanksgiving, some part of me feels sad already. As I see my classmates cannot stop talking about their plans of going back homes, enjoying delicious homemade food and being surrounded by family members, I cannot help being homesick. I cannot come home and spend time with my family. When I link my feeling with the picture, something struck me,.. I understand the best how sorrowful it is to be unable to spend time with family while everyone else surrounds around the table and enjoy best quality family time. Now, if I still go shopping on Black Friday, doesn't it mean that I heartlessly and purposely cause someone to be like me? There is no solution to my situation as I am too far away from home. However, services are provided because of customers. If there is no customers, the workers will not have to come to work. Like the picture says, "Everyone Deserves a Holiday". That's why I won't shop on Thanksgiving.

"Normal" Barbie

As we finish the section on marketing and advertising in relations to children, we have learned that toys have a powerful influence on values, morals, and behavior. I came across this video as part of the Buzzfeed article titled "This 'Normal Barbie' Comes with cellulite, stretch marks, acne, and tattoos," where it discussed the positive effects of playing with a barbie who has healthy human proportions. This Barbie comes with stickers of bruises, tattoos, cellulite, stretch marks all the things that happen throughout adolescence. This video is extremely refreshing. These are the sort of changes that the toy industry has to make to reinforce a healthier perception of body image for the future generation. Children are experiencing body image issues at an younger age, which only manipulates the development of a child.    

New and Improved Cinderella

The mega corporation of Disney is coming out with another potential blockbuster for this summer. Disney is taking their classic cartoon of Cinderella that came out in the 1950's and turning it into a live action film. Earlier this year, Disney revamped their classic tale of Sleeping Beauty into the hit film Maleficent. Maleficent told the story of Sleeping Beauty in a new light. Unlike Maleficent, the new trailer of Cinderella seems to be following the same storyline of the original story. The draw of this remake will most likely be the artistry of the film, and its star-studded cast. Lily James, from Downtown Abbey will star as Cinderella, Cate Blanchett will be the evil step-mother, and Helena Bonham Carter will play the fairy god-mother.

Disney seems to playing on older audiences nostalgia with remaking these classic fairy-tale cartoons into action films.  It seems to working, with Maleficent raising $69,431,298 in the US with its opening weekend. It will be interesting to see how this remake of Cinderella does, but with most children still obsessed with Frozen. I think it is safe to say that Disney knows how to sell its movies.

Calvin Klein's "Perfectly Fit" Campaign

What does it mean to have the perfect body or to have the perfect look? The latest beauty campaigns, now including Calvin Klein, are aiming to market the perfect look, causing outrage among many consumers. The companies' attempts have gone sour, for they are advertising "the perfect fit" or "the perfect body" amongst tall, skinny, women, as if that is the only look that is acceptable in today's society. In order to truly advertise what it means to be perfect, it should be in their best interest to advertise women of all shapes and sizes as a way to make their products more approachable and welcoming to the shoppers.

Calvin Klein model, Myla Dalbesio defies the odds of a "skinny model". Rather than being the sample size 0 or 2, she is a size 10, marking her as a plus size model. As women, we all know that this photograph above does not represent the body of a plus size woman, but rather as a woman with a slender, almost athletic figure. She appears to be of a healthy weight when compared to the other sickly thin models. According to the media, because of her heavier than average physique in the fashion world, she is is the face of Calvin Klein's "Perfectly Fit" campaign, because apparently, she represents the body of the average woman.

This campaign is infuriating, for how can women who are overweight feel that they have any product that markets to them and is approachable? If companies are looking to run successful "perfect body" campaigns, a drastic change needs to be made. They can not keep portraying women of a slightly heavier weight to be the face of their message. These companies need to find a way that will sell to women of all shapes and sizes in a way that is unoffensive and sends a positive message.

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/style/calvin-kleins-idea-of-plus-size-is-pissing-people-off-102274897493.html

Everything is Not Awesome.

Green Peace recently put out this advertisement against Lego's partnership with Shell.  For those of you who have seen or heard about the Lego movie, you could probably hear the theme song a mile away. However the use of the usually catchy upbeat song in this video makes it immediately clear that this is not to provoke the same sentiment it usually would. The video begins covering things in "oil" with the back drop of a more lamented version of the song to make a bold statement about exactly how the company's partnership plays a role in the grim future for the very children who play with these toys.

This was an amazing ad that not only called a company out on it's damaging involvement, but succeeded in ending the partnership. One thing that this really made me think about was how so many corporations or companies we have grown to love and trust may be doing the same thing. The truth of the matter is we probably don't know half the thing that the companies we support do. So if in this case they are contributing to pollution and damaging effects on the earth how are we supposed to know what sort of damaging effects they play a role in? Furthermore if we do know and demand changes from theses companies are we willing to stop supporting them if they don't agree to change their behavior?

Amazon's Version of Siri

The Amazon Echo is a portable speaker that is voice activated using the keyword Alexa. It can tell you the weather, play music, create lists, give you news reports, save information, act as a timer, and so much more. In the commercial for it you see the Echo in use from its delivery to a family to their daily usage of it. The father explains to his daughter that Echo is for the entire family to use; he uses it for morning news reports, the mother creates shopping lists and uses it for cooking in the kitchen, and the children use it like a toy to tell them jokes and listen to music. The advertisements concludes by saying that Echo has become part of their family. It's interesting that the commercial is told through the young daughter's voice as she says things about Echo and uses word that a child of her age would not normally say. How each member of the family uses Echo is also dependent on their role in their family. For example, the mother is the caretaker and head female of the house so it is her duty to ensure the shopping and cooking is taken care of and Echo helps her do so.

Advertisements for Echo are coming out just in time to get Amazon into the news and people buzzing about the website as Black Friday gets closer. Echo will be sold at $199, but at a discounted prince of $99 for members of Amazon Prime. Oddly, though, it is not currently for sale, neither is it available for presale. In fact, people have to request an invitation to buy the item. I repeat, an invitation. Because Amazon is using this idea of inviting people to buy Echo is gives the allusion that people should buy it because only certain people are invited to do so; like it would be prestigious to be one of the individuals invited to purchase the item. This invitation is actually just people putting their name on a list, very similar to the process people would go through when preordering an item.  "Kinley Pearsall, an Amazon spokesperson, wrote in an email that the company will start sending invitations and shipping the speaker 'in the coming weeks.' When you request an invitation you will get the following response, "Thank you for your request. If selected, you will receive an e-mail with an invitation to purchase in the coming weeks." Has Amazon's commercial for Echo convinced you to buy/ request an invitation to buy Echo?

Resource:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/06/amazon-echo-speaker-alexa_n_6116800.html?ir=Technology

Is football still about football?

Last week I went to my first college football game at Umass and I was shocked; shocked about the many commercials shown during this game of college students. I have never been to a college football game nor have I seen one on TV before, but what I saw last week was not what I expected. Commercials were everywhere! 

The commercials I expected to see, were the ones on the stadium itself. Of course schools need to have sponsors to help finance a stadium of that size. The scoreboards of the major football teams around the country are all very much decorated, because everybody looks at the score of the game at some point of the game. These commercials are divided up in local sponsors and those big-time companies like coca cola. in the picture below you will see a scoreboard which has almost more commercials than information about the game. 

What I did not expect was the many interferences with the game itself. During the regular play-time the TV-station broadcasting this event had regular intervals for TV commercial breaks. These breaks where not organized around breaks in the game itself, but they dictated when the game had to stop for commercials to be shown on the TV-screen for the home-audience. This is not only annoying to everyone watching the game, but most of all for the players, since they just want to keep playing and stay in the zone. I can not imaging how frustrating it must be to wait on the field for 2-3 minutes for the commercials to be over. 

A surprise to me was that the players uniforms did not have advertisement on them. In Germany the soccer teams all have commercials on their shirts, since those are the things the audience sees moving all the time and these shirts are also available in the fan stores. The football teams in the US seem to not have allowed commercials on their shirts. At least that´s commercial free. 

After being to this event last week I have to say I am very confused about how this sport is increasingly about advertisement. It is not like I watched a game of a professional team of the NFL. These kids are just some college students, who might want to have a career in the NFL, but first they are college students. The hype about the games of the college league is in my opinion crazy. Companies want to be part of these events since they are broadcasted and talked about in the society so of course they pay much for the commercials. I believe this is a little too much and that college football, or sport itself should be more about the sport. 

The Newest Face of Estee Lauder

This past week news of Kendall Jenner being the new face of Estee Lauder hit the public, hard. Estee Lauder described the 19 year old model as the perfect it girl, fashion icon, and social media sensation. Many consumers of these cosmetics are disgusted with the new face of their favorite brand. Some consumers have even boycotted Estee Lauder by no longer purchasing their products all together. The public feels that Kendall Jenner may be the perfect it girl, fashion icon, and social media sensation but does that qualify her for the job? Many argue that she's been given everything and only achieved things off the coattails of others. Some more deserving models have worked for years with no money and no support to land a few bookings and if their lucky a fashion show or a spread in a magazine. Meanwhile, Kendall Jenner has landed amazing jobs that typical models could only dream of. The only reason she lands such jobs is because of her tie to the Kardashian name.

Personally, I was shocked to hear the news of Kendall Jenner being the new face of Estee Lauder. I may not be the ideal consumer of Estee Lauder products, however, I understand why the public is so appalled by this. People believe in hard work to achieve things, so why would they support the newest face of Estee Lauder - who has been given 99.99% of everything in her life? I wonder where marketers were going with when choosing Kendall Jenner for the job. I think it's safe to say that Estee Lauder took a wrong turn here and may have lost it's elegant image to the trashy Kardashian name.

Let's Reconsider Art

For some reason, I felt compelled to write about this article. I have always been fascinated in the arts, but sometimes I wonder where the line should be drawn (if any) between art and doodle (or Selfie in this case). This article argues that the blame of the Selfie generation can be distributed— who are we learning from? The media, parents, friends, and basically anyone we come in contact with: it's a cultural phenomenon.

I think the underlying point is that art is not valued enough. Art schools are also the butt of many jokes, assuming that grads will not be able to earn a living. That is because so many of the laypeople assume that art is just a photograph and a photography is just a Selfie taken from a phone. We have turned media art into photoshop and photography into Selfies. In schools, art is no longer respected nor required. This generation of students are not learning about the influence that art has had on history. Even more important, people are no longer able to appreciate the effects art has on the self. Granted, not everyone is destined to be an artist, but art is a major stress and emotional outlet and everyone needs one of those.

“Make This. Yours!”

Social media stalks and uses you, advertising tons of millions stuff to you and bombarding you with an overwhelming amount of information. More badly, people themselves gradually become a part of the disturbing social network itself. When your friends get addicted to Facebook or Twitter and are constantly sharing and liking every post they have seen, your home page will look like a total disaster. In addition, the social media will then suggest you more articles/photos based on your what your friend circles are viewing. Usually, most of these posts are not at all useful and even upsetting.

However, afraid of not knowing the latest trend or what’s happening around my friends, I’ve never shut my social network completely down even though it has been annoying me for such a long time. Isn’t social media founded at first was to connect people and give us access to what we want to know and what we need to know more easily? What should we do to change this scenario?

Andrew Golis launched the beta of This. on November 13. This.cm is a site to help people find and share the web’s best stories, ideas and arguments. Each user can share just one link a day. Yes, only one! People can send invitations to their friends and start crafting their own community and experience to more closely fit to their interests. The site will be a place where people show off the beautiful, weird, smart and meaningful links that can be treated as something with lasting value.

I found that the building of this site is really helpful to our lives. We really need to calm down and ponder more. Before we share or like a post on social media, we have to ask ourselves: “Do I really like it and why? What’s the information it is sending to us and what’s my opinion on this.” As a result, our friends will get to know more valuable information as well. The This.cm site can greatly help people to realize this goal and make social network a more meaningful and efficient platform for us.

Little Beckham in Holiday Ad

Romeo Beckham, fourteen year old son of one of the most famous power couple, David and Victoria Beckham, has been named the new face of Burberry. He did a couple editorials for them, but that privilege comes with staring in their Holiday ad for this year. The commercial, like many for high-end fashion names, is a little avant-garde. It features young Romeo doing a lot of spreading of christmas cheer. There is a lot of group choreographed dancing with umbrellas done. The dancers are for the most part in the classic Burberry trench coat, and not much of their new collection is on display. I do not really like the Ad, nor am I very sure what is even happening in it. I do however, really like the song used.

The commercial does get the job done though. It gets people talking about it, and about Burberry. Burberry is a strong enough name that it doesn't really need to show off new styles. They just need to remind customers of them in time for their Holiday shopping. The use of Romeo Beckham is along those same lines. The brand could have used any young boy with impeccable cheek bones. But they used Romeo, who is famous in his own right, because Burberry's new ad is not that interesting, but Burberry's new ad with Romeo Beckham is. It is an odd thing that in the consumer culture even an ad that is a whole lot of nothing, but has enough brand power, can be successful.

#winchristmas

As christmas is approaching, more and more companies are coming out with festive and sentimental ads that warm our hearts (maybe?) In this particular ad, Mulberry portrays a posh family opening gifts on christmas day. The focus is on a young woman opening presents, while her family members watch closely to see who bought her the best gift. Ultimately, perfect portraits, waving puppies and white unicorns are no match for a brand new Mulberry handbag.

I found this advertisement really fun and amusing, but quite alarming because it has turned christmas into a competition, that focusses on materialistic goods. I personally do not celebrate christmas, but I am sure it is a time for families to get together and giving gifts that are meaningful. However, I do think that this ad was very clever and well thought out. It builds up anticipation as each gift generates a bigger reaction from the woman. The audience can't help but wonder what her grandmother will give her that can top up the unicorn (possibly the best gift ever!). The ad ends with grandmother slightly smirking into the camera, showing that she knows best and that a Mulberry bag is better than any other gift, implying that if you do not know what gift to get, get a Mulberry bag.

CoverGirl #GirlsCan

Yesterday, my friend sent me an amazing advertisement from Cover Girl: #GirlsCan: Girls Who Code. This is one in Cover Girl's series #GirlsCan, which inspires female to tear down many prejudices daily attacking them such as: Girls Can't Rock, Girls Can't Do Business, etc. and encourages girls to follow their dreams and to prove that YES, GIRLS CAN.

However, the more I watch the series, the more confused I get. Something is not real in those video advertisements. Not only celebrities but also other normal girls look so beautiful, with make-up. I don't say that wearing make-up is bad yet camera men seem to focus more on girls' lip colors, their eyes with eyeliners and mascara or their nails (already wearing nail polish) than what they are actually do to pursue their dreams. NO girls in the video have bare faces. Although we don't see any direct advertisement in the video except for the name of the brand, when I searched this series on Google, I found out a whole line of cosmetics products named GirlsCan. If you are a consumer, what information does this name provide you with? Nothing about the product itself. It only highlights and reminds consumers of the meaningful event. What an old strategy: exploiting a meaningful message to tell "great stories" and to delude them into buying.

How Smart Are You?

So I came across a Amazon ad in the new issue of Glamour December 2014. It intrigued so much that I decided to google search the campaign and came across this billboard. This was my train of thought: Why is smart having a linkage to fashion? Who is the target of the ad?

Amazon is an online shopping website that literally has anything you might ever need available by a touch of a finger. Women are obviously responsible for a majority of consumption in the United States. So what is this ad actually implying? This is my take on it. A woman's intelligence relies on her ability of making "smart"decisions which obviously pertains only in the context of shopping. This ad only reinforces my ideas as a Feminist. Why should my level of intelligence be dependent of fashion, can I not make any other "smart"decision in other areas of my life? Then I think, I have brought myself to attend one of the best prestigious all women's college which only shows I am more than able to make extremely smart decisions in all areas of life. Hopefully advertising ads will soon begin to understand that.

Goldie

Move over Barbie. Goldie, the "can-do" doll is coming through! 

The toy company GoldieBlox, a "girl-focused line of books and construction toys", first debuted

in the Superbowl commercials and has since made it's way onto the shelves of Toys R Us and Target. In their most recent commercial, little sister Goldie is seen breaking free from the assembly line of perfect little girls to show them that there is a world of opportunity out there that awaits them. Goldie's character is meant to show young girls that there is more to life than acting as "a perfect girl" and that it is perfectly acceptable to act in ways that may be associated with more masculine roles, such as using tools and doing construction, as exemplified by her character.

I praise the toy company for advertising feminism in a way that emulates hard-work, drive, and motivation among young, impressionable girls. I believe that Goldie will serve as a great role model and can serve as inspiration. She shows that there is more to being a woman than having a pretty face and perfect body, proving that women are capable of taking action and pursuing their dreams. She is someone that can help promote confidence, for young girls do not have to feel ashamed if they are past the stage of Barbie dolls and are ready to pursue something more fulfilling. This is a major stride in children's marketing, for it promotes something other than popularity and the "must-have" toy. It shows that girls no longer have to feel as though they are in competition with a boys world and they can feel just as strong and powerful as the opposite sex.   

Source: https://gma.yahoo.com/goldieblox-unveils-girl-action-figure-184500790--abc-news-parenting.html

Image: http://www.toynews-online.biz/news/read/goldieblox-tackles-fashion-dolls-with-action-figure-for-girls/043394

Challenging The Perfect Body

 

Victoria Secret is a lingerie brand that seems to attract buyers of every shape and size, yet they seem to have a certain audience of women that they are consistently advertising to. Their models are always thin, size zero models with seemingly perfect bodies. Victoria Secret's recent campaign The Perfect 'Body' highlights their lingerie as the perfect fit, perfect comfort, and perfectly soft pieces, but for who? 

A group of women challenged this new campaign by posing similar to The Perfect Body campaign image. Their image compared to Victoria Secret's highlights the bodies of real women of all shapes and sizes, not those of the model world. Each of the women in the photo added a comment to their protest against the campaign saying things about their body such as, "MEN in the street often come up to me and tell me I’m beautiful. The compliments I get prove you don’t have to be a stick to be attractive," and, "As a trained midwife, I’ve seen lots of women’s bodies and I know we come in all shapes and sizes. So I was horrified there wasn’t a single average-sized woman in the Victoria’s Secret advert." 

What these women have to say in regards to accepting your body and not trying to change to have 'the perfect body' is really inspiring and powerful. I definitely recommend clicking on the link below to read what the other women have to say about  their position on body image. Due to controversy and attack on Victoria Secret from these women as well as their supporters, Victoria Secret has since changed its slogan for the campaign to A Body for Everybody. Do you think brands like Victoria Secret are justified in choosing who they want to model their clothing or should companies be including models of all shapes and sizes in their ad campaigns?

Resource: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2826017/We-perfectly-normal-Victoria-s-Secret-s-new-ad-attacked-calling-waif-like-models-perfect-look-like-real-women-talk-frankly-bodies.html

What are You Really Paying for?

The other day I found myself in a store called The Paper Source. It's your typical paper store filled with cute nic-nacs and almost everything crafty you can thing of. As I was walking around the store, I stumbled across a bunch of adorable "thank you" cards. In anticipation of all the birthday presents I plan to get, I thought why not purchase some "thank you" cards. There were so many cute cards that I couldn't decide. I resorted to looking for the cheapest ones, since I'm just an average college student with a pretty tight budget. I was astonished by the prices of these "thank you" cards. I mean who would pay $16.75 (I remember the exact price that's how blown away I was) for 10 "thank you" cards with corresponding envelopes. That is an outrageous crime, if you ask me.

I ended up purchasing some blank $8 cards that would do the job. The cards I bought had a cool design on the front of them and I could easily write "thank you" on the inside. There was one thing I just couldn't wrap my brain around. For half the price I purchased these blank cards that would do the same job as the more expensive cards. When you think about it, the only difference between the actual cards was that one set had "thank you" displayed on the front and the other set didn't. Also, the packaging of the cards was different. The expensive cards were in a clear plastic box and the other cards were just held together by a piece of paper. This left me with the question, what are we really paying for when we buy things? Are we paying for what happens behind the scenes of the manufacturing of products, are we paying for the packaging, or in this case are we paying for 8 letters that could have been written for no price? 

An Apple for a Place Setting

As I browsing the internet, this picture immediately captured my attention: Seven children and their parents are sitting together at the dining table, each using their Apple computer. It seems that they weren't even able to see each other’s face with these giant screens setting in front of them.

The family were staying together but were they having real communications? Shouldn’t dining room be a place for family dinner. Shouldn’t dining table be a place where family members can comfort and support each other after a long day? These question bumped into my mind and it reminded me exactly what we were talking about in the past two weeks. The technology, the internet and the social media are actually creating barriers for people’s interaction.

On the other hand, when I continued reading the article, my view changed somehow. Designer Cortney Novogratz’s idea was to turn the dining room in to a central station. The 9-foot-long mahogany serves not only as a Grand Central Terminal of the couple’s design business but also a place where the family can gather and do their own work together. “I’m the mother of seven. To me, I’m better and I’m more creative when I’m able to balance that all together, and this room allows me to do that.” It’s different, when one works as a designer and has to look after seven children. “With my younger kids, I like sitting next to them when they do their homework. It keeps them on track and focused,” she said. That made me think of that a lot of working parents are too busy to care about their family and as a result, they are really apart from their children. These children just go into their rooms and lock the doors every time they go home. Parents don't know they are doing so that they fail to give the right advice to them. At least, Novogratz’s family are really close. And children can get the connection with technology by sharing office with parents which is useful as they get older. Moreover, they dine together outdoors. Isn't that wonderful? 

Maybe we have blamed technology and social media too much?

Tumblr's Plunder

 Tumblr, a microblogging/social networking website wrapped up into a streamline platform, has been around since 2007 and give voice to millions of bloggers daily. Tumblr used to flaunt that they were the easiest way to blog, which quickly turned into a platform for so many different walks of people. A large teen audience rants and raves on the site all over the world. But the website is home to practically any sort of blog you could wish to find. Art, music, businesses, you name it; there's probably an "F***yeah..." fan page for it.
Such a website,  has had a fairly surprising advertising policy compared to other social networking sites that it is compared to. Up until 2012 it seems they had a policy that would never include advertising as a focal point of their website. Now however it's a very different story. They now have advertising about ever 10-20 posts. They come with little sponsored stars in the corner (see below for the new movie ad on the right) and are laid in similar to Facebook ad's: masquerading as another post from a normal person's blog. Now tumblr seems to be a mecca for advertising whether we realize it or not.

I've personally had a tumblr for almost 5 years now, and while sometimes I am ashamed at home much time that means I've spent on this website, it has done two things. First, it has document my life in a more interactive and personalized outlet then other social media, and second, it's allowed me to see the progression of the website through these years.
For example, they have a new technique of suggesting blogs which was not a function of tumblr two years ago (see first picture to the right). Now the look at a blog I may like or a similar blog I've checked out and suggest blogs that they think I may be interested in. Very much like the filter bubble suggestion, tumblr is now effective separating the community even more then it was before. Creating a very different atmosphere and feed then of the personally curated ones of the past.

This is not even including covert advertising, some done by fashion blogs and some done by companies and products themselves. While the way information travels through tumblr makes it difficult to immediately see  what the source actually is, one thing is certain: it's largely become just another consumer platform. The covert ads are simply outfits, or jewelry or anything that is shown in an artsy way yet telling you how to dress or what to buy at the same time. These (see below and above to the left) forms of advertising are the most subtle as they are sometimes from the stores and sometimes from the bloggers themselves. Even though they get nothing for advertising, they spend countless hours doing so, for what. For followers and re-blogs.

While I hate to reduce tumblr to such mean and simple terms I do fear that the subtle advertising in our consumer culture has permitted its way into every aspect of our lives it seemed. Even a website that, once upon a time, was simply an outlet for people to express themselves. I'm curious, if this is just my tumblr feed that has been systematically changing, from suggested blogs to ads, or do other users see  this too, and if so what do you think of it?