With the creation of dot com
sites for girls, came an idea that more information is needed for girls in the
areas of the body, nutrition, boys, and sex. This kind of information was
obviously absent in purposeful context
from girls’ lives. These sites transformed the information that girls once read
in magazines or saw on television. gURL.com recognized the need for ‘girl’
community and the need for more valuable information to be shared other than
love interests of teen idols as per Seventeen’s cover of Di Capprio in 1998. In 2002, girls, according to Seventeen,
were still questioning how to be a hot date? With that said, looking at
gURL.com, questions come about such as: Are you worried about telling him you are still a
virgin? Or What earns someone the label slut? One response to that question was: "I think "slut" usually comes from the way someone
acts and their amount of sex partners. To be honest with you I think by waiting
this long you would be more likely to be called a prude than a slut."
gURL has a feature that includes boys input: Ask A
Guy: How Do Dudes Get Over Breakups So Fast?!
and its advertisers for this edition is scotch – selling duct
tape in different colors “Styles that stick.” Now that is cool.
As per the article by Shade (228), " "Note to Parents"-the ethos behind gURL.com is that 'information is a positive thing." I think it is better to offer a "variety of experiences that are relevant to teen girls" and to offer something that teaches them self-esteem in all areas is a wonderful thing. Has this happened? Are we questioning the fine line between "content and advertising" (228)? Interesting article
What is interesting is gurl.com being linked to seventeen. The new owners wanted to find a way to connect two different women demographics and this is how they did it. It could have been expected that the normal visitors to gurl.com are the exact opposite of the audience that is usually attracted to "Seventeen". It is an interesting combination for the company to try to make some extra money.
ReplyDeleteI think it's almost impossible to tell the difference between content and advertising. This isn't really a new concept though, right? I think about advetorials from my newspaper days - clients bought a story as an ad masquerading as a regular news story/profile. Can folks tell the difference now?
ReplyDelete