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Food and Visual Culture in Los Angeles

Exploring the culture of food and restaurants in LA is undoubtedly a complex mission.  Los Angeles is known for being one of the trendiest cities in the world, and this includes food trends.  From rainbow lattes to black ice cream, LA hosts a variety of obscure food trends that beg the question: do restaurants and shops now design their menus with social media in mind? Do they create items on the menu for the sole purpose of hopefully being Instagrammed? And why is it that people in LA are obsessed with posting about every new restaurant they try? I would argue that at this point, in LA, the way food looks is often just as important as how it tastes.  The following blog tells a story about one girl’s quest to find the most Instagrammable food in LA, and to find the answers to these questions.

“How did people find new restaurants before Instagram?” says one 22 year old girl as she snaps a photo of her food before taking a bite.  With the advent of social media technologies like Instagram and Snapchat, finding new and trendy restaurants is easier than ever before.  People can see what cool places their friends are eating at, bookmark them, and then see for themselves, post their meals on social media, and so on.  In this way, certain restaurants do not have to engage in any other type of marketing because their customers do it for them.  Catch is one such restaurant. Originally starting in New York, when Catch opened in LA, celebrities and trendsetters already knew it as a place to go, and once it popped up on social media it quickly became one of the trendiest restaurants in Los Angeles.  But in addition to their clientele, Catch makes extravagant dishes like the waffle tower pictured above.  The concept of a waffle tower is so unusual and exciting, the look of it alone attracts customers, regardless of the taste (although I will say, it tasted great). 

Speaking of appearances, this rainbow latte from The Butcher, The Baker, The Cappuccino Maker (BBCM) in West Hollywood is one cup of coffee that stands out visually from the rest.  When my friend and I saw this on the menu, we knew we had to get it, both because it sounds exciting and because it would make for a nice picture.  The latte itself tasted no different from a typical latte, and if anything probably tasted a bit worse because of the slightly odd fruit flavors coming from the coloring.  Yet, this latte cost a solid $6.

In contrast, here we have a normal latte, costing $4.  It is cheaper and tastes better, yet it just doesn't have the same “wow” factor as the rainbow latte.  A latte like this can be purchased just about anywhere in LA, but the rainbow latte can only be purchased at BBCM. And thus, BBCM becomes a must-go spot for all those looking to change up their typical latte shots on their Instagrams.  This case provided the initial evidence to back up my hypothesis.  While I was not able to talk to the chef and find out exactly why they created this latte, based on the atmosphere, the people, and the entire menu collectively, it was pretty evident to me that this place was meant to be Instagrammed.  While the quality of food is important, restaurants in LA have mastered marketing to the point that it has infiltrated their menu creation.  To some degree, how Instagrammable a meal is may be just as important as how it tastes.

But not everything that looks amazing tastes amazing. I found further evidence when I visited a fairly new ice cream shop in downtown called Little Damage.  This little shop garnered a lot of attention for its black charcoal ice cream.  Seeing as charcoal everything is a popular LA trend right now, the owners of this shop capitalized on it just in time.  During my visit, I took the obligatory photo but wasn't looking to Instagram anything, so I was the odd one out.  Every other person there was conducting a full photo shoot, and along with the fact that they actually had a photo booth inside of the shop, I was convinced that everything about this place was designed with social media in mind.  Unfortunately, the ice cream was unbearably sweet, not creamy, and overall just poor quality.  So now matter how good the pictures were, I would not return.

Continuing with the slew of trendy desserts in LA, California Donuts was one place that came to mind.  This is a very popular spot for college aged girls as they customize donuts to spell out words, which is perfect for birthdays, and for photos.

It’s obvious that these donuts are visually appealing- they're fun and playful and beg to be posted on social media.  But do they taste better than donuts from any other typical donut shop ? I would say not at all, but they have mastered their social media marketing so they can bring in clientele from all over Los Angeles.

Speaking of marketing, as mentioned earlier, the widespread use of social media in Los Angeles has given restaurants the chance to have their customers do their marketing for them.  My friend in the above picture is my go-to pal for trying new restaurants and desserts.  Together, we have been tackling a long list of food places throughout our years in college, and at some point she decided to make a food Instagram.  She takes many photos of her meals but did not want to bother her normal followers with food pictures all of the time, so it was a fun way for her to share them.  As I ate breakfast with her here at Blu Jam Cafe on Melrose, as soon as we were served our meal we partook in the usual tradition of taking photos.  It has become such a part of our dining experience that our friends all know to not take a bite until there is a good quality photo.  Sitting here I realized that I was just as much a part of the LA food scene as anyone else that I was secretly judging...

As I pondered my role in the visual culture of food I remembered one trip to Shake Shack in West Hollywood I took earlier this semester. One of my friends brought her polaroid which led to the creation of this picture of a picture, of me taking a picture of my food, featuring my food in the background.  This photo unintentionally created Matrix vibes but also is an accurate summary of Los Angeles and the need to take photos of everything, including a simple burger. Of course visuals are not only important in LA, but here there is certainly an extra emphasis on how things look, that can’t truly be matched in other cities.

Noting the emphasis on appearances, I will now draw attention to the focus that is placed on the decor of a restaurant or shop in LA.  Featured above is Compartes chocolates, which is a small room connected to Alfred Coffee.  Compartes is known for making chocolate bars with atypical flavors and for making wrappers so cute you want to buy them regardless of what the flavor may be.  Los Angeles has a very image-based culture and that has become so engrained in the city that even chocolate shops have become places of art.  

This leads us to the era of the neon sign wall art.  Neon signs have now become a tell-tale sign of a trendy place.  Neon wall art, like the one above, found in Compartes, is an Instagram favorite.  In this case especially, it does not matter what their chocolate might taste like, people will go there just to get a picture of the sign.  The question is, why? After studying others and doing some self-reflection, I have come to the conclusion that it all goes back to social status.  Proving that you attended a cool place first shows that you are ahead of the trends, which in the Instagram world somehow makes people feel good about their social status.

Here we have another trendy and relatable neon sign found in Alfred’s Coffee.  Alfred’s is probably one of the most Instagrammed coffee shops in LA for obvious reasons.  Everything about it is aesthetically pleasing, and thus it can add value to an Instagram feed.  Many LA bloggers and Insta-famous people (and normal people) strive to create the perfect Insta feed with a certain aesthetic.  So this “But First, Coffee” sign really enhances the feed of someone trying to convey their LA lifestyle through their Instagram aesthetics.

The Bigg Chill is another popular dessert place known for its neon sign.  But this place is also known for its homemade cookie dough, which is unlike that of any other frozen yogurt place.  In contrast to some of the places I mentioned earlier, whom lure in customers with gimmicks either via the food or the decor, this is one place that has gained a consistent following.  The Bigg Chill does not seem to have celebrity clientele and is not a brand new trendy spot, but it capitalized on the cookie dough trend and now has both the flavor quality and aesthetics to maintain customers, even with LA’s shifting restaurant dynamic.

Next we have Au Fudge, a family-friendly restaurant opened up by Jessica Biel in between West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.  I was eager to visit this place when it first opened because of how cute it looked, but I have since returned both for the off-chance I might see Justin Timberlake and for the nice, cozy atmosphere.  

In addition to the atmosphere and possible celebrity sightings, Au Fudge hosts  a variety of other features to bring in new customers, including neon signs, a children’s center, and arcade games.  All of these visual features add to the concept of it being more than just a restaurant, but a social space as well.  

Au Fudge also makes family-friendly food, with the menu largely centered around things children like.  Everything must be fun and playful, and even the berry cobbler comes in a cute mini bathtub.  A place like this relies on its visual features to continue to gain new customers.

Lastly, to prove that it is not just dessert places and coffee shops who focus on the visual aspects of selling food, let’s take a look at vegan restaurant Cafe Gratitude.  Cafe Gratitude has embraced all of the features that are often associated with the idea of vegans.  Each plate features a “What are you grateful for?” question, and the waiters even ask customers when they order their meals.  The atmosphere of the restaurant is focused on love and serenity, and all of the visuals in the restaurant appeal to the vegan-hippie-yogi lifestyle that people associate with vegans. Essentially, it uses its decor to enhance the message sent out by the menu.  With places like this, I can't help but wonder if it is somewhat of a show or if all of it is done genuinely?  This may be just what makes it fit in so perfectly in LA- it might be phony but it looks nice so people like it.

After studying the visual culture of food in LA, while partaking in it myself, I think that the emphasis on the appearance of food and restaurants is just a side effect of being in Los Angeles.  These restaurants are successful because of the people who visit them, so as long as trendy restaurants attract trendy people, this image-based culture will continue.  But I do want to note that as prevalent as these food trends are, they cannot be a representation of all of Los Angeles, because it would be foolish and inaccurate to disregard all of the other types of restaurants, foods, and people that live in this diverse city.

I started this project asking what is all of this really for? Is the emphasis on aesthetics simply to be pleasing to customers or to be appreciated as artwork, or to bring in more customers and make more money?  Could it be all of the above?  My conclusion is that yes, the appearance of food and decor in restaurants has elevated in importance to a new level in LA.  But as much as the theatrics of restaurants here may all be a marketing ploy, they also seem to be keeping people happy, well-fed, and entertained, so we can’t complain.

Comm 450, Final Project

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Representation, Realism, and Simulation in Video Games

Maja Mikula and Alexander R. Galloway both analyze video games, and while one focuses on women’s roles and the other on the aspect of reality, they both ask a larger question about what kinds of effects these games have on the people playing them.  After taking Stacy Smith’s class, Communication and Mass Media, I became convinced that video games, especially violent ones, are a bigger problem in society than most people think. 

 This detailed article by Psychology Today outlines step-by-step, what happens within a child’s mind as he or she plays video games.  It concludes with an analysis of the responses, delving into hyperarousal and the fight-or-flight response.  While research like this is extremely important for parents figuring out what they should and should not let their children play, it cannot be forgotten that adults too play video games.  The infographic below takes an interesting and unusual stance on video games.  It comes across as an obvious advertisement for gaming in general, but the logic it uses doesn't necessarily prove its point.  One statistic boasts that if “all the users of World of Warcraft’s game time was added together it would amount to: 5.9 million years”.  I find this statistic incredibly disturbing.  It also promotes the idea that people “develop stronger relationships online than in real life”- again, this is disturbing and if anything creates an argument as to why gaming has negative impacts on society.

http://neomam.com/blog/8-awe-inspiring-video-game-infographics/

There is a huge debate about whether violent video games cause violent actions, with some research saying absolutely yes and some saying not exactly. This CNN article carefully examines both sides of the issue, noting the warnings of the APA, and concluding that because the issue is still so two-sided, the best thing parents can do, rather than banning video games, is just monitor the games their children do play.  But even if violent video games do not directly cause players to exhibit violent behavior, or become violent later on in life, it still has to affect them in some way.  Especially in the case of children, any prolonged time spent on an activity is going to affect them, as they are still developing. The graphic below shows the effects of violent video games on a child’s brain, but it is important to note that this graphic shows generally positive effects, even though there is plenty of research that demonstrates negative effects.

http://neomam.com/blog/8-awe-inspiring-video-game-infographics/

Contrary to the image above, the image below highlights the other argument, that when players act out violent acts, it stays in their mind.  Moreover, gaming could disconnect them from their actions, dehumanize victims, and desensitize the players to acts of violence.  The main concern is that they could become so used to performing violent acts virtually that real life violence no longer shocks them.  Galloway discusses social realism in video games and the ways in which video games seek to be as realistic as possible.  He writes that “the player is more than a mere audience member” because of the active role games require. Further, he asserts that “it is the act of doing, of manipulating the controller” that connects the player to the game (83).  This overlapping of human control with technology creates a strange blended space that is so addicting for many gamers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/science/studying-the-effects-of-playing-violent-video-games.html?pagewanted=all

This idea of the active control of the gamer within the game also relates back to the role of women in video games.  Maja Mikula analyzes the video game Lara Croft and how this female character is depicted as both a feminist icon as well as an over-sexualized object.  While Lara Croft may be a step up from how women are treated in other video games, there are still issues.  Just as violent video games could desensitize players to violence, games depicting women as less than men could encourage players to adopt that mindset in the real world.  Ultimately, I think video games should strive to be less violent, crude, and offensive, and instead focus on achieving positive goals, because if gamers took on that mentality it could bring about good change.

Sources:

Maja Mikula (2010). “Gender and Videogames: The Political Valency of Lara Croft” in Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 17(1), pp. 79-87. Wednesday, 25 October:

Alexander R. Galloway (2006). “Social Realism” in Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (pp. 70-84).

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Urban Landscapes

In the assigned readings, Josh Sides and Lilian Knorr unwrap and analyze the conditions that led to urban segregation, as well as the effects it has had on the populations of the cities. Sides retraces the changes that Compton has undergone as a city since the 1950s, and how it has developed the reputation it has today.  As someone who has never studied this city’s history, I was extremely intrigued to read about what it used to be like.  The only information I really knew about Compton before reading this came from stereotypes, so it was enlightening to read.  In the 1950s Compton was regarded a family-friendly suburb, and at this time more and more African Americans were able to obtain “good” housing, and so more black families began to move into Compton. Back then, Compton’s housing, education, and job rates were well above those of the surrounding neighborhoods.  But because of white flight, riots, deindustrialization, high taxes, and gang formations, over time Compton became associated with violence, poverty, and gangs, and this image is hard to shake.  Sides notes the importance of a name, and because this city has been frequently featured in music, television and movies (most of the time depicted in a violent, unpleasant way), the word Compton itself has become a kind of symbol for gang violence.  

The urban segregation that began so long ago is still present in the landscape of Los Angeles today.  As people moved based on race, the segregation became embedded into the city.  This is evident when viewing a map of Los Angeles, both from the past and present.

http://laist.com/2016/10/27/redlining_maps.php#photo-1

This map from 1939 shows the redlining that the federal government put in place in Los Angeles during the Great Depression. As a part of the New Deal, the government was meant to assist homeowners who could not keep up with their mortgages.  But to determine who to help, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation used redlining, a practice in which the least desirable neighborhoods were coated in red, followed by yellow, and the neighborhoods in which they would help were blue and green.  Basically, the red areas were where there were higher populations of minorities, so in effect, African Americans and Hispanics weren’t given any access to the financial services they needed.

Looking at this map, it was evident that these horrible and racist practices of the past were what led to the Los Angeles that exists today.  Driving through LA, I am often shocked by how drastically different one neighborhood is compared to the next.  The Los Angeles Times has a map feature that provides statistics on Los Angeles neighborhoods for a number of factors, including income and race.  Looking at Los Angeles ranked by wealth, the link above provides a map in which you can see that a very wealthy area like Hancock Park, which is predominantly white, is located very near to Koreatown.  In Hancock Park, the percentage of people with an annual income of over $125,000 is about 25%, whereas Koreatown, which is just about 10 minutes away (without traffic) has a percentage of 2%.  

But this urban segregation is not just in Los Angeles, Lilian Knorr discusses this exact situation happening in Baltimore.  And it all goes back to the steps taken in the past.  Sides wrote that cities surrounding Compton all sought to “erase Compton from their city maps” by changing their street names, and clearly these maneuvers are still playing out today (600). Looking at a map of Los Angeles ranked by violence, South Central, Compton, and the surrounding neighborhoods are all ranked in dark orange, while the Westside is all light yellow.

Screenshot from the LA Times

After reading both articles, I remembered a documentary I once watched called Crips and Bloods: Made in America.  This film examines two gangs and how they represent the vicious cycle happening with inner city youth and families. This film really correlates with Sides’ article as it provides a visual representation and further explanation to the topics discussed in the article.  PBS also provides a timeline documenting the city of Compton and its changes over time, specifically in regards to gangs.  While the film doesn’t counteract any of the stereotypes about Compton, it does dig into what may be the root of the issue.  This film studies how black youth in low income neighborhoods, like Compton, often grow up without fathers and in seeking guidance, turn to a gang to find somewhere to belong.  This actually takes the blame off of locational stereotypes and instead posits that the solution should come from people caring- investing in education and mentors for these youth, so that those growing up now can break the cycle.

This is an overwhelmingly sad topic, but just after reading these articles I read Lawrence Webb’s article on the movie Her and its reinvention of LA as a more eco-friendly city.  I couldn't help but think that in the future, perhaps LA could also be reinvented as a city without such extreme neighborhood stereotypes, cyclical gang violence, and the urban segregation that it has today.

Sources:

Josh Sides (2004). “Straight Into Compton: American Dreams, Urban Nightmares, and the Metamorphosis of a Black Suburb” in American Studies 56(3), pp. 583-605.

Lilian Knorr (2016). “Divided Landscape: The Visual Culture of Urban Segregation” in 
Landscape Journal 35(1), pp. 109-125. 

Lawrence Webb (2016). “When Harry Met Siri: Digital Romcom and the Global City in Spike Jonze’s Her” in Global Cinematic Cities: New Landscapes of Film and Media (pp. 95-118).

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The Surveillance Gaze

The surveillance gaze is a complex and multilayered concept. In “Panopticism” Michel Foucault discusses surveillance and the prison system.  In “Branding Blackness” Simone Browne writes about facial recognition technologies and the  ways in which historical racism has influenced them.  There are numerous instances of modern facial recognition technologies, from Xbox to Snapchat to HP Computers, favoring white skin or not recognizing black skin.  It is obviously absurd that this is even an issue, but as Browne retraces the horrible branding practices of the past, it shows that forms of racism have evolved over time while increasingly embedding racism into society.  Browne writes about “whiteness [being] made normative” and this concept of being “raceless” informing the creation of biometrics and facial recognition technology (110).  Whiteness being referenced as normal is extremely problematic, and extends to issues outside of biometrics.  Earlier this year, British Pharmacy Boots demonstrated this exactly when they posted a chart for sunscreens in which white skin was called “normal”. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/041c00fc-be24-4191-8974-a13148f12312

This chart, while perhaps unintentional, exemplifies that institutional racism has become so engrained in everyday life that employees actually hung this chart up- either without realizing how bad it was, or because they were perhaps actually racist.  This chart implies that skin colors like brown and black are not normal, and it deservedly got the store in trouble with customers and on the Internet.

Similarly, another issue that concerns institutional racism is the concept of schools as prisons.  Foucault writes about the notion of a panopticon and questions how and why other facilities so closely resemble the panopticon structure used in prisons.  He asks “is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons?” (228). This brought to my mind various stories I have heard about surveillance systems at high schools.  At my own high school, there was once a major cell phone theft which left parents requesting that security cameras be put in place all around campus.  But at other schools, the surveillance systems are much more intense.  One study which looked at high schools that used more intense forms of surveillance, like x-ray machines and metal detectors, found that campuses with larger populations of black students were more likely to have harsher  security systems.

While the purpose of putting these security systems in place may be to protect the students and create a safe environment, they can have other effects, especially on the perspectives of the students.  Having to walk through metal detectors everyday just to get to their classrooms creates a different environment, making school feel less like school and more like prison.  It creates the sense that even the students cannot be trusted and that they are being monitored constantly.  In the article mentioned above, the author, Melinda D. Anderson finds that if these students understand the metal detectors as the city viewing them as criminals, they may be trained to see themselves in this way as well.  

Moreover, the constant surveillance that is meant to increase safety, can simultaneously trap people into a panopticon-like structure as the image below demonstrates.  Ultimately, the surveillance gaze has become an ever-present force in society today, in a variety of ways and while it may be hard for everyday people to make any kind of changes, it is important that we at least stay aware.

http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/DogByte6RER/media/bWVkaWFJZDoxMjEzOTkyMjU=/?ref=

Sources:

Michel Foucault, “Panopticism” in Discipline & Punish (pp. 195-228).

Simone Browne (2015). “B®anding Blackness: Biometric Technology and the Surveillance of Blackness” in Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness (pp. 89-129).

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Food & Social Media

Both Signe Rousseau and Alison Caldwell offer interesting takes on food and social media and how they interact.  Caldwell discusses Twitter and how both food trucks and their customers use it to their advantage. Food truck owners use Twitter as a marketing tool to advertise where they are, and simultaneously customers use it to find the food trucks and post photos of what they ate there. What is interesting about this method of marketing is that through social media, the people selling the food often become well-known, and networks form around them.  Caldwell writes that “they create their own social networks and personal brands” through the photos they post as well as their commentary (308).  This idea doesn’t only apply to food truck owners though.  Last semester I studied abroad in London, and before I even got there, I discovered an Instagram account of a baker without a shop called @Fattiesbakery.  

Screenshot from @fattiesbakery

After stalking it thoroughly, I knew I needed to try the brownies, cookies, and hot chocolate as soon as I could.  But because the owner of Fatties Bakery did not have a storefront, this was not easy.  At the time, she only sold her treats at a local market, but due to bad weather and other issues, she was sometimes unable to show up.  So, each week I would check up on her Instagram bio to see if she had updated a time and place when she would return.  I waited several months until I was finally able to go.  At this point, I had been following her on Instagram for so long (without knowing her name, what she looked like, or anything besides the fact that she baked delicious looking brownies) that when I finally got to buy her desserts and meet her, I was so excited and felt as if I was meeting a kind of micro-celebrity.  And based on the comments on her Instagram photos, it seems that other people agree. By marketing her products through social media, she has become not only a baker but also a kind of blogger, and has built her own little community of loyal followers who view her as a mini-celebrity.  Fatties Bakery exemplifies Caldwell’s notion that there are “multiple layers of community, consumption, and interaction [created] through street food” (311)  Her Instagram is so well crafted that it serves as a vehicle that combines Twitter and a blog in one.  Just like Twitter, she uses it to post her location and news.  But just like a blog, she uses it to post high quality photos of her desserts that people love to look at.  She usually posts high definition, extremely close-up photos of her confections- they are such high quality they almost look like you could take them off of the screen- and this is a very useful tactic in capturing the attention of new customers.

Screenshot from https://fattiesbakery.myshopify.com

Instagram can also be used as purely a food blog, with no specific product being sold.  Food Instagrams have become one of the most popular accounts to follow, and one of my personal favorites from London is called @londonfoodbabes. This account is run by three girls who post photos of everything they eat.  They don’t use a special camera or any specific angles- they just take pictures of the food that look like anyone could take them.

Screenshot from @londonfoodbabes

This mentality of “I could take that” then prompts followers to want to try out the restaurants for themselves.  Moreover, accounts like this often visit the trendiest and most talked about restaurants.  Rousseau writes that people find “validation and appreciation through sharing stories about food” (35).  For me, this is true- I do feel a sense of validation when I finally get to eat at a cool restaurant that I found posted on Instagram.  On another note, Rousseau recounts several instances of people of authority criticizing bloggers who act like food critics without actually having any credentials.  They may have a problem with websites like Infatuation LA. Infatuation posts guides, lists, reviews, and maps in major cities to help people find where to eat for any occasion.  Websites like this are incredibly popular and very helpful, so whether or not the writers are experienced isn’t really even a concern for people searching for reccomendations.  On the other hand, accounts like @londonfoodbabes-blog-blog are not necessarily posting reviews of restaurants, but just photos, which makes for a more communal, equal experience between the account and its followers.  

After reading both Rousseau and Caldwell’s analyses of food and the Internet, one final, more recent creation came to mind.  Buzzfeed has its very own food section called Tasty, which has gone rampant on Facebook since it started in 2015. Tasty posts videos of amazing food as it is being made, and provides extremely simple recipes.  They put a special focus on the aesthetics of the food, and make it look so tantalizing that anyone scrolling through Facebook has to stop to watch it.  Whereas Twitter and blogs often seems to be used for self promotion, Tasty is more so just a source of entertainment for viewers, but I don’t doubt that Tasty’s style will be copied by other brands and restaurants looking to bring in more customers through the Internet.  It may not be Julia Child, but it is where we are at in 2017.

Sources:

Alison Caldwell (2012). “Will Tweet for Food: Microblogging Mobile Food Trucks – Online, 
Offline, and in Line” in Taking Food Public: Redefining Foodways in a Changing World (pp. 
306-321). 


Signe Rousseau (2012). “Food for Sharing” and “Twitter Feeding” in Food and Social Media: 
You are What You Tweet (pp. 1-16 & 35-50). 


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A Brief Timeline of Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un’s 2017 Cat Fights as Told Through GIFS

 The already fragile relationship between North Korea and the United States (and the rest of the world) has steadily crumbled more and more over the course of this past year as North Korea continues to build, proudly announce, and fire missiles. As of early August, when this timeline begins, North Korea claimed that their intercontinental ballistic missile could reach “anywhere in the world”.

https://www.tumblr.com/

In response to this, the United Nations placed additional sanctions on North Korea on August 5th.  According to CNBC, these sanctions could “slash $3 billion of the country's annual export revenue”.  They knew it would not be an ultimate solution, and that the threat of North Korea would continue to grow nonetheless, but it was a small step in the right direction.

http://judgejames.powerade.com/

But Kim Jong Un did not like this.  By August 6th he had rejected the United Nation’s proposed sanctions, with the North Korea Foreign Ministry declaring that they would continue to develop nuclear weapons regardless of what the countries in the United Nations wanted.  The spokesperson for North Korea noted that it was silly of the UN to even think that they could ever interfere with their nuclear power.

http://bricesander.tumblr.com/post/61456996896

President Trump was not going to stay quiet after this.  Following this report, on August 8th Trump announced that North Korea would "be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen” if they continued to threaten the United States.  Trump did not go into further detail on what kind of “fire and fury” he meant, but he likely believed meeting a threat with another threat would somehow be of use.  Unsurprisingly, the prospect of reaching a diplomatic solution seemed less and less possible.

https://giphy.com/gifs/filmeditor-angry-christmas-movies-xUySTX1LkkkYHi63yE

Just as before, Kim Jong Un did not like being threatened by Trump and this made him angry.  In response, he struck back, calling Trump “a load of nonsense”.  And to follow through on their threats, on August 9th Pyongyang announced that they were configuring a strike on the US territory of Guam.

https://thegiflibrary.tumblr.com/post/29316020346/i-have-been-laughing-at-this-gif-for-like-5

To put it simply, all of these threats shook the minds of the American public.  People could hardly keep up with the constant updates, and each day the news got worse and worse.  At this point, jokes on Twitter about a looming nuclear apocalypse became the norm...

https://giphy.com/gifs/reactionseditor-wtf-mind-blown-l0IypeKl9NJhPFMrK 

Well, Trump certainly didn't want the people of the United States to live in fear, so he retaliated with yet another insult-meets-threat combination that has really become his specialty for dealing with both national and international relations.  Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on September 19th, Trump declared that if Kim Jong Un threatened the US, he would “totally destroy North Korea”.

wifflegif.com

To take it to the next level, and perhaps to attempt to stir up applause in the otherwise silent audience, Trump resulted to mocking and name calling, referring to Kim Jong Un as “rocket man”.  This did not lead to any applause in the audience, but it did lead to an uproar from Elton John fans on the Internet.

https://imgflip.com/i/1pp409 

Kim Jong Un did not take lightly to this insult.  So naturally, he responded with yet another insult. He issued a statement under his own name through KCNA, the North Korean state news agency, which was believed to be the first time a North Korean leader did so.  In his statement, he referred to Trump as a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” whom he would surely tame with “fire”. This naturally led to an online frenzy as people sought to decode what “dotard” meant- which is essentially a person with decreasing mental alertness.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live

As much as the American public was freaking out, and surely as much as Trump’s advisors may have warned him not to, Trump just could not resist fighting back with another insult.  He just couldn't listen to anyone other than himself, and on September 22nd, he responded to Kim Jong Un via tweet, saying he was “obviously a madman”. Can you guess what happens next?

https://road--to--dawn.tumblr.com/post/14325104474/when-people-say-they-dont-like-doctor-who-my

Kim Jong Un was obviously furious at such name calling, and on October 15th made a second threat to launch missiles at Guam.  Along with bringing back the threat, Pyongyang declared that any “reckless moves” by the United States would prompt them to launch the missiles.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80057281 

After a momentary pause in the ongoing catfight between the two, tension stirred up again as Trump embarked on his two week tour of Asia in early November.  As he travelled to Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, and China, he warned the countries about the power of North Korea and urged them to stop trading and financing with North Korea.  But North Korea claimed this was nothing more than a business trip for him.

So, just in case anyone forgot about Kim Jong Un’s colorful vocabulary and taste for insults, he once again pointed fingers at Trump, calling him a “dotard” yet again.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/im-loco/

Needless to say, Trump had had enough.  It was time for another Twitter spree.

www.reddit.com/r/reactiongifs/comments/78mzhm/mrw_its_october_25th_and_i_remember_my/

So in classic Trump style, he had to outdo himself, tweeting the following:

https://giphy.com/gifs/filmeditor-sun-christmas-movies-d1DXrwT2CFD4iNxK 

Not only did Trump complain about the incessant name-calling, but also called Kim Jong Un out for refusing to be friends. 🆘

https://www.tumblr.com/ 

And now the people of the United States, and the world, anxiously await what will happen next.  If the pattern continues, it will likely be Kim Jong Un responding with another threat, but as their insults become increasingly petty and childish, people can’t help but make light of the situation.  This is the conclusion of the catfight for now, but only time will tell.

https://emotiongifs.com/fear/jack-tripper-threes-company-breathing-scared/

Sources:

www.cnbc.com/2017/08/07/european-markets-new-north-korea-sanctions-data-uk-ftse-cac-dax.html  www.cnbc.com/2017/08/11/how-did-the-war-of-words-between-trump-and-kim-kick-off.html  www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/world/trump-un-north-korea-iran.html www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/world/asia/kim-jong-un-trump.html www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/world/asia/trump-north-korea-dotard.html www.buzzfeed.com/meghara/trump-promises-fire-and-fury-for-north-korea?utm_term=.tr9WVm4e0#.fxooXaY2G www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/politics/north-korea-considering-guam-strike-trump/index.html www.cnn.com/2017/09/14/asia/north-korea-missile-launch/index.html www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/asia/north-korea-guam-threat/index.html www.cnn.com/2017/11/11/politics/north-korea-trump-asia-trip/index.html

[bellacento-blog]

Brands & Advertisements

In Chapter 2 of Sarah Banet-Weiser’s Commodity Activism, she analyzes and critiques the notion of brands taking on a social message, when the ultimate objective is still to sell products, or what she calls “commodity activism”. 

She mainly focuses on Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign because while Dove seemed to have good intentions in spreading a message to women about body positivity, they spread that message through selling products- more specifically, selling the products that they have told women they need.  Besides the entire effort being tinged with inauthenticity, due to the fact that it is based in consumerism, the issue of the products sold still remains.  

In Andi Zeiser’s “We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl 
to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement”, Zeiser emphasizes a point similar to that of Banet-Weiser.  Zeiser discussed advertising to women in a broad sense, writing that products aimed at women are “pitched to solve a problem” that many weren't even aware of until the brand told them about it (Zeiser 25).  So for a brand like Dove to send a message about embracing natural beauty, there would naturally be some cognitive dissonance on the part of the consumer, because the brand’s words and actions don’t necessarily line up.  Obviously the brand would not stop selling products, but perhaps changing the marketing around all products would be a start.  

The Huffington Post brought up a point by Ann Friedman that although Dove tries to send a positive message, they are still focusing their ads on physical beauty.  Friedman points out that rather than maintaining focus on the idea of “being beautiful in your own way”, Dove should take it a step further and tell women to assess themselves on their mental qualities such as intelligence and ethics.  As nice as that sounds in theory, Friedman forgets that Dove is still a brand looking to make a profit, and while this concept may be problematic in terms of activism, as a beauty company, it makes sense that their ads would focus on physical qualities.  

One advertisement I found especially interesting though didn't actually seem to be selling any specific product at all. 

https://catiebenenson.files.wordpress.com

Rather, this image is selling the idea of Dove and its position in the market as a brand who is progressive and caring.  Nothing in the ad directly relates to Dove products which works to separate the Dove Self-Esteem Fund from the brand itself- they are still united but it is clear that this specific mission goes beyond selling products, which seems like an effective strategy.

Not all of Dove’s strategies have been so successful though.  While the Real Beauty Campaign has gone strong for 13 years, just last month Dove ran an ad that has caused major backlash.  The ad showed a black woman removing her top to then show a white woman underneath.  While Dove’s intent may have been to “celebrate diversity”, what it looked like was a black woman peeling off her blackness to become a happy white woman, and any good intent was completely lost because the ad itself was so insane, and honestly, just bad.

This was not the first time Dove failed at its use of visual images by way of commodity activism though.  In 2011 Dove ran the following ad:

https://www.boredpanda.com/racist-black-woman-white-ad-criticism-dove/

Really, Dove? As much as the brand tries to send a message of activism in terms of diversity, it always seems to somehow miss the mark, setting the movement back.  The problem here is that Dove’s advertisements are obviously focused on visual images, as are most brands.  But if the advertising is going to be done through pictures, then they need to be just right.  This ad has the Internet (and myself) wondering if their marketing team is truly racist or if they are just really that oblivious.  A mistake like this makes an audience even further question Dove’s authenticity, and going back to Banet-Weiser’s idea of commodity activism, these instances of huge error really emphasize the cheap, commercial aspect that taints the brand’s so-called mission.

The more I researched this, the more frustrated I have become, so to conclude, all I can say is that I hope Dove, and other brands seeking to promote activism, learn to focus more on being genuine than selling products, and perhaps the message will then truly come across properly.

Sources:

Sarah Banet-Weiser, “Free Self-Esteem Tools?: Brand Culture, Gender, and the Dove Real 
Beauty Campaign” in Commodity Activism (pp. 39-56). 


Andi Zeiser (2016). “The Corridors of Empower” in We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl 
to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement (pp. 3-28). 


COMM 450, Bella Centofante, Tumblr Post #1

[bellacento-blog]

Scientist: A shark is faster than you, here’s the proof

Michael Phelps:

[bellacento-blog]

How Usain Bolt’s top speed compares to Michael Phelps, a cheetah, and more