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Cultural Jam Project

Original Ad

Consumerism is the central force of our capitalistic society. We are bombarded with hundreds and thousands of powerful corporate images and advertisements every day. These advertisements aim to sell us fantasies about who we should be and what we should buy in order to achieve this “perfect” imagination. One popular brand among teenagers and young adults that participates in the selling of this fantasy is Brandy Melville. Brandy Melville is well-known for its California Girls clothing style, which is a style commonly worn and popularized by many models, actresses, Youtube and Instagram influencers. Therefore it is natural that Brandy Melville yields a lot of power in shaping beauty ideals of young girls and young adults. Before addressing Brandy Melville’s negative influence on body image issues, it is evident in this advertisement that all the girls are not only white but are also all blondes. They definitely tapped into the long-existing beauty ideal of America – skinny, blonde, and definitely white. The ad showing the models with the subtitle “festival edition” creates a summery cool girls vibe and certainly corresponds to the common American saying of “blondes have more fun”. Not only does Brandy Melville exclude non-white teenagers and young women, the slogan “Find Your Fit” is also extremely ironic for a brand that is commonly known for only selling small sizes. In this society where girls and women are still very much encouraged to seek beauty, Brandy Melville creates an unrealistic expectation of what it means to be “beautiful”. Although it is common practice for companies and brands to profit off of women’s insecurities, it is inhumane and regressive to create unachievable beauty standards that leave young women feeling unworthy and never beautiful enough in the name of profit.

 

Jammed Ad

As stated above, Brandy Melville “Find Your Fit” slogan is extremely misleading because they predominantly carry small and extra small sizes. In my jammed version of the Brandy Melville Ad, I changed “Find Your Fit” to “Good Luck Finding Your Fit”, which is what I believe to be a more accurate feeling experienced by teenagers and young women shopping at the Brandy Melville store. Not finding your size in a trendy clothing store could be extremely isolating and humiliating, although it is not obvious, this experience sends young women the message that their sizes are outside the range of normality. By making young women feel insecure and unattractive, the beauty and fashion industry are able to work together and market their products as something that could bring consumers closer to the unrealistic beauty ideal they’ve created. Being bombarded by ads of unrealistically attractive models can have a toll on young women’s relationship with themselves and their bodies. In addition to changing the from slogan “Find Your Fit” to “Good Luck Finding Your Fit”, I replaced “Festival Edition” to “One Size Fits None” to mock Brandy Melville one size fits all clothing that clearly fails to fit everyone. Furthermore, I think “One Size Fits None” is a particularly powerful statement that reveals the truth that it is impossible for everyone to fit in the same piece of clothing, therefore it is extremely discriminatory and problematic for Brandy Melville to make teenagers and young women feel insecure about their bodies just because they do not fit into Brandy Melville’s clothing. The takeaway message from this cultural jam project is that it is especially crucial that we are able to think critically and see through the sugar-coated corporate images and advertisements that are constantly trying to sell us our own identities. Lastly, we must always remember that we can be who we are and who we want to be without falling into the black hole that is consumerism.

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