American Apparel doesn’t represent apparel.

American Apparel is an extremely well known and “hipster” store that is really directed to teens and college students. Their advertisement strategies are aimed toward more mature adults, and sometime can turn very sexy very quickly. They try to promote their clothing like any other clothing company, with what you wear, draws in the opposite sex.  Finding a few American Apparel ads, I’ve truly noticed a trend.

 

The trend of this sexy advertisement and their strategy to draw attention truly does capture our eye without even realizing it. Personally, American Apparel is a fun, trendy, and slightly over priced clothing store that draws in many college students. Their clothing is good quality, exotic, but can be casual and classy at the same time. A strange thing thought that has brought my attention to them more than the clothes they carry, but these advertisements. Apparently, if you’re a man in a AA bow tie, those legs just open wide. And if your wear their expensive leggings, you instantly turn sexy. It’s a very mature audience they’re trying to promote, because anybody below the age of possibly 16 would think the advertisements are “icky”. Once again, women are the object, and it is clearly stated in 99% of their advertisements. I personally haven’t seen many commercials, but more magazine ads, and even ads alongside of googling. While living in an awesome college town, we have a local American Apparel, that I constantly see stocked with college and high school students. The media and American Apparel’s strategy for showing off their clothing surly doesn’t make me want to shop there, but can absolutely make the men want to.  I can’t tell if they’re advertising their clothes, or advertising sex. Someone fill me in.

 

Rebecca Black; Friday seems different than Saturday

A very interesting topic and song that almost all people in my generation and more have heard of is the song “Friday” sung by Rebecca Black. This song is one of the most least liked videos on youtube, and is a simple, sweet song about Friday. What’s so wrong with that? Rebecca decided to make a comeback, and produce another song… take a guess.. called “Saturday”. This music video was instantly a hit with over 15,000,000 views already. But was it for the actual song? Or just to see if Rebecca did anything better than Friday? This video in now another hit on youtube, but seems a little different than Friday, if you ask me.

This isn’t a blog post about the poor Rebecca Black and her “hit” new song, but more directed towards that this song about Saturday is really representing. When her first hit “Friday” came out, it was very teen, kid, and youth appropriate, while her main point of the song was “looking forward to the weekend”. Her hopping in-between seats in a car, and choosing which cereal to eat was her biggest life crisis. When hearing about the Saturday video, I expected the young and petitie Rebecca and her desire to have a good day on Saturday, but this wasn’t the case at all. The video opens up with what it looks like to be a hangover, waking up at 2 in the afternoon, and drinking clearly involved in the video. I’m sorry I forgot, how old are you again? This is obviously representing under age drinking, and the craziness of a teenager and what a Saturday “should” consist of from her point of view. This is yet, another music video representing a wacky generation, and kids being rebellious, while not thinking about the consequences that can be brought up in the morning. Crazy dancing, dramatic makeup, and a red solo cup basically represented somewhere throughout the entire video. One scene even gets a little sexy, showing a man shaking around his…. well… “area” down there, and singing into a microphone. Oh! On top of that, Rebecca even brought the cops in, I didn’t know it was a new thing to get the cops involved. How “Cool” is she! Obviously, there are hundreds of videos that represent underage drinking, because that’s the generation we have grown to be in. But the part that concerns me is just like any other young star and the audience that they attract. If younger kids really did like the Friday video while their parents approved, how do you think the kids and their parents felt seeing what Rebecca “really” does on a Saturday? Quite the change, if you ask me. If would be so interesting if there was still media that represents a clean, fun, and sober Saturday night. But apparently that’s too much to ask for, even from Rebecca and her crazy weekend.

British Rowing Team Strips Down… For Charity.

A very sexy and touchy topic has been introduced from a group of British crew team members from Warwick University directing their attention to show their support for gay men and gay rights. In this incident, these men are creating a nude calendar promoting gay men while all of the money they make towards the program called EACH (Educational Action Challenging Homophobia). The men get together and do an annual calendar, and take all their earnings and donate to this foundation to help grow awareness of homosexuals. The men never state if any of the are gay or not, but the main idea isn’t for their own sake, popularity, or advertising their sexy strong bodies, but for the sake of men in general. You go you rowers.

Hearing about this story not only drew my attention because of these men, (I mean hello… look at them) but the whole purpose of this calendar is seriously astonishing. This issue isn’t directly directed towards media, but once it hit the media, of course, there was an outrage.  This story has hit buzzfeed, elite, and other huge very popular web pages that present popular stories. So what’s my opinion on these men helping out the awareness of homosexuality? INSPIRING. Of course this isn’t happening in America, but it is still hitting our news. These men taking a stand to fight homophobia is brave, courageous, and they get to have a little fun while doing it. If more people were willing to step out of their comfort zone to help people feel more comfortable with themselves, I swear there would be a lot less harassment knowing we are all in this battle of fear together. Thank you, beautiful British men for showing us those rowing bodies. But what I really want to thank you for is taking a stand for something that you might not even be fighting with; but you all are fighting for.

Pantene joins the movement

One of the latest popular hair commercials done by Pantene is about labeling and stereotyping for women vs. men. This commercial shows a man and women, and while they are taking place in every day things, they have certain labels behind them, and they change based on if a man is on screen, or if a woman is. When a man is giving a speech, behind him it says persuasive, but as soon as the woman gives a speech, the words behind her light up as “pushy”. This plays out throughout the commercial, with a dramatic ending of “Don’t let labels hold you back. ”

I absolutely love, adore, and appreciate all commercials done by women, joining the act of equality, and even promoting feminism. The movement of feminism is reaching out to represent equality between gender roles and where women stand against men. (Well, in my opinion.) This commercial does an awesome kick ass job about promoting that women can be strong, powerful, and bold, no matter the labels that are given. You’re right Pantene, we shouldn’t let those labels hold us back. The heels, the hair, the dresses, the confidence, all represents the power that women should have. “Mad World” playing in the background sets the tone, and shows the main idea, it truly is a mad mad world. No offense to Pantene, but my first thought wasn’t at all “oh this is clearly a hair commercial”. But now seeing this awesome advertisement that has created a lot of controversy, the respect I have for Pantene sure did sky rocket. Way to go Pantene!

 

The Victorias Secret Angels

The Victorias Secret Fashion Show is extremely popular and brings in hundreds and thousands to view annually. Showing off sexy models and their expensive lingerie while having Taylor Swift perform live. This year the fashion show took place on Tuesday December 10th, and really went out with a bang. This fashion show is one of the most famous and glorious fashion shows that airs on tv, and has people talking about it all year, even when it’s not being aired.

The “angels” that prance around stage sure do have quite the body type. Long, skinny, tan, flawless, and somehow they still have boobs. It’s considered beautiful, once again. I never watch the fashion show, because I would rather not hate my body for the rest of my life, comparing mine to theirs. The girls show off their sexy lingerie, and even a 10 million dollar bra. I mean, is that really necessary? I guess so. My opinion on this isn’t that I wish I looked like them, but more on the idea that there are many models out there, that actually show the realistic body types across the United States. All these women represented here are stunning and draw so much attention, but then how do we all feel? My social media feeds are filled with “I hate myself now.” “I’ll never eat again.” “Hitting the gym tomorrow.” “Soooo… are they robotic?” I would say they are. These women are unrealistic, and give unrealistic hopes to women and men, and what men are now looking for in women. Sure, have fun and stare at these flawless barbies all night, but remember that if you want an angel, it’s going to be quite the struggle trying to find one. The majority of women that watch this never feel like they can relate to these angels, and only have their confidence lowered and have mens expectations skyrocket. I thought they were suppose to be advertising lingerie? No? Oh. Yeah it didn’t seem like that. Almost like a clean strip show. There may be 20 robotic angels, but there are also billions of real people. But somehow, the angels are admired.