WEEK THREE REFLECTION: ONLINE AUTHENTICITY & BRANDING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJst1XaqF1k

What does it mean to be authentic whilst growing up in a digital world which encapsulates brand culture?

Sarah Banet-Weiser refers brand cultures to “the way in which…brand relationships have increasingly become cultural contexts for everyday living, individual identity, and affective relationships” (2012, pg. 4). Whether we are conscious of it or not, our personalities, thoughts and ideas are heavily constructed by the online world of branding and trends. Bo Burnham’s film, Eight Grade (2016) visualises this concept for us. Not only was I taken back to the horror days of middle school, but I was forced to discover how impressionable young children can be in regard to their attitudes and personalities being shaped by what they are exposed to online. So much so that all of those younger kids seem to already own mobile phones at this age, where 10 years it was a different story. But why do all of these children have mobile phones in middle school? Branding. If you were to not have a mobile device, you were part of the minority and as this film discusses, being apart of the minority can seem like the end of the world at 14. But it gets deeper than just owning mobile phones.

It has been an on-going trend and debate on which brand of phone is better: Apple or Samsung? Apple devices are shown as being trendier while those who own Android devices are often ridiculed. Apple has branded their products so well, that we as consumers no longer care so much about the quality of the phones but instead the ideology that comes with owning them.

Banet-Weiser, S (2012), ‘Introduction: Branding the Authentic’ and ‘Conclusion: The Politics of Ambivalence’ from AuthenticTM: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture, NYU, page 4.