Girls getting bombarded

Girls and advertising has become an extremely interesting issue to me, as I often consider how certain advertising methods are affecting girls. Its interesting to note that in these advertisements, a lot of the times girls aren’t even the ones being targeted. For instance, girls aren’t really going to be buying cars or houses yet they will still be bombarded by advertisements regardless. I was really interested to hear about how IM robots can be used in this matter, because I remember talking to IM robots when I had an AOL screen name. I was always so excited and in awe about these interactions that I didn’t even put it together that I was being sent advertisements through them. I find it almost insulting now that this bots would use shorthand and IM abbreviations in order to get girls to relate to them. To me, this is somewhat exploitative albeit effective advertising. Social networking has taken this all to a next level. As the book mentions, Myspace allowed regular people (namely aspiring musicians) to advertise themselves and essentially get famous based on these solicitations alone. On top of this self promotion, a plethora of companies and corporations place large, flashing advertisements throughout the website. It was interesting to note that many girls aren’t really buying into all of this advertisement. If anything, girls feel indifferent or annoyed with these bombardments. They definitely generalize and group all young girls together, regardless of the fact that they are individuals. They assume that all young girls use shorthand and emoticons when typing and emulate the same, for example. Companies hurt themselves as result because girls really have such varied interests and their advertising does not cater to this fact.

I also really enjoyed the Alloy article, and found that things like the design and style of your websites makes a big difference in being popular. Alloy.com got popular because it was styled after a magazine. Essentially, girls got the same kind of content they would get in a magazine without paying and with the benefit of more communication. Sites like Alloy essentially create an entire bubble of a community where girls can turn, whether they want to read about celebrities, get makeup tips or communicate with other girls virtually.