For our film project, we decided to use the brand NYX because we all enjoy their products and what they are brand stands for. We picked TikToks as the format for our videos because NYX as a brand reaches a younger audience, so we felt as if it would make sense to make content for them on a platform that would reach their intended customer base. Along with that, the company itself is already incredibly active on TikTok, so we would be matching the way they already market their products. Their TikToks are fun and adventurous so we figured that creating a TikTok challenge would be the most appropriate way to match the brand’s aesthetic and we thought it would be a creative way to stay on top of current TikTok trends. We wanted to make this challenge as fun as possible while making sure it would look like a campaign that NYX would come up with themselves. We wanted to showcase different adventurous or daily activities that women go through daily to prove the makeup can withstand anything, but also add a bit of fun and fantasy with the inclusion of the pop culture reference of Squid Games. We also decided to use the song “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus to make it seem as if the song was made specifically for the company and the campaign, much like ELF’s “Eyes, Lips, Face” TikTok challenge. NYX as a brand is all about encouraging women to be the best that they can be and embracing their beauty. That is why this series highlighted products from the “Can’t stop, won’t stop” line. We think the #Unstoppable not only matches with the name of the products as well as it is a feeling that we want to instil into the people who use these products. This campaign is meant to convey the values of confidence. The tagline “Makeup as unstoppable as you are” is meant to show that the make-up is supposed to complement the already natural beauty and confidence that is already within the woman wearing the makeup.
Why do people hate the personalised recommendation on Taobao?
Taobao is currently the largest e-commerce website in China and can also be seen as a social media for shopping. Taobao has the characteristics of traditional social media, allowing users to share links of products, comment on their shopping experiences, bookmark favourite products, follow favourite shops and add friends. On the other hand, selling products live and showing the experience of using products through short videos has become more and more common on Taobao, giving it the atmosphere of traditional social media.
One of the essential functions of Taobao is the personalised recommendation. The personalised recommendations on Taobao suggested products that I might be interested in based on keywords from my most recent purchases. However, in my experience, Taobao gives me recommendations based on my search terms and based on users’ search results with the same characteristics as mine, which leads to the recommendations is the system thinks I would be interested in. For example, I haven’t searched for anything related to cosmetics for a month, but Taobao’s personalised recommendations still keep sending me lipstick and foundation. Another friend of mine also said she had never searched for boots but had received frequent recommendations about them.
On the other hand, these recommendations usually attract consumers with such slogans as “How females have delicate lifestyles”, “How to be a classy girl by shopping”, “Luxury goods to boost your confidence”, “Use this lipstick and men will fall in love with you”. etc. These advertisements and review articles are all over Taobao, virally style to infect female consumers. The content of these ads tried to convey that women are not perfect as long as they do not pay for these products, thus attracting female consumers to pay for beauty. However, the essence of these ads is the conviction that women still have to create value, gain attention and benefit by looking good and elegant, which remind me of the objectified women. But few people can resist this temptation, sometimes including myself.
Taobao’s algorithms played a vital role in the mechanisms of personalised recommendations. First, the algorithm summarises the products that users are likely to be interested in by their search keywords. In sorting gender personalisation, it is necessary to calculate the gender of the product and the users separately, then analyse whether it is gender-related and does not indicate gender needs. In other words, the algorithms aim to present products with the same gender as the user in advance so that users of different genders can see different sorting effects when searching for the exact keywords. However, at the same time, the highly generalised algorithm also solidifies the perception of gender, leading to a tendency for all female users to arrive at similar algorithmic content.
In addition, the keyword search mechanism of algorithmic recommendations triggers various perceptions about gender stereotypes and objectify women. Advertising on Taobao primarily traffics in women’s anxiety about beauty, so many keywords are very unfriendly to women, such as being white as snow, slim as a flash, wearing this skirt, and having a small waist in a second. When a keyword has been highly discussed recently, it frequently appears in the various short videos posted by Taobao influencers; this is the only way the algorithm will prioritise the videos they post. Furthermore, due to the various advertising for feminine products, the standard of beauty also be solidified. Female consumers receive the single standard against beauty. Every time they open the Taobao, they might be brainwashed by the messages over time, which could be regarded as a representation of the patriarchy under consumerism.
To sum up, when users search for products, they are recommended videos and ads containing disrespectful messages about women, flooding each user’s platform with anti-feminism content and objectifying women because the algorithm tends to recommend ‘keywords’ instead of ‘information’.
Resources
YUE HUA, China’s Top Entertainment Business
The dominant economic model in China is socialism, but there is an increasing tendency for the media industry to move towards capitalism. I would like to introduce one of the biggest entertainment companies of the media industries in China, which is YUE HUA Entertainment.
YUE HUA Entertainment’s business consists of four major segments: music, agency, film and television, and variety shows. YUE HUA Entertainment is a multinational entertainment company cooperating with many top international entertainment companies and film companies. Furthermore, this company has a wealth of content resources in music, film, and television, and has established long-term friendly cooperation with wireless operators, Internet companies and other channels. At the same time, YUE HUA has several famous actors, singers, and idol groups under its banner. These factors make it one of the largest entertainment companies in China.
YUE HUA Entertainment was established in 2009; in the past 12 years, it has produced around 15 films, signed over 30 artists, and released over 40 albums for different artists. Therefore, we can conclude that selling entertainment products and the artists’ popularity to attract commercial resources such as endorsements and advertisements are the main methods to make profits and create commercial value. In addition, YUE HUA Entertainment also entered a partnership with NetEase CloudMusic, one of the biggest music apps in China. YUE HUA Entertainment licensed NetEase as the exclusive playback platform for YUE HUA’s music. The collaboration is a fusion of capital and media, with YUE HUA Entertainment providing the artists’ traffic, buzz, and influence, and NetEase providing active young audiences and capital. The new business model of making profits from artists’ reputations instead of any real commodity reflecting YUE HUA Entertainment had moved away from the traditional Chinese socialism business model and developed towards a business model that combined capitalism and liberalism.
In the past, all media were regulated by state investment; in this case, audiences had no right to decide the content of the media. The emergence of YUE HUA broke this mode, as YUE HUA monopoly on making money through the popularity of the idols themselves allowed it to accumulate many business partners. Still, it also gave the audience the right to participate and decide. Referred to McChesney, democratisation’ means audiences could determine the meaning of consumption to some extent (McChesney R, 2015). In this case, whether it is to support the artist by buying the commodity, or purely for the commodity itself, or not because they hate the artist. The rights of the audience are emphasised in this way. Democracy is based on citizen autonomy, which means that there should be many civil society groups, and the YUE HUA’s business model invariably encourages audiences to form teams to regulate media content from the bottom up. YUE HUA also allowed its media to play the role of “government watchdog” and “public sphere”. YUE HUA’s business model simplifies the complexities of information, removes his own media platform from the market economy, brings the perspectives back to the perspectives themselves, and achieves democratisation to some extent.
Conversely, the over-entertainment brought by YUE HUA also risked the successful commercial penetration of the mass media, allowing popular preferences to guide the media industry’s direction, which might potentially create the over-commercialisation of the media that McChesney worried about.
Resources
McChesney, R. (2015) ‘The media/democracy paradox’, Rich Media, Poor Democracy. New York: The New Press. Read up to the top of page 9.
Are you using the Red OR working for the Red?
The Red is a platform that allows consumers to showcase their lifestyles, and users record the positivity and their daily lives by sharing text, photos, and short videos. Apart from beauty, personal care, diet recipe, fitness and other topics that most females care about, Red also has information about travel, home, hotels, restaurants, entertainment and more, touching on all aspects of consumer experience and life. In this case, Red is one of my most used social media recently. But rather than sharing my own life, I tend to like and forward the posts I am interested in and follow bloggers who have similar lifestyles and interests with me.
I am not a big fan of uploading photos and sharing my life on Red, but I am willing to update my Red account after playing the new Larp game that I found interesting. The review posts are used to have my experiences, personal feelings, pros and cons, recommend or not and some photos. Many Larp game players search for reviews and evaluations before deciding which Larp game they would play, so my posts sometimes receive a few likes and comments. Still, mostly I recorded my life through these posts instead of attracting likes and followers.
Whether I was on the Red or uploaded new posts, the performance of my everyday social media usage on the Red helped the platform increase clicks and traffic. Every action on the Red, whether clicking, swiping up and down, flicking left and right or even gawking, the data collection model quantifies each of these actions into a data record and produces a consumer portrait for me. In this case, the platform could not only suggest content or products they think I might be interested in based on my user profile or sell me to advertisers or manufacturers as part of a “target group” and receive profits.
Before purchasing products, users of Red will usually browse the reviews of other consumers, which is undoubtedly a practical reference for consumers who lack purchasing experience. The number of clicks determines the trending and rank of consumer reviews. My unconscious actions of clicking and following are building traffic and awareness for the Red influencers and increasing the Red’s total clicks and hotness. On the Red, the number of followers and clicks are directly linked to trust, so many advertisers will choose popular influencers to publish recommended posts and buy recommended spots to attract more users to click on their ads. When the influencers’ popularity and traffic increase, trust and reputation are also built with the users to generate revenue. Therefore, some ordinary users are willing to create authentic and close to their lives, making connections with other users and increasing the attraction.
The operation model of Red directly links users’ daily behaviours with the traffic and the trust. This model enables advertisers to identify the target audience of their products more accurately, sell their products through users’ trust in influencers, and meet consumers’ needs for purchasing information and services simultaneously. This model makes every user is a potential KOL and encourage every user to post, which is also helpful to maintain the total user activity of the Red.
I “worked” so hard for the Red, but I have never received any actual pay, including discount, voucher or wages. Red is free to use and contains various information, which is my biggest reward. I did not spend plenty of time on it and post my review regularly; using the Red for me is leisure instead of working. In other words, I use the Red and provide my clicks to increase the reputation of influencers and help the Red maintain the user activity; the Red reward me with the free content and information, which is a perfect beneficial relationship.
Resources:
Uniqlo: “100 breasts”
In 2016, Uniqlo initiated an advertising campaign called “100 breasts”. “100 breasts” campaign invited 100 women with different cultural backgrounds to draw a diagram of their breasts on paper and comment on their breasts in front of the camera. These invited females have different jobs, body shapes, habits and dressing styles, but all of them said they are happy with their breasts and consider them unique. Predictably, the fundamental concept of this campaign was that “every female is different and every female is beautiful”. The designer of BRA TOP from Uniqlo also said that Uniqlo hopes to encourage females to love their bodies through this campaign.
This campaign focuses on breasts, a sensitive and intimate topic for most women. Still, these interview videos were natural and vibrant, representing the women’s confidence and their relaxing and healthy style, which helped avoid possible sexual innuendo and shaming. Each of the 100 women was proud of their breasts, and many of the females in the video believed that small breasts are beautiful, less burdensome than big breasts, being natural is more important than being sexy etc. These comments highly match the usual impression of Uniqlo’s bra.
However, Uniqlo’s bra has always been popular with female consumers because they are steel ring free, comfortable to wear, have a wide size range to suit all figures. However, Uniqlo’s bra has also been criticized for its poor shaping effect on the breasts and not looking good when worn. Through this campaign, Uniqlo has responded to past criticism and emphasized the brand’s design concept.
This campaign asked every female to draw their breast shapes, which conveyed that no woman’s breasts are precisely the same; 100 women will look in 100 different ways. The drawing represented that the ‘differences’ directly to other consumers and elicited the design of the BRA TOP series. BRA TOP’s design aimed to suit every woman’s breast shape, fitting their curves perfectly without being tight and at the same time revealing the beauty of the breasts’ curves. Besides, this campaign also invited these women to describe their careers and lifestyles, which represented that any job in any lifestyle can wear Uniqlo’s bra. It can be very relaxing and comfortable for their breasts, reflecting the practicality and comfort of their product. This campaign represented that the BRA TOP series is not about creating fake beauty but instead emphasizing that women’s breasts are implicitly beautiful and comfortable.
At the same time, this campaign tried to convey to the audience that women’s futures do not have to be defined by society’s rules and that their breasts should not be constrained by underwear. Women are attracted when they think they are natural and confident; breasts are also identical. Women should not be defined by fairness, cuteness or thinness, nor should women’s breasts should not be limited by being big, firm or sexy. These women in the video are confident and honest in describing their breasts and accepting them as they are in their most natural state. Although the videos did not directly feature Uniqlo’s BRA TOP products, they conveyed the brand’s respect for the diverse aesthetics of women. They encouraged women to be confident in their bodies. Whether large or small breast, tall or short, fat or thin, with a variety of career and habits, BRA TOP fits everyone. In this campaign’s video, women are no longer bothered by various problems such as small breasts and enlargement; then, consumers may dare to stop wearing tight bras and replace them with comfortable BRA TOP products.
Link of the “100 breasts” video:
How Re-creation Campaign Benefits the Brand, Creators and Other Consumers
Arknights is a Chinese mobile game born in 2019. The Player needs to make new friends with the assistant Amiya, face natural disasters, rescue people in distress, and finally, find the truth of the world together.
The game was a hit with the players upon its release. The combination of animal anthropomorphic characters and wasteland style was unique and attractive. Besides the excellent quality of the art design, the exciting plot and interactions between characters also attracted many players after its lunch. In the past two years, the game’s storyline has been slowed down, and the officials have left lots of imaginations areas for players, so more and more players have started to create their re-creations based on their interpretations and the existing one’s plots. （Re-creation, also known as doujin, is a text, image, film, music or other work of art that uses a current work of authorship to create new pieces.）
The enthusiasm of Arknights’ players for re-creations has continued to grow over the past 2 years, and the re-creations works of Arknights’ can be found on all major social media and game forums. Arknights finally held its first re-creations campaign in 2021, which encouraged players to submit outstanding and creative re-creations works to all major social media outlets, with the hashtag “Arknights” and would be considered as a successful entry.
Undoubtedly, this campaign brought a lot of attention and traffic to Arknights; it is an excellent way for brands to maintain the existing buzz around the game and continue to develop the game’s community ecosystem. This campaign benefits the brand to increase the relationship between players and players. At the same time, this campaign could also raise brand awareness, increase players’ goodwill, and improve brand reputation. Besides, re-creations and tags on social media are equivalent to an advertisement that helps attract players of other games. On the other hand, re-creations also helped brands understand the current interests of players, which could help them understand the subsequent plot and further operational direction and create a good impression that the brand cares about players’ feedback.
As for creators of the UGC, this campaign also brought a lot of exposure and new followers for them. Firstly, this campaign allowed players to express their love for the game or a particular character and meet more people with similar interests. It is helpful to provide more opportunities for communication and interaction between players. Secondly, the re-creation works on social media will also inspire other players who wish to participate. Furthermore, outstanding and talented creators also might receive rewards such as prizes, internships, and job offer through this campaign.
For other players of Arknights, they might enjoy the creating atmosphere and have fun with the re-creation works made by other creators. This campaign is also an opportunity to meet minded players and make more friends. Other players could log in to their account, forward, like and vote for their favourite to receive additional rewards in the game. All players who voted for it will be rewarded when the work is rewarded. In-Game rewards and leisure would be the benefits that other players of Arknights would receive from the campaign.
In conclusion, the brand (Arknights) benefits most of all. More and more people start to be aware of the game through this campaign. It has successfully generated conversation and attention on social media, increasing interaction and stickiness among players and enhancing the brand’s reputation. Furthermore, it was a chance to find out what players are interested in and mining talents.
In conclusion, the brand (Arknights) benefits most of all. More and more people start to be aware of the game through this campaign. It has successfully generated conversation and attention on social media, increasing interaction and stickiness among players and enhancing the brand’s reputation. Furthermore, it was a chance to find out what players are interested in and mining talents.