HILDA MARTIN KASYANJU – 301269932 DO WE EVEN NEED THIS STUFF?
DO WE EVEN NEED THIS STUFF?
A Close Look at The Influence of YouTubers Influence on Youth Culture and their Over Consumption of Goods Endorsed by Them.
Have you ever wondered how much the world would consume if there was no celebrity culture to endorse the goods and products up for sale by different companies? The idea of celebrities transforming their fame to become product brands has created a drive for consumers to recreate an image of themselves that mirrors that of the celebrities, as well as advertisers aim and goal to use them for that purpose. With there being different types of celebrities today and multiple platforms for those celebrities to brand themselves, this paper will examine how YouTubers specifically, in the beauty category (makeup), push us as the consumers to overconsumption of goods they endorse by looking at the ideas and or theories revolving authenticity, branding spaces, consumer and youth culture, affect, as well as class, taste and habitus.
This paper will work towards dissecting the works behind the overconsumption of products that advertisers seem to use these YouTubers to advertise, that we as consumers feel the need to consume because at this point celebrities have become the object of imitation. Their highly-publicized personalized personality and individual qualities work as a form of apparent charisma that has the quality of gaining people’s attention. Looking specifically at makeup YouTubers, specifically Kyrah Stewart and Kathleen Lights as Famous Youtubers, I have followed for quite some time, have become the objects that us as the audience and consumers are guilty of imitating. It has come to that extent where, as discussed in class the commodities have become produced as signs in terms of creating an increase in consumption.
Before getting deep into the paper, it is best to understand the definition of YouTubers featured under the makeup category. YouTubers are frequent users of the video-sharing website, YouTube. They create content that is funny, inspirational and educative to the viewers. With YouTube being the internet’s second most powerful search engine, the content created and uploaded by amateurs receive a high rate of viewings. That said, because YouTube’s slogan is “broadcast yourself”, several companies and organizations have noticed the great number of viewers certain Youtubers have and have invested in using those YouTubers to promote their business’s products in return of a pay or reduced price of their products.
Based on the comments of makeup YouTubers, the viewers are female and can be categorized as teenagers to young adults. In the decision-making process, as discussed by Brown and Hayes in their article, Influencer Marketing, “consumers tend to copy others. Influencer marketing is a variant of marketing that focuses on the decision-making process.” Before the rise of Web 2.0, consumers based their purchasing decision on...
