Good Marketing, Bad Idea

This week’s readings were very upsetting to me. It was interesting to see how much money businesses can make by targeting the teen/ tween girls market. From a business standpoint, the AM&M Corporation is very smart. We have learned throughout this class how much the internet now affects the lives of young girls. We also have studied how much media plays a role in shaping young girls’ identities. The combination of both these aspects in the marketing done by the AM&M Corporation is what is the most upsetting to me. The Alloy.com website acts as a “community” for girls, almost like gURL.com that we have discussed in the past. However, Alloy.com does not truly give a “community” in which the girls can express their identities and explore new ideas. Instead, Alloy.com poses as a community and in reality reinforces the societal ideas of how a girls should be. Girls should be “girly” and wear makeup and dress in the latest trends. They advertise this idea through everything, such as horoscope posting, “editorial articles”, book reviews, and celebrity information. They even provide links so they can make it easier for the girls to buy these products. One example in 2.0 was the Clinique Boot Camp which was a way for girls to get tips from Clinique as well as buy Clinique products. The author points out that the site never mentions the idea that you do not have to wear makeup; rather they give you tips on how to use your makeup better. Also, the thing that really upset me was the non-acceptance of homosexuality. 2.0 Talks about the expression of “crushes”, and hose crushes are only portrayed as being male. Also, in the “PDA” section of Alloy.com, girls can send in photos of themselves and their boyfriends to be posted on the site. There are no pictures of girls with their girlfriends because homosexuality is not accepted. I am very disappointed in this corporation and others like it because they are just continuing the idea of gender roles through the new form of technology.