YouTube Stars Are Being Exploited!

Hey guys,

Did you watch Zoella's Winter Haul? That reminds me, I need to go buy those L'occitane cinnamon candles.

I have found that most of my money is spent on things I don't need, often pitched to me be YouTube stars. Companies use YouTube stars to sell their products, and the concept of being used is incredibly belittling of one's potential.

Do you believe today’s YouTube stars are being exploited or empowered?

Retweets, likes and subscribers translate into money in the eyes of companies and billion dollar industries. These incredibly powerful firms then exploit these social media stars and use them to sell their products. YouTube stars in particular develop a very personal relationship with their viewers. Their viewers watch them on a daily basis; they begin to trust them as if they had been long time pals. This trust translates into social media interaction (likes, retweets, subscribes, comments) and these social media interactions are then abused by companies, which translate this trust into money. YouTube stars are often incredibly vulnerable, they need financial support as many of them have not attended university (or cant afford it) and they are mostly unemployed, their need for financial support leads them to believe that advertising products that are genuinely good (not a scam) to gain a living is not a bad thing.

YouTube tells me I should love Tacobell and Topshop. Tumblr tells me I should watch the Hunger Games and eat In’n’Out burgers. Twitter tells me I should be obsessed with Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Obama. Instagram tells me where I should eat, what I should wear, where I should travel. Before I knew better, I trusted social media to ‘advise’ me on how to live my life because I was getting this advice from regular people, turns out behind closed curtains the same advertising companies are tugging at the strings of those social media personalities that are trusted by millions of devoted followers. Each and every social media website is utilized to gather data form the consumers, to see what they like and then through the interactions of the consumers they sell their product. The consumer is the marketer, this is dramatically different to how advertising use to work back in the day when it was a one-way conversation from marketer to consumer.

YouTube stars like Zoella, Tyler Oakley, Sprinkeofglitter (Louise) and Caspar Lee are all very famous and they all have one thing in common- they all work beneath several companies to help sell products so that they can earn a living. These mega-famous YouTube stars have millions of loyal fans: Zoella has 9,560,630 subscribers, Tyler Oakley has 7,774,630 subscribers, Capspar Lee has 5,360,430 subscribers and Sprinkleofglitter has 2,318,186 subscribers.

What do these numbers mean to them, what do these numbers make them feel? Exploited is the last word that would cross their mind. These numbers translate into cash for advertising companies: once a popular social media personal advocates or endorses a certain product, their millions of devoted and loyal fans whom trust their opinion would go out and get it to and that is how the amount of likes, retweeets and subscribers translates into money for these companies. Companies use social media stars to advertise their products, once they are done with them they move on to the next big hit in social media, leaving them feeling used up and worthless.  Social media sensations are forced to put every second of their life online for everyone to see and criticize, this criticism is very personal as it condemns every move they make in their lives and it often impinges upon their mental well-being. Behind the glitz and the glamour of having your sculptures made at Madame Tassuds and the roaring crowds cheering your names lie lost and broken human beings.

Our brains lay between the hands of the advertising companies

Hey there,

Have you been keeping up with the Kardashian waist trainer advertisements, or Ronaldo’s dandruff shampoo advertisements? I sure have NOT, they never end!

We live in a world rife of advertisements, the ‘NEW!’ and ‘Ultra Cool!’ products are constantly shoved in our face and whether we like it or not, they certainly do resonate with our subconscious mind. Advertisements have the capability to shape the individual's mind and impact people’s view of the world on a large scale. Advertisements that latently portray sexism and racism are incredibly egregious, they slyly import fallacious views of the world into the audience’s mind and make them a cultural norm. 

White slender women, tall fit white men, babies with blue eyes and blonde hair, hairless bodies and perfect pearly teeth that is what is normal! The media tells us that this is normal and that we MUST strive to attain these fastidious standards. I feel nothing but antipathy towards companies that seek economic success at the cost of other people's well being. This is an exigent issue that we must be aware of!

Speaking of awareness, advertising companies are aware of the immense power they posses over the minds of the individuals, yet they do not respect that there is sensitivity to the information they put into the world. I think that all advertising companies should be held responsible for all their ignominious advertisements.  Due to that fact that they have proven themselves unworthy of our trust, the law must reinforce this upon all advertising companies and abrogate any advertisements that may harm a certain group in society.

If you still find yourself hesitant towards this issue, have a look at just one of the million unethical advertisements that flood the Internet:

Now I must go cook dinner for my husband, I've spent far too long on the internet and I certainly would not want to get slapped tonight. 

See you later,

Dana (A house wife who tries her best to look white and skinny for her husband, despite her Arab genes.)

Print Ad Analysis

Nivea Advertisement Blog Post

Nivea India celebrates a 100 years with Anushka Sharma as the face of their advertisement campaign. Despite the core purpose of this advertisement being to sell Nivea’s body lotion, the appeals chosen, in conjunction with the visual language and persuasive devices, reveals the cultural context of the product whereby the Indian beauty standards have been exposed. It is evident through Nivea’s choice of celebrity endorsement that fairness of skin is something that is valued. Despite the abundance of darker skinned Bollywood actresses, Nivea chose Sharma due to the fact that her physical appearance attains to the ideal Indian beauty standards.  

The appeals chosen create the foundation and the basis of development for the persuasive techniques. The appeals chosen are: the need for intimacy, the need to achieve, the need for aesthetic sensations and the need for prominence. The need for intimacy is evident in between the two models of the advertisement; Nivea wants you to believe that this product can help you get a life partner or an intimate relationship. This can be linked to the cultural context whereby, marriage is important for young women in Indian culture, it is something they aspire to achieve. Women are raised and taught to always maintain a socially acceptable physical appearance that would not hinder their chances of finding a suitable husband. The need to achieve is another appeal used. This is easily seen in the text of the advertisement “for visibly smooth and touchable soft skin”. The audience would find that they need to achieve and attain to the Indian beauty standards, and this product is the simple solution to their struggles. The need for aesthetic sensations is the third and final appeal used whereby the viewer will want to be as physically/ aesthetically appealing as Anushka Sharma, and with this product they will begin that they can.

The visual language of this advertisement is used in order to enhance the cultural context of the advertisement.  The advertisement is not rife of text in order to avoid having the audience spend their time reading and have them focused on the celebrity endorsement, thus it is safe to deduce that this advertisement is focused towards ethos more than it is logos.  The visual techniques, such as: layout, the subject, the interaction with the viewer, and the function of the image have been used in order to portray the cultural context of the image. The models are both beautiful and so the audience associates the Nivea body cream with beauty. The lighting is artificial in order to eliminate anything that could possibly mitigate the beauty of Sharma’s skin. The models are intimate; this is expressed through the body language and the hand positioning. This relates to the need for intimacy appeal. The focus and the perspective are quite close to the models, again this also relates to the intimacy appeal. In order to enhance the intimacy appeal, Sharma maintains interaction with the audience through eye contact. The visual language in this advertisement is mostly based around the intimacy appeal, as is in most advertisements because sex sells in all cultures and all areas of the world.

The persuasive devices have been strategically chosen in order to enhance the portrayal of the cultural context of the advertisement. The persuasive techniques chosen fall under the basic and the intermediate techniques category. The basic persuasive techniques are: product association, use of beautiful people, use of celebrities, testimonial and the ‘warm and fuzzy’. As for the intermediate persuasion techniques, they are: using ‘New!’ as a means of persuasion, and the simple solution. The association technique has been used whereby Nivea have associated their body cream with the Bollywood actress Anushka  Sharma whom is considered to be the pinnacle of beauty. Nivea inexplicably claims that through the use of this product you will be just as beautiful and just as desired as this Bollywood actress. Beautiful models are rarely not used in advertisements because the association of beauty with a product makes it more desirable and thus makes the advertisement more effective.  The beautiful Bollywood actress is associated with the skin care product to attract the attention of the audience. Nivea implies that if you use this product you will be beautiful too. Celebrity testimonials are another frequent and effective use of persuasive devices in advertisements. Sharma’s testimonial is important to the audience (Indian society). The celebrity's presence attracts the audience’s attention. The Sharma’s testimony (indirect) can be inferred from her presence in the advertisement. The warm and fuzzy technique was used: this persuasion technique is somewhat relevant to this advertisement due to the intimacy of the two models. The intimacy of the models stimulates feelings of comfort and delight in the audience’s perspective.  You may associate the words “cozy” and “cuddly” with this advertisement, which clarifies the use of the warm and fuzzy technique in this advertisement. An incredibly frequent worldwide persuasion technique consists of three letters yet it is incredibly effective; it is ‘NEW!’ Consumers have appreciation for new products and they tend to believe new are better than old products. Consumers often find that owning new products can give them a sense of worth and self-confidence. New products make them feel as though we are better than others and they can get that sense of dominance by purchasing these new products. Finally, the simple solution persuasion technique. Nivea convinces the audience that through purchasing their product, they will get soft skin, they will be more desirable, they will be beautiful and thus they will find their significant other just as Anushka Sharma did! Nivea crafts this train of thought in the audience’s mind through the use of appeals, persuasion techniques and persuasive devices.

Slender Indian women with fair skin are empowered in this advertisement. Anushka’s presence and dominance of the majority of the positive space in the advertisement leads me to think so. However, curvy darker skinned women have been marginalized due to their inept physical appearance that does not attain to the ideal Indian beauty standards. The product being advertised is a beauty product, thus the physical representation of this product have been strategically chosen in order to avoid any hindrance to the audience’s perception of the product. Nivea wanted their audience to view this exclusive product as  the simple solution that will help them achieve beauty and intimacy, not as a mass produced product used by regular people.

Advertising Pitch: Presentation Reflection

Yesterday I presented my pitch for the ‘Affordable and Easy to Assemble Conflict Zone Shelter’. I am relieved that the presentation went well seeing as I was incredibly timorous of the exceedingly abstract task that was at hand. Rather than seeking further clarification on the precise meaning of a ‘pitch’ my group and I decided we would avoid resolving our nebulous state of mind and simply follow the format of the ‘Mad Men Pitch’. Had there been enough time allocated to planning the task, had the presentation been more trenchant.

The persuasion techniques I incorporated into the pitch (more of an advertisement) were:

·      Basic persuasion technique- warm and fuzzy: A presentation rife of images displaying the sad lives refugees live and images of children left without a home will cause the audience to think of their own families and thus they will be struck by a wave of empathy that will benefit the seller (me) and make it easier to sell our product.

·      Intermediate persuasion technique- Charisma: The presenters had to maintain confidence and a winsome attitude. The audience will be inexorable if the presenters did not display their confidence.   With confidence comes trust from the audience. The moment your audience trusts your credibility, consider your product SOLD! This is incredibly important when you are striving to convince an audience of a charity case/ product.

·      Intermediate persuasion technique - rhetorical question: Rhetorical questions were used in order to emphasize the exceedingly egregious global refugee crisis: this helped me subtly (yet effectively) convince the audience that there is an exigent need for donations (that can be done through our company) in order to make an impact on the world as we strive to make the world a better place.

·      Intermediate persuasion technique - simple solution: Our product is the simple solution to help improve the lives of the refugees and and save the world!  

o   Dominance appeal: The audience gain a sense of power and self worth through hearing that they can make a change in the world and that they have the power to help those whom have been enervated due to poverty.  

·      Advanced- persuasion technique: timing- The current global events and the international refugee crisis have caused this ad to be relevant. Due to the Syrian refugee crisis and all the morose news of anguish that has accompanied this event, the audience would naturally experience a moment of hindsight that would ultimately lead to a wave of sad emotions. Thus, this would reduce the barriers between the presenters and the audience, which would then lead to an abundance of products being sold.

Audience and context:

My audience was directed towards adults whom had a stable life and a job, thus they had the financial capacity of providing donations to help those in need.

The context I was provided with was the Global Market.

Knowing my audience and context enabled me to effectively craft my pitch in order to maximize its efficiency and its rate of success.

Points of improvement:

·      Clarity of voice: I kept vacillating between the paper in my hand and trying to maintain eye contact with the audience. As our presentation pried on empathy, it would have been best if I had memorized my lines. Having the paper in front of my face and not knowing my lines sprouted a great deal of insecurity in my mind, this was evident in the tone of my voice.

·      Script: the script was poorly written. The content of the script was inaccurate. The structure of the script was poorly assembled. 

·      Vapid tone: I could not present at my full potential as my insecurity held me back, thus my presenting voice was undeniably vapid.

·      Inaccurate presentation: My presentation was inaccurate as my group approached the task in a different manner to what was asked. A pitch is not an advertisement; it is merely the mechanics of creating an advertisement.

Through approaching my past presentation’s faults, I have learnt a valuable lesion that will benefit my FOA: I must be meticulously read the task in in order to be able to create a diligent and coherent presentation.

  

Watching the other groups present had truly kindled many presentation ideas for my FOA’s and it gave me insight into what I could do to maximize the success of my FOA presentation.