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A fan is the shortened term for fanatic. The word fanatic was associated with people who were, “insanely but divinely inspired” with temples and sacred places. The word’s meaning has shifted to, “marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion”and has entered our pop culture and everyday lives. “Fandom is a sociocultural phenomenon largely associated with capitalist societies, electronic media, mass culture and public performance.” (Duffett, Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the Study of Media Fan Culture). A fandom is a group that expresses their love and dedication to something in a creative form of art (fan fiction, drawings, cosplay, etc.). Fans are allowed to creatively express their love without being judged.

A fandom can be considered a culture because it follows the definition of what a culture is, “Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the social realities around them.” (Lederach, Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures.). A culture is something taught and passed down through generations. Fandoms are establishing knowledge pertaining to the object being liked and the code of conduct within a fandom. They are also growing in size which can classify it as an actual culture.

Being a part of fandom is like an echo chamber, it becomes a space where ideas and beliefs are reinforced because it is closed off to outside opinions. Mark Duffett uses the example of Rupert Till’s experience at the Free Nelson Mandela concert in London. He states, “Rupert Till’s pleasure seems to spring unbidden from his experience of a live performance and yet it likely represents the culmination of an extended engagement with Sting’s recorded and broadcast music. Till is in a leisure environment surrounded by like-minded people, at an event that could resonate with his value system.” Till was able to feel a strong connection to this concert and the people around him because they had a common interest and they were able to reflect these interests to the public.

Just liking something is not enough to consider yourself a part of a fandom or a fan, there are steps to the process. There are three key stages of the fandom initiation according to John Fiske discussed in the book Media Studies: Key Issues and Debates: 1. The Semiotic Productivity: Do you feel empowered when you see that thing on TV? 2. Enunciative Productivity: Do you talk about the thing outside and proudly own their merchandise (posters, shirts, CDs etc.)? 3. The Textual Productivity: Do you write about your thing of interest and share it? When you can answer yes to all of these things, you are considered to be a part of a fandom.

Fandoms are popular, one of a kind, and grow in size every day. The question is what makes fandoms so appealing to the public. Since being a part of a fandom means you are entering a culture, John Jenkins brakes down what fan culture really means. He stated that there are five characteristics of fan culture: 1. When watching whatever it is on TV, you feel as though you are right there in the crowd even though you are not. 2. When you become a fan you have to understand all the inside jokes, you read and do whatever everyone else in the fandom is doing. 3. You can and will call radio stations to request a song or TV shows to gain attention or express your displeasure to whatever it is you like. 4. A fandom culture develops their own style and traditions. 5. A fandom is like a getaway from reality. (Media Studies: Key Issues and Debates). In a fandom, fans refuse to succumb to the social norms of the regular world, so they are able to express themselves freely there.

If you scroll down the Instagram explore page, you will see it littered with #ad posts. Advertising on social media sites is a new trend because brands are having a harder time reaching out to consumers, so they use social media influencers as the middlemen. Influencers are young teens and adults who are efficient at communicating with their audience. Being a social media influencer requires two main things; having a captivating personality and a large social media following. Having these qualities gives these online personalities the power to persuade consumers into buying products. Influencers collaborate with brands that fit their lifestyle or brands that share the same values as them. Brands usually find influencers through social media networking sites or talent agencies.

In 2016, Influencer Marketing became extremely successful. This kind of marketing strategy focuses on an influential person rather than a target audience. Brands reach out to Instagram famous people and ask them to review or add hype to their products in exchange for payment. Social media influencers have to generate a certain amount of engagements and sell products in order to maintain their deal with a brand. Their technique has been extremely effective; according to an article from Medium.com, “With 86% of marketers having used this marketing strategy, Influencer Marketing saw dynamic growth in 2016. Of these marketers, 94% found Influencer Marketing effective.”

Social media influencers are changing the way products are advertised. Influencers are using Word of Mouth (WOM) advertising. “Researchers have examined the conditions under which consumers are likely to rely on others’ opinions to make a purchase decision, the motivations for different people to spread the word about a product, and the variation in strength of people’s influence on their peers in WOM communications.” This means that a person’s popularity increases the likelihood of other’s listening and making suggested purchases. This is a proven fact, if you look at celebrities who bought followers from the site Devumi, their main concern was to be more popular. The New York Times article, “Follower Factory” stated, “Most of Devumi’s best-known buyers are selling products, services or themselves on social media. In interviews, their explanations varied. They bought followers because they were curious about how it worked, or felt pressure to generate high follower counts for themselves or their customers.” Because of this, the influencer industry is extremely competitive.

Even though being a social media influencer plays into the hierarchy of the internet, it has its value. It connects people which is defined by Pew Research as, “Digital life links people to people, knowledge, education and entertainment anywhere globally at any time in an affordable, nearly frictionless manner.” And it directly affects our commerce, “revolutionizes civic, business, consumer and personal logistics, opening up a world of opportunity and options.” Because brands are able to connect to social media influencers it creates more jobs. It also connects the influencers to consumers and a large audience. CBS News: Money Watch provided an example as to how influencers impact our connectivity and commerce; “You're scrolling through your feed on Instagram…Bewilderment overcomes you as you try to figure out why the Instagram user looks familiar. But at the same time, you feel intrigued to learn more about the product based on the amount of attention the post has received. And that glowing review, which acts as the photo caption, makes you feel inclined to purchase the supplement.”This is an example of how an influencer can be unknown but still show up on a consumers feed. Even though they are unknown the consumer is attracted to them because of the traction the post has garnered and will make a purchase. This is validating the success of the of influencer marketing and word of mouth advertising.

Social Media Influencers are always on top of the newest online makeup trends. This helps them maintain their popularity and remain relevant to consumers. They’re what some people would describe as their ideal person. Social Media Influencers are usually; attractive, funny, and popular. Qualities that some people wish they had. This brings up the idea proposed by Justin Rezvani from Medium.com of possibly digitalizing ourselvesin the future. This means that companies will use artificial intelligence to create a robotic influencer. Creating a robotic influencer will allow brands to have all the creative control. They can also program it to respond to consumers.Brands will be protected from scammers and being taken advantage of. An influencer marketing agency Mediakix ran an investigation and concluded that, “…lured four brands into deals with fake Instagram accounts, populated with stock photography and followed by users bought for $3-$8 per 1,000. The brands offered the fake influencers money, free products, or both.”

This idea is not as farfetched as it sounds, the Navy is already utilizing humanoids, they have created one named Octavia. She was built to fight fires, but she has the ability to mimic human expressions. An article from MIT Technology Review talked about this robot,  “She can nod her head in a gesture of understanding; she can widen her eyes and lift both her eyebrows in a convincing semblance of alarm; or she can cock her head to one side and screw up her mouth, replicating human confusion.”Expressions are a key part of  having a personality. Your facial expressions can describe your mood. If an influencer is displeased with a product it will show on their face. If it is possible to train a robot and input the theory of mind into their systems, marketers can use this to their advantage. They can create the perfect influencer for their company.

Tyler Perry is an American actor, screenwriter, and comedian. He is well known for his renowned role of Mabel Simmons or simply known as Madea. Madea was introduced to the public in 1999 in his play I Can Do Bad All by Myself. Tyler Perry has created an anthology of Madea films and plays since her first introduction. His best-selling movie was Madea Goes to Jail, which made over $90 million in the box office and was produced on a $17.5 million budget.

Perry has stated Madea’s characteristics were derived from his mother and other people he met in his life. Madea’s character is very vulgar, quick tempered, and vindictive at times. These qualities are used to mask her true nature; she is a very godly, a helpful woman, and she is constantly giving advice to those in need and help them find a way out of a bad situation. This character is also used as comedic relief when the film gets heavy, she constantly uses anecdotes of her past which include stories of robberies and strippers.

Since the beginning of Tyler Perry’s career his target audience was the black community. He shows the problems that happen within the African American/Black community and how they cope and resolve their problems. There has been a debate over whether Perry’s films are doing more harm than good to the black community, even director Spike Lee spoke out about this. “A lot of stuff that's on today is coonery and buffoonery, and I know it's making a lot of money and breaking records, but we can do better.” Spike Lee’s films are known to be of the top tier and classics, his films have changed the game for black people (ex. Do the Right Thing). He is stressing that we can do better on creating the image of black people that we show to the public through the big screen. “...Perry frames them as (1) materialistic and status-obsessed, (2) dysfunctional and abusive, and (3) disdainful of working- and lower-class Blacks. We also argue that he is creating new controlling images like the “Emasculated Black Gentleman.” In these ways, Perry’s images may have detrimental consequences including perpetuating Black stereotypes, reinforcing existing class and gender tensions in Black America, and impeding the life chances of middle-class Blacks by suggesting that they are unsuitable for assimilation and integration.” (Harris and Tassie, The Cinematic Incarnation of Frazier's Black Bourgeoisie: Tyler Perry's Black Middle-Class).

African Americans/Blacks have been subjected to a variety of stereotypical roles from the Uncle Tom's, to enraged black [wo]men, or poverty-stricken families. James Baldwin touches on this in I Am Not Your Negro, “To watch the TV screen for any length of time is to learn some really frightening things about the American sense of reality. We are cruelly trapped between what we would like to be and what we actually are.” Because Americans believe everything they see on television or the idea of something becomes more normalized once on television, is why the black community cannot progress and push themselves beyond the stereotypes.

Even if this is true, the stereotypes and characters Tyler Perry created is the gives a sense of familiarity to the community. This familiarity and the life lessons his character teaches is what brings his fans together and allows them to make jokes out of the stereotypes. Madea’s character is relatable because in black families we have a strong authoritative figure that can set anyone straight. Her language (the use of Ebonics and southern accent) and references to god are all characteristics we can see in an elderly person like a grandmother. “Madea, the gun-toting grandmother I love to hate, has won me over. She reminds me of my maternal grandmother, who also toted a gun and talked a bunch of smack.” (Lewis, Madea’s Old School Ways). Madea has impacted African American/Black culture because we see someone we know, and love represented on the big screen as the main character.

Since Madea has such a prominent role on screen her fans created tributes to her online. On Facebook there is a page dedicated to Madea fans. They post about funny scenes from the movies, the plays and they share memes. This is an example of what a fandom is. A fandom is a group that expresses their love and dedication to something in a creative form of art (writing, cosplay, memes, videos, etc.). Fans are allowed to creatively express their love without being judged.

The fandom surrounding the Madea franchise is a racial and an emotionally driven one. “…environment surrounded by a vast group of like-minded people at an event that could have well resonated with his value system.” (Duffet, Mark Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the study of Media and Fan Culture). Because Madea films are targeted to black people and it incorporates things that they could only understand, majority enjoy and support Tyler Perry’s works. This leads the fandom to become protective of what they have deemed as their own. Perry created an all-white cast show aired on TLC, Too Close to Home(but is now cancelled) and he received criticism from black people. They were outraged that Perry who is notoriously known for black television switched and did an all-white show. The black community felt betrayed. Tyler Perry was there for them first and is supposed to represent African Americans in films. In an interview he stated, “That’s totally reverse racism, because it was coming from African-American people.” Because of this backlash it has spurred conversation about who can and cannot enjoy Tyler Perry’s works.

I personally enjoy Tyler Perry’s Madea films, I have watched them multiple times. I do not feel like her character is harming the image of black people today. I know that he probably exaggerates her character for comedic reasons, I also know that everything you see on TV isn’t true. Even if Madea’s character is giving a negative outlook on our community that can be debunked if we look at all the successful African Americans and the accomplishments our race has made compared to the past. Madea is culturally important because she makes us never forget our roots, our religion, and our families. We can use the Madea films to mark our progress as we move away from those stereotypes.

The Twilight Zone(1959) was created by American screenwriter Rod Serling. It has a science fiction element within the show. Each episode had an unexpected twist and usually had some moral at the end. The Twilight Zone aired during the mass media era of television. This era began in the 1950s and ended before the 1970s, media during this period was delivered through broadcast tv, cable, radio and print. American Horror Story(2011) was created by the same people who made the musical comedy-drama, Glee. Ryan Murphy and Ian Falchuk created the very lurid drama-horror during the 4th screen of media which began in the 2000’s. In this period receiving media came mostly from smartphones. Even though these two shows can be categorized under the genre of horror-drama anthologies, they very different in terms of censorship. American Horror Story has pushed the boundaries television and of the horror genre by being extremely graphic.

Both shows follow the classic structure for drama anthologies. Anthologies were popular during the 1950s, but they met their demise quickly because of prices and target audience. These shows were targeted to more wealthier viewers. “A second reason for the demise of anthology dramas was a change in audience. The people who could afford TV sets in the early 1950s could also afford tickets to a play. For these viewers, the anthology drama was a welcome addition given their cultural tastes.” (Campbell, page 212). The Twilight Zone and American Horror Story both contain complex human problems that are not easily solved, and they have different characters and storylines every episode or season. These two shows are hybrid dramas because they drabble in a variety of other genres besides drama-horror. Drama anthologies were given a bad reputation from the start, the show’s heavy subject material juxtaposed the upbeat commercials that aired between the dramas. Advertisers wanted Americans to hold onto this idea that life was happy-go-lucky. The dramas showed the real world that was being hidden, so many advertisers disliked anthology dramas and tried to stay away from them.

The Twilight Zone was aired on CBS from 1954-1964, producing five seasons. Rod Serling stated that it was hard to sell the series because of its content. During the time when the FCC had many restrictions for television such as a ban on certain words, indecent speech and censorship of anything sexual or controversial. Shows on tv were targeted towards the nuclear family, so the shows revolved around topics relating to that. Not everyone during the 60s owned a television and the censorship of certain topics made tv shows very narrow casted. “Topics such as racism or sexuality which had little direct impact on this domestic setting were excluded from content. Indeed, ethnic minorities were excluded, for the most part, from the television screen because they did not fit into the networks' assumptions about the viewing audience. Sexuality was a topic allocated to the private, personal sphere rather than the public arena of network broadcasting.” The show could get taken off the air or you could lose sponsors that were paying for the show if any of these qualities were found. Rod Serling talks about the censorship and how it hindered creativity. He stated that writers stayed away from controversial themes so that they wouldn’t get in trouble. Sometimes writers would fight to have an idea included, to bring the controversial issues to light, but sponsors went to great lengths to keep shows, “clean and aseptically rigidly acceptable show.”

When the 2000’s rolled around censorship had minimized. American Horror Story embodies everything that was censored during the 50s. It diminished the image of the happy-go-lucky world television tried to portray. The show airs on the FX (Fox Extended) network owned by 21st Century Fox. In the first season of AHS entitled Murder House, the audience is exposed to sexual acts. We see people having sex, talking about sex and the events leading up to sex (e.g. flirting, sensual touching etc.). There was no blurring or having the camera show only half of the scene. The audience were deliberately taken into the bedroom were the acts occurred, as if to make a statement.

The show is filled with blood, gore, and depressing themes. In season one, American Horror Story: Murder House, they show the attempted suicide of the main character, Violet. Her family was very dysfunctional after her father had an affair, she was also bullied and suffered from depression. They showed the emotional scene of her swallowing a bottle of pills. The show even goes as far to show the rape of Violet’s mother. Topics such as these can be seen in any person today, they’re relatable. Because the writers for this show did not stray away from such topics, the show was able to broadcast to a bigger audience.

The characters in the Twilight Zone were usually on the older side, hardly any adolescence was seen throughout the series. The topics and the themes are also hard for younger audience to dissect and understand at times. However, this did not stop the show from becoming an American classic. The show won numerous awards like Emmy’s and a Director’s Guild Award. The show became so popular that it inspired the Walt Disney World’s Tower of Terror ride in Orlando, Florida.

American Horror Story has younger actors and actresses starring in the show. They even have actors with disabilities and illnesses playing major roles in the show. This is positive aspect of the show, it is helping raise awareness to the mentally ill and disabled community creating a larger audience. This show has been a revival and change of anthologies. There are long running anthologies (ex. General Hospital), but none of them incorporate the horror genre that American Horror Story does, and soap operas are targeted towards an older audience. American Horror Story also draws its audience in by having recurring characters every season, this makes the audience develop an emotional attachment to the actors. AHS is known for it’s character development which makes the show even better. Tate Langdon from season one is one of the popular and loved character from the show; “One of the strongest aspects of “American Horror Story” is its delicate balance of horror and humanity, its ability to showcase the ugliest, most depraved depths of characters whom we learn to love and accept for their flaws. This was Tate Langdon: everyone’s favorite misunderstood rebel with a big heart. Sure, he was essentially a bad guy, but the fantastic writing behind his character was that by the time we discovered the truth, we felt like we could actually understand him.” (Ranking 25 Of The Best ‘American Horror Story’ Characters Ever). This show was able to get some of the highest ratings the network has seen and it may be due to those aspects.

If the Twilight Zone was able to delve into the topics that were controversial and being suppressed from viewers it would have been better. Also, the fact that not everyone owned a television during its run affected the show greatly. American Horror Story is revolutionary because it found a creative way every season to address issues in the world. It is easily accessible for anyone who wants to watch it whether it be on cable or a streaming site. I personally am a fan of American Horror Story and I like the horror aspect of the show and the characters. The blood, gore and dramatization of the themes is a bonus. Both The Twilight Zone and American Horror Story are important to television culture because they brought entertainment while addressing deeper issues within the human psyche. The Twilight Zone was able to teach the viewers a lesson at the end of each episode making it a very powerful show. However, for the sole reason of censorship and having to tiptoe around topics it is not as revolutionary as American Horror Story.

Sources:

“American Horror Story Wiki.” American Horror Story Wiki | FANDOM Powered by Wikia,       Web.

“American Horror Story.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Apr. 2018. Web.

Campbell, Richard. Media & Culture: Mass Communication in a Digital Age.

Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. Print.

“Censorship.”The Museum of Broadcast Communications - Encyclopedia of Television-  Censorship. Web.

“Serling on Censorship.” YouTube, uploaded by opantxm. 23 Mar. 2012.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQlqjONEsKQ

“The Twilight Zone (Original Series).” The Twilight Zone Wiki, Web.

“The Twilight Zone.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Apr. 2018, Web.

Whitney, E. Oliver, and Ryan Kristobak. “Ranking 25 Of The Best 'American Horror Story'

My interests always fell within English and writing, it was something I found be to relatively easy. I also did a lot of volunteer and community service in my free time. When it came time for me to start college I bounced between the ideas of majoring in English or Journalism because that's what I immersed myself in during high school. But college has a funny way of changing your expectations. I couldn’t see myself having a future in either of those fields, I was at a loss. I believe everyone has a mission in life and I couldn’t figure mine out.

In 2014, the Ebola epidemic broke out in West Africa and I was in high school at the time. I remember fundraising for Doctors Without Borders, a nonprofit medical organization that assists people when there is a crisis. Raising $1,000, it felt good to help in such a big cause. I was just one person, but the money I helped to raise would help many people. When I declared my major, Media Communication Studies, I remembered how it felt to make the flyers around school advertising the fundraiser and texting my friends to tell their friends. From this point on I realized how vital technology, communicating and understanding the people around you are.

Ebola is highly contagious and deadly, it has a mortality rate of ranging between 25%-80%. Doctors Without Borders were one of the many organizations to offer help to those in need. This was such a widespread and dangerous disease; worldwide people did not know what to make of it. Ignorance was one of the first responses the public had. All over social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)  jokes and memes about Ebola were being made. Jokes such as; “If you catch Ebola, Uganda have a bad time.” or if someone would cough another person would say, “I hope I don’t catch Ebola.” Because Ebola was so foreign to us our actions mirrored our knowledge.

With the influx of such comments, Doctors Without Borders made it their mission to educate the Africans in the affected areas and people worldwide about Ebola. They provided psychological help for Ebola survivors and those who lost their families/villages, they had representatives from the World Organization of Health (WHO) visit the areas to evaluate the epidemic. They posted everything to their website and Facebook for the public to see. They also documented the process through a blog the nurses and doctors posted their stories of what they witnessed, how they coped, and just their raw emotion of being in a place declared a state of emergency. Carille Guthrie, a logistician during the Ebola plague wrote a blog entry on the site talking about her time spent in an Ebola infected area. It is entitled My 21 Days: “No handshakes, no hugs, no pats on the back. Not touching anyone became the norm, so much so that when someone did accidentally touched you, you couldn’t help but flinch in horror.” Another entry by Jackson Naimah he speaks about the scrutiny his family faced for helping the cause and the stigmas surrounded Ebola. He called his entry Fighting Ebola, ending stigma: “The task has not been easy. In this battle, one must always keep on the safe side or risk joining the victims. We’re not fighting Ebola blindly. We’re fighting it with our conscious minds.” Through their words we could feel the seriousness of the situation at hand even if we weren’t seeing it with our own eyes.

The careful documentation of the process of rescuing and educating several African countries can help reduce the spread if another epidemic was to happen in the future. Because NGOs (Non-governmental Organizations) require so much funding to operate I would like to help out with that in the future. I can see myself working as a social media manager, an advertiser, or even a blogger. Social media is a powerful and widely used platform, we get most of our news there rather than on TV. The advertisements seen on TV are carefully planned to target and relay a certain message to the public, helping persuade and convince an audience to do something is very powerful. It means you have a voice that people like and will listen to. If I was going to blog in the future I think the personal aspect of my blog would resonate with the readers and change their perspective on life. If I can communicate with the public and give them insight and let them know how much we need to unite and help one another out, especially with our current presidency disrupting America, I would consider that a mission accomplished.

Pen and paper was the way we documented important events and the word of mouth is how we shared stories with one another. Since the creation of the World Wide Web, those techniques have become outdated and today our lives are integrated around social media. We are currently in the 4th screen era of smartphones and mobile videos. Devices have converged making it possible to stream and access social media at the same time. Because of this we can view, like or comment on people’s profiles with ease. The problem with this is the obsession that comes along with having this accessibility; it’s changing how teens socially interact with one another and shaping their personalities.

Generating likes boosts our egos and makes us uphold a certain image online. Once we find something that gains the attention of others, we stick with it. The Frontline documentary Generation Like discusses how teenagers are so focused on how they are viewed by the public that they would do whatever it takes to get noticed. In the beginning of the documentary we see a group of teens helping a friend pick out a profile picture that will get him a lot of likes. “...users have a tendency to know what is gaining attention among their friends and upload the same style profile picture to reflect the same positive message.” (Kaya and Bicen 2016). They advised their friend to pick a picture that showed his personality because he needs likes. On social media you can also turn yourself into the person you want to be. In another Frontline documentary, Growing up Online, Jessica created an alter ego online that reflected everything she wanted to be; confident, sexy, and unique. She stood out online and she gained fans and hundreds of likes. Having likes is the current trend among teens online.

Following the trend of likes The Hunger Games franchise are using teenagers to add hype to their movies. The franchise is based on the bestseller book trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The people within this fandom flock towards the website dedicated to the movie(s) to share fanart, stories, and other creative posts. This is changing teens socially because they are in space with people who have the same interests as them. Teens no longer have to go outside and actually talk to people to find out their interests, they can just instant message them online. Ceili an avid Hunger Games fan, discusses how she is constantly sharing posts about the film on her timeline, her friends timelines, and surfing the web for the latest news about her favorite movie. She describes it as feeling like she’s actually working. She spends her time retweeting and on her computer instead of being out with friends. She does this for sparks, which are equivalent to likes and the more sparks she has the bigger the fan she is. Likes are used as a hierarchy system and distinguish seniority and power within a fandom. The social class system is being reinvented online and is reinforcing to teens the need to be liked and noticed by everyone is what is important on the web.

Interactive media has taken the place of our face to face interactions with people. We do not necessarily need to have connections to make it in the industry, we just have to create a viral video or do some crazy stunts to gain popularity. On social media people find jobs and are hired by companies because of their popularity. For example, Steven Fernandez a 13 year old YouTube star, started off as a skateboarder but he realized he had a bigger audience when he did prank videos or videos with models. Now his videos are hardly about skating. He received positive comments on his videos telling him that he’s funny, this encouraged him to continue down that current path. A bigger audience meant having a bigger payout, more sponsors, and more popularity. Fernandez’s main concern became to make videos that brought in viewership and likes rather than creating videos for his own enjoyment. You can see the progressive change in his video content and his personality as he got more popular. If you search for Steven Fernandez today you can see he was involved in some legal trouble in 2015. It can be theorized that if he had not gained fame on YouTube he [probably] wouldn’t have gotten in trouble.

I see myself as a Public Relations Practitioner (Technician) if I continue down the career path of public relations. Of course, I’d work my way up to the manager position after getting some experience in the field and trying a variety of jobs. I would want to work for either a corporation or a non-profit organization. There are more job opportunities in both of these sectors and working for big brand that has an impact on society is my goal. Maybe I could work at Apple or with the American Red Cross.

Brandy Melville is an Italian brand founded by Silvio Marsan in 1994. Silvio Marsan designed clothes for other Italian brands before deciding to establish Brandy Melville with his son Stephan Marsan. There are 40+ stores located in Italy. This brand made contact with American soil in 2009, opening the first Brandy Melville store in Westwood, California. Brandy Melville has a relatively small store presence unlike it’s competitors (e.g. Hollister, Abercrombie) they have no formal advertising for their company. Brandy Melville is known to be very low-key and not many people know about this brand. They credit most of their success to social media (e.g. Instagram) and celebrities like Kylie Jenner wearing their clothing. Brandy Melville’s prime consumers are teens and young adults aged 14-25.

The clothing sold in stores and online can be described as flowy, summery, beachy California/Italian inspired clothing. Brandy Melville’s clothing sizes run rather small. They only sell extra small to medium, excluding the larger sizes. The major issue is the clothing sizes that this brand has. After establishing the brand in America, the brand chooses to sell small clothing even though the average American is not a size 2. This is not an issue to the brand. The brand wants to keep it’s Italian authenticity and encourage women to want to wear Italian style clothing, even if it means fitting into a smaller size.

However, this issue is extremely disheartening to my public of attempted consumers of Brandy Melville. I focused this project on females who tried to shop at Brandy Melville, but could not fit into any of the clothing. They felt like they were casted to the side and that the brand had little regard for them.

When conducting the Hon-Grunig to four females ages 18-26 whom heard of Brandy Melville and shopped there before the results were split. The relationship between customers and the brand is mostly one sided. On social media, some of the consumers have expressed the need for larger sizes, but they have yet to see anything implemented.

The trust between the company and the consumers is somewhat there. The females think that the brand produces clothing that will attract their targeted demographic. They think of their intended targets and produces clothes what they think their demographic will like.

These women do not shop at Brandy Melville anymore. They feel as though this store is so low-key and having a small social media presence compared to other brands makes it easy to forget about Brandy Melville. Aside from the recent racism controversy, this brand is hardly talked about and the brand makes no effort to stay relevant to customers.

These four women all stressed the need for inclusion of all body sizes in the brand’s clothing. If the brand included this, the women would make an effort to have a long-lasting relationship with the brand because they would be listening to what they are demanding. There is nothing given or gained from the relationship with this brand aside from having a nice outfit. Brandy Melville has yet to heed to the demands of having larger sizes. The four women believe that this shows that the brand does not care about the welfare of others.

I created a focus group consisting of 10 women ages 18-26 who have attempted to shop at Brandy Melville, but were unsuccessful. These women all wear a size large. Out of the ten women only three knew that this brand that originated in Italy. Once this information was revealed the group said that they understood why the brand had such small clothing. “Europeans are healthier than Americans, of course their clothes are smaller.” Even though the understood where the company was coming from they still believed that the company should incorporate American body sizes if they really want to make a break in the American industry. “There’s the body positive campaign going on and if they paid attention to social media trends then they would see that being thick and curvy is the thing now.”

However, one female pointed out, “We have brands made specifically for plus size and bigger women. Why are we getting mad when there’s a brand made just for smaller women?” The women said they felt isolated and there isn’t much they could do to change that. “The brand isn’t going to change that’s obvious, so we just won’t shop or support Brandy Melville. Simple.”

Ultimately, the sizing of Brandy Melville’s clothing is deterring some people from buying from this brand. However, we must take into account that Brandy Melville has been in business for over two decades and has never had a complaint about their clothing until their launch in America. They brought over Italian style clothing to America, it was like trying to introduce their culture to Americans through clothing. Asking them to change and revamp everything they’ve had from day one is almost impossible, like trying to teach an old dog a new trick. And not this would not be the cheapest method. They would have to find new manufactures to make larger clothing and find new models to help advertise the clothing on social media. Instead of complaining about the clothing we can either ignore this brand because it does not cater to our needs or we can take the small clothing as encouragement to get more active and healthier so that we can fit into the smaller sizes.