HUGE Festive Lush Haul & Demo - applying theoretical perspectives to Zoella/Sugg's vlog

 

Zoella positions her naïve target audience in a hyper consumerist mode of address that values the acquisition of material goods about all other ideological perspectives/ This overtly neoliberal capitalist ideology favours the procurement of products over any rational engagement with life and its issues, which may reflect a deeply postmodern ideological perspective.

Or perhaps it's just a laugh?

HUGE Festive Lush Haul & Demo | Zoella - let's consider this video from a variety of broadly critical perspectives!

1 - media language

• MES of fairy lights and Christmas tree are found in the setting. This shallow depth of field shot, and is typical of lifestyle vlogs
• MES of Sugg’s lipstick is reinforces the red and colour scheme that is symbolically representative of Christmas 
• “I know you share my love for LUSH” - lexis connotes that Sugg is making huge assumptions about her target audience
• Suggs making mistakes is highly conventional of her videos in general, and constructs an authentic and relatable mode of address. This is constructed through a series of jump cuts, which draw attention to the mistakes that she makes recording this video 
• Utilisation of a direct mode of address attempts to interact directly with her target audience, which constructs a voyeuristic mode of address 
• MES of Sugg’s heavy application of makeup reinforces stereotypical assumptions about hegemonically attractive women 
• The opening theme to the video is stereotypically Christmassy, using instruments such as strings and bells. This is anchored through the MES of falling snow
• MES of Christmas jumper constructs a relatable and festive, comfy, cosy, and inviting mode of address, which is typical of Zoella’s brand

2 - representation and how to structure a representation paragraph 

Representation refers to how the producer re-presents a situation, issue, event or group of people for the target audience for the purpose of reinforcing their ideological perspective 

Zoe Sugg represents:

• Women
• Tweens
• Hegemonically attractive women
• White women 
• Influencers
• British people
• Young women
• Working class 

P - what group is being represented
E - how media language constructs this representation
A - what messages and ideologies about this group are represented, and how women are affected by this representation 

• Zoella’s hegemonically attractive face is constructed through a close up shot that ensures that she is the most important aspect of her videos. 
• Sugg’s face is hegemonically attractive and highly expressive. Her exaggerated facial expressions, for example the movement of her mouth and the widening of her eyes makes intertextual reference to Disney princesses, such as Cinderella and Snow White. This memorable mode of address constructs a highly stereotypical representation of a woman who is in tune with her emotions. This expressive and over the top personality is highly appealing to her target audience
• Her voice is high pitched, heavily inflected and significantly childlike . Her accent is well spoken, clear, and yet with an accessible south-eastern quality which will appeal to large numbers of audiences. Neither posh nor particularly working class, this allows her to represent many groups simultaneously
• She constructs a negative, naïve and anti-intellectual stereotype through the construction of her videos. In the Lush Haul video, she spends over 20 minutes pulling out products one by one, reading the label, and then sniffing the product, before giving her (always positive) appraisal. This repetitive mode of address reinforces a stereotypical ideology that women are materialistic, easily pleased, and defined solely through their interaction with cosmetics 
• Her lexis overemphasises her enjoyment of the product. “Because they are just the most generous people in the world” - this childish and cynical mode of address has one function only: to create a relatable mode of address for a younger, naïve audience to then promote the Lush brand. This commodification of femininity is a cynical and manipulative treatment of her target audience, and in doing so reinforces and perpetuates highly misleading and unpleasant stereotypes that exist around young women

3 - Hyperreality - where the representation is more real than the thing that it is representing 

possible exam question: To what extent can Zoella and Attitude be seen as postmodern?

• Zoella presents a straightforward and stereotypical representation of femininity that is easy to understand for the target audience. 
• The MES of Zoella’s big box of LUSH constructs an escapist fantasy for her target audience, and a representation which is more identifiable for her target audience
• The video starts with a montage of stereotypically Christmassy MES, including snow, fir trees, twinkly lights, and the doors of an advent calendar. This hyperreal representation of Christmas constructs a welcoming and positive mode of address for her target audience. In fact, the opening sequence makes intertextual reference to The Grinch, The Snowman, and Elf. In doing so, Zoella is constructing a hyperreal simulacrum of Christmas where Zoella is clearly the most important person. This is reinforced through the lexis ‘The 24 days of Zoella’, which, by making no reference to Christmas, inserts Zoella into the Christmas myth. However, the target audience will not analyse this video on such a level, and will instead simply accept the Christmassy imagery and positive vibes.
• Zoella’s almost crazed facial expression directly addresses the audience throughout, emphasising the enormous love and affection she has for the Lush brand…
• Zoella is the embodiment of exaggeration. She is so overwhelmingly over the top she is somewhat ridiculous. Her exaggerated facial expressions communicate not only her joy at Lush products, but also her genuine happiness and authenticity. However, her audience will understand that Zoella is not an authentic self, but instead a performance, but on to connect with the audience and to create an intense emotional response.
• The video presents a direct marketing opportunity from Zoella, where it is made obvious from the start that she is being sponsored by Lush cosmetics. She explicitly announces to the audience that she has received a package from Lush. “I think bath products make amazing gifts'', she announces, staring directly at the camera in an explicit mode of address. Though saying this, Zoella is applying her perceived expertise to this, and is insinuating that the audience would be stupid not to buy bath products for Christmas. 
• “A lot of you share my love for lush” presents a manipulative mode of address, where Zoella infers that the audience already ‘love’ this product. This is an extremely old fashioned, yet clearly manipulative advertising technique, where Zoella is utilising her aspirational status to draw out consent. By not loving Lush, the audience are made another, and relegated to an outsider status. 
• While audiences are aware of the blatant advertising on her videos, they simultaneously take pleasure in the gratification of a comforting mode of address. This clearly constructs a binary opposition between two radically different readings. However, her vast popularity suggests that ultimately her audience clearly do not care about this, and are happy to be manipulated. In this sense, Zoella’s videos are an excellent example of postmodern. 
• Simulacrum: a representation of something that never existed in the first place