Journalism

This project examines how the social media persona Oscar PR Girl was constructed and humanized as a luxury brand identity for Oscar de la Renta. To understand this issue, the article considers branding literature focused on luxury brand marketing via social media, then details a textual analysis of Oscar PR Girl content across three social media accounts (Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest) between 1 February and 31 March 2015. The findings of this analysis address how Oscar PR Girl's messages on various social media accounts interacted with each other to become a unified branding tool. This exploration comes at a time when luxury marketers grapple with how to participate in social media platforms without diminishing brand identity and exclusivity.

Despite its name, the shows making up the reality TV genre are well-known for being "real" in only the loosest sense. Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County (2004-2006) followed teens through the end of their high school careers, as they attend prom, graduated and prepared to embark on college. The MTV series was constructed as a "real" foil to the popular scripted drama, The O.C. Unlike shows that set out a premise-from The Real World's "seven strangers picked to live in a house" to the competition-focused Survivor, Big Brother and The Bachelor-Laguna Beach portrayed itself as real and, in doing do, blurred the lines of real and fiction. This article interrogates the role of stylized consumption within the "real" world of Laguna Beach to argue the show blurred reality through consumption of relatable cultural products, including The O.C. This article argues that consumption within the show was key to making the teens relatable and realistic. From there, the television practices take on a new dimension by allowing routine teen events to be stylized and dramatized yet still read, ultimately, as real.

Teen clothier Abercrombie & Fitch’s mix of shirtless associates, nightclub-like stores and risqué photography by Bruce Weber helped propel the brand into icon status. The brand’s name entered the popular lexicon as a synonym for cool and even received a memorable call out in LFO’s pop song, “Summer Girls.” This paper explores the interplay in aesthetics between A &F Quarterly, the brand’s popular magazine-catalog hybrid, and popular music videos of the time. Specifically, this paper analyzes videos that appeared on MTV’s Total Request Live between September 1999 and April 2001. In total, 42 music videos were found to contain elements of the “Abercrombie” lifestyle, including clothing that was sold by the brand, and props and settings similar to those found in the A & F Quarterly. In sum, this suggests that music videos from the time were instrumental in spreading the brand’s aesthetic, and that the interplay between media popular culture and the aesthetics of fashion brands could yi...