How quickly
influencers can lose their advertising
Photo Credit: USA Today
Nothing has shown the dangers of influencers and false
advertising quite like influencer Olivia Jade Giannulli. The news of numerous
rich celebrities has come out about parents paying for their children to attend
prestigious universities without the required academic qualifications. Many of
the parents have already been charged for this blatant fraud including actress
Lori Loughlin, mother of Olivia Jade, becoming a wake-up call for influencers
everywhere just how important the content they present is.
Prior to the scandal being exposed, Olivia Jade would present her “brand” on her YouTube channel as a fun college girl and even admits to only wanting to experience USC for the games and parties over the actual school work in her video below titled “basically all the tea you need to know about me (boys, college, youtubers).” It’s a wonder how the world didn’t put the pieces together based on how she branded herself online. Now, the appropriate reactions have come forth and according to Ad Age author Angela Doland, “ In the comments of a sponsored Instagram post about Giannulli getting her college dorm supplies from an Amazon service for students, someone wrote, ‘Hoping your sponsors dump you ASAP.” Since then the advertising backlash has taken off, her biggest partner, Sephora, dropped her “Olivia Jade x Sephora” makeup collection most recently, which will be a big dent in her current and future relationships with brands.
This just goes to show how fragile the common job of an influencer nowadays truly is. Branding yourself online is opening companies and audiences into your life and when your credibility becomes lost, so does all your income that relies on it.
-Julia
For more info go to Angela Doland’s article, “An Influencer
Gets Caught Up in the College Admissions Scandal: Wednesday Wake-Up Call,” Ad Age, (March 13th, 2019).
Somehow,
brands are still producing unintentionally racist products, but ironically this
has been a prominent issue during the perfectly timed, Black History Month.
First, on February 1st, Adidas pulled their white “Ultra Boost Uncaged” sneaker from their collection made to honor Black History Month. The idea of matching “Uncaged” to an all-white sneaker didn’t go over as well as Adidas’ marketing team hoped.
Then on
February 6th, Gucci’s black and red Balaclava sweater that’s pulled over
the mouth is recalled for its similarity to blackface.
Many gave it
likeness to the racist stereotyping cover of early children’s book, “The Story
of Little Black Sambo.” The company then quickly took to Twitter to apologize
after so much backlash was received, as their marketing team had to act fast is
taking the sweater out of both physical and online stores.
Even before
Black History month, H&M received backlash in early January over a black
child being the model on an advertisement for their hoodie reading, “coolest monkey
in the jungle.” If the complaints about
the ad’s racist undertones as some people found weren’t a bad enough
perception, H&M also received hate for the white child being the model for
the hoodie labeled, “survival expert,” of the same line.
Clearly, the problem of unintentionally racist marketing continues to persist in 2019. You might think brands would be more cautious in how they present their products during the month specifically dedicated to celebrating the black achievement.
So, what do these racial controversies have in common above all else?
Poor
marketing!
It’s not the
products themselves that cause the outrage, but instead how marketing teams
advertise them. For
Adidas, the white sneakers would have been successful products on the market if
it weren’t for the distasteful name given to them. The H&M hoodies had
become a big issue when people saw them presented on those specific models.
Marketing teams have already been looking into
solving these branding issues that continue to persist today. Ad Age author
Adrianne Pasquarelli has found that this is still a problem because,” the
people making the decisions lack diversity.” Often people in marketing look to
brand from their own point of view and don’t have the true perspective of the
consumers of their product. One of the most, if not the most, important aspects
of advertising is pandering to consumer’s wants, needs, and feelings, yet it is
almost impossible to market for a diverse consumer marketplace if the company
itself is lacking diversity.
Brands are
already working to prevent insensitive advertising, as Pasquarelli mentions
products such as Brandstage and Spotlight, made by Kantar Media, that give
brands feedback before they start creating their advertisements. Although
brands are trying these products along with giving out surveys to “focus groups,”
they continue to miss the appropriate people in their research beforehand.
At this
point, doing better might pertain to focusing on the sensitivities of all
cultures by directly involving them in the marketing process. It’s more than
just reaching out to a diverse group of people to review their marketing as
well, the best way to prevent the outrage is by concentrating on diversifying
the marketing teams in the first place.
As people get older many make the transition from soaking in a warm tub to standing under the pressurized water of a shower. Whether for convenience, perceived cleanliness, or even the feeling of hot water pressing down the back, we tend to start to perceive baths as too time-consuming that we only take part in as children. Some people are so repelled by the idea of taking a bath as an adult that they refuse to take one anymore with the belief that taking a bath is so dirty.
But what if you knew that taking baths has numerous benefits for your health?
There is a multitude of scientific evidence that proves baths can help with many aspects of our body’s health from muscles all the way to hormones. Our aging bodies need these health benefits more than ever, so why are we not taking advantage of staying healthy and getting clean at the same time? Below are some health advantages that taking baths can provide.
Water is always a great tool for
exercise when you are moving around in it, but what if you could burn calories
by simply sitting still?
Soaking
chest deep in a warm tub can reduce pain and inflammation in the nervous system
as well. This can lead to improved mood and reduce any stress or anxiety you
might be experiencing.
There’s a reason people see soaking in a bath as calming or relaxing. Protecting the spine from pain or discomfort with relief by the temperature and pressure of a nice soak in the tub is crucial for the infamous back pain of adulthood.
A bath relaxes your muscles of course, but this important muscle is, in fact, working harder than usual.
Your heart beat faster much like
the idea of burning calories through a warm bath, you’re getting that cardio in
as well.
Heat from baths can also help with circulation and blood flow allowing an overall reduction in blood pressure. Research shows heart conditions, such as a stroke or a heart attack, are more preventable with reduced blood pressure.
Warm baths clearly provide many benefits to your health, but what about bathing in colder water?
Hormones such as the adrenocorticotropic hormone (release in times of biological stress) and other adrenal hormones can become more balanced and even assist infertility issues.
On the other hand, warm water baths can increase your happiness hormone- Serotonin.
Both cold and warm water baths can be useful tools for going to sleep.
It’ s been proven that colder body temperature will help induce sleep, but the same idea goes for taking a warm bath as well. The sleeping hormone, melatonin, is produced more at night when our bodies naturally drop in temperature.
By taking a warm bath before bed,
this process of cooling down can happen quicker, therefore producing more melatonin.
Lavender scents are also beneficial in adding to your bath to aid sleep.
The pressure and temperature of immersing yourself from the chest down in warm bath water can aid in breathing.
The pressure on your body created from the water can contribute to heart exercise, allowing it to beat stronger and quicker. Oxygen intake also increases as the heart beats faster, so the warmer the water, the more your heart beats, and the more oxygen is taken in.
The steam from a warm bath is also a great way to clear both the sinuses and the chest.
Finally, our outer health can be
just as important as our inner health.
It’s a no-brainer that immersing your body in a tub full of water can give it the hydration that it needs as the body is made up mostly of water. But, our skin, hair, and eyes are also enhanced with the minerals that occur in water by nature.
Adding other moisturizing oils, such as products with shea butter, can always help refresh and soften skin.
Add a little more fun to bath time by purchasing Lush Cosmetics’ bath bombs and bubble bars are sure to make any bath full of moisturizing oils and fragrant scents that can contribute to some of these as well and are 100% vegan and cruelty-free. As Lush is saving animal lives, they are also helping ease yours with easy to use and essential bath products.
There are at least eight reasons why baths can improve your health, so help your body through the process of aging by utilizing the benefits baths can offers.
The days of human-like technology being an integral part of everyone’s lives is becoming more of a reality because of Generation Z. From cracking jokes with Amazon’s Echo, “Alexa,” to watching the new Netflix series that the company says is in “Top Picks,” for you, companies are making technology become the supportive and reliable family member that people are starting to rely on.
The older generation’ s
concern with brands breaching privacy by using personal data to target their
advertising is less of an issue for the consumers of Generation Z, who believe
personalized reliability, that the internet can provide, is more valuable.
Companies aren’t taking this knowledge with a grain of salt. Microsoft, for example, captivated the hearts of Americans, during the 53rd Super Bowl, when they introduced an adaptive Xbox controller and showed as disabled children played video games with it. This controller that was made with the challenges they face in mind and gave Microsoft the appearance of being the necessary heroes this specific group in society needed.
In her article, “For Generation Z the Digital Experience is the Human Experience,” Ad Age author Mary Ellen Dugan stresses the successes that companies receive in branding their products are because they market towards Gen Z and further focus on how their products can become the consumer’s best friend through their technology. Generation Z’s self-awareness about their emotional attachment in online consumerism is important for branding as Duran even mentions Gen Z, “expects digital experiences to be deeply relevant, anticipatory and seamlessly intertwined with their physical experience,” and that, “64 percent of them would rather have unlimited access to the internet than a college degree.”
With this
knowledge that technology and the internet is such a high priority in the
younger generation’s determination of gratifying life experience, brands more
than ever need to keep this appeal of emotional attachment with humanizing
technology. Someone’s best friend might betray them, but as long as their
internet efficiency doesn’t then they’re happy overall.
The
increasing popularity of communicating through social media may have led people
to start putting more faith in the product recommendations from people their
personally know. What then happens when the brands themselves become
personified as the new trustworthy best friend?
-Julia
For more
information go to Mary Ellen Dugan’s “For Generation Z the Digital Experience is
the Human Experience” Ad Age, (February
5, 2019).
Hello! My name is Julia and I am a sophomore looking to get a degree in advertising at UF. I recently made the big change switching my major from Aerospace Engineering which I understand to be a drastic difference from each other. The field of Advertising drew me to it as it is not only prevalent in every person’s life, but also involves so endless creativity and freedom.
I have previously found a creative outlet mainly with music as I have played many instruments including the violin for fourteen years, but I also love reading and doing puzzles in my free time and feel that advertising is a great combination of the creativity and analytical aspects involved in these activities. The aesthetics of design paired with the strategic psychology involved in advertising are what I am hoping to focus on for my future in advertising. I am also looking to eventually work for an agency and help in developing advertising campaigns for companies.
On here, I will mainly write trade press releases regarding
important trends seen in advertising. Hopefully, this blog will help me to
practice strategically communicating in the style of social media which is deeply
relevant to popular work in advertising today.
Gator Strat Comms 