Skip to main content

Alexa Shulman Prompt #5


            Jefree Star is a 33 year old entrepreneur and beauty Youtuber who has taken the platform by storm. Starting off as the face of MySpace, Star published his new music and gained a large following. His target audience consisted of punk rock enthusiasts and outcasts who had a desire to consume his raw and raunchy music  (Shamsian, 2019) However, due to various legal issues, he was forced to leave the music industry in 2013. (Shamsian, 2019) Although Star’s Youtube channel was created in 2006, his career did not take off until 2013. (Dixon, 2018). Star quickly gained subscribers as the majority of his MySpace followers switched over to the innovative platform. Unfortunately, his career nearly derailed in 2017 when a controversial video of him making racist remarks resurfaced. (Bryant, 2019)  To counteract the negative publicity, he apologized, stating, "I say some really disgusting...and embarrassing things...Those videos were 12 years ago and I look at them and it just makes me sick to my stomach." (Dixon, 2018) After his public apology, Star continued producing his original content on Youtube, which varies from innovative makeup looks, detailed reviews of makeup products and lengthy videos on his personal life. Specifically, Star represented different parts of his personality in his tattoos. (Dixon, 2018) Overtime, Star began to create a story along his body, expressing his emotions with the absence of dialogue. This form of self expression attracted many tattoo enthusiasts to his channel and united an audience that fully appreciated the art form.
            Star’s main audience ranges from women ages 13-40. Star also attracts viewers that can be categorized as members of the lgbtq+ community, makeup enthusiasts, vegans (his products are 100% vegan) and those with a more liberal mindset. (Dixon, 2018) Star’s makeup products have references to classic movies, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1971), Jawbreaker (1999) which appeal to the older age group (Jeffree Star, 2019). His use of sexual language and innuendos for his products appeals to rule breakers and to those who defy societal constructs.(Dixon, 2018) Additionally, his sexualization of men, women and gender fluid models in his advertisements appeals to a younger, liberal audience. His own openess about his sexuality and androgynous appearance attracts various members of the LGBTQ+ community (Dixon, 2018).




An intriguing part of Jeffree’s reviews are his brutally honest remarks peppered with raunchy humor and 2019 vernacular. His makeup reviews are consistently real, no matter how close he is to a brand. Often beauty gurus are afraid to express their opinions due to a fear of backlash from corporations, which can jeopardize endorsement deals and future income.( Shamsian, 2019)  However, Star defies these constructs, which gives him an edge. Author Christian Lorentzen does not “think that negative reviews, even snarky ones, are toxic”, thus painting reviewers like Jeffree in a positive light (Lorentzen, 2019) Because Star’s reviews are both positive and negative, he builds trust with his audience. This incentivizes more viewers to subscribe to his channel, for they are able to assess if a product is worth purchasing. Currently Jeffree has over 16 million subscribers and is reaching new levels of success everyday (
Through Star’s ever increasing success, he realized the profitability of his platform. While certain Youtubers make their money solely from endorsements or AdSense, Star harnessed the power of his channel to promote his own beauty and makeup brand. Scrolling through his channel, it is clear that the products that he produces fall under the category of being camp.  According to Susan Sontag, camp “is the love of the exaggerated, the "off," of things-being-what-they-are-not.” (Sontag, 1964). This is clear in one of his videos entitled “Jawbreaker 🍭 Palette & Summer 2019 Collection Reveal!” Within this video, Jeffree Star showcases his “biggest pilot to date” (Jeffree Star, 2019) A key component of this collection is the new neon lip ammunition set. From an outsider's perspective, it is clear that the shape of these lipsticks closely resembles a phallus. (Jeffree Star, 2019) Star’s lip ammunitions emphasize the essence of camp as they are lipsticks transformed into a new shape. Additionally, these products go “beyond straight seriousness” by embodying the themes of irony and satire (Sontag, 1964).  It is ironic that the lipsticks are in the shape of traditional symbols of male virility and dominance.

In addition to using humor, Star utilizes various marketing tools to entice viewers to buy his products. He successfully employs “emotional appeal” and consumer differentiation (management study guide editors). By referencing older makeup products from his line, he creates an emotional appeal and enhances viewers’ desire for something new. This is seen in his explanation of how his new shade of “a bone yellow tone white” differs from the white eyeshadow in his older pallets (Jeffree Star, 2019). In addition, he utilizes the concept of consumer differentiation by “classifying, organising, and labelling” these products. (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1944)

Star wants to give you the illusion of choice if you buy both eyeshadow pallets by claiming that the products are different from each other. This video, in particular, is a 27 minute sales pitch of his new launch. It closely resembles a QVC commercial, which suggests that Youtube is a viable marketing tool. Overall, it is clear that Jeffree succeeded in building on his own fame by using himself as a brand.
           



















Bryant, K. (2019, April 3). Beauty YouTuber Jeffree Star, Internet Infamy, and a Multi-Million-Dollar Makeup Heist. Retrieved from https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/04/jeffree-star-million-dollar-makeup-heist.

Dixon, C.-M. L. (2018, July 2). What you don't know about Jeffree Star. Retrieved from https://www.thelist.com/124802/dont-know-jeffree-star/.

Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T. W. (2017). The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. Karl Marx, 405-424. Doi: 10.4324/9781315251196-23
Lorentzen, C. (2019, March 19). [Criticism] Like This or Die. Retrieved from https://harpers.org/archive/2019/04/like-this-or-die/.

MSG Management  Study  Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.managementstudyguide.com/advertising-techniques.htm.

Notes On "Camp". (n.d.). Retrieved from https://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Sontag-NotesOnCamp-1964.html.

Shamsian, J. (2019, October 4). Inside YouTuber Jeffree Star's incredible rise from teen MySpace star to a makeup mogul raking in millions. Retrieved from https://www.insider.com/who-is-jeffree-star-cosmetics-youtube-2019-4#star-first-became-famous-on-myspace-2.
















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Isabella Whittaker Prompt #5

When I think of modern music videos today, my mind automatically goes to Olivia Rodrigo. At just 18 years old, Olivia gives us a glimpse into a new era of music video aesthetics, one that exhibits newer features of popular Gen z culture simultaneously paired with references to past objects of popular culture. The two music videos I have chosen to discuss are my personal favorites: “good for u” and “brutal”. Let’s start with a dissection of “good for u”. The music video opens with a montage of close ups of Olivia’s face as she applies makeup with several loud and interruptive camera shots of fire woven in, a kind of foreshadowing of something one will understand only at the video’s close. As the music begins, Olivia sits prim and proper, dressed in white and wearing a collared shirt. She maintains a calm appearance highly contrasting the lyrics of the song she is singing. As the video progresses and we begin to enjoy Olivia’s plan of revenge unfold, Olivia’s calm nature begins to slowly...
12 comments
Read more

Jamie Lee Prompt #5

David Dobrik is objectively one of the most recognized YouTubers of all time. He is known to dress in his signature monochromatic black outfit – consisting of a simple t-shirt, baseball cap, and pants. His viewers range mostly from teenagers to young adults who enjoy watching fun, energetic, and informal videos. Viewers often identify him with his distinctive segmented vlogging style – which includes pranks, elaborate parties, expensive gifts, celebrity appearances, various types of animals, montages, sponsored messages, and skits – that are always 4 minutes and 20 seconds long (with the exception of his older videos, his break up video, and his 420th video). His vlogs consist of 3 parts – an intro, outro, and the main segment – that revolves around the vibrant lives of him and his friends.           YouTube thrives on popular culture, which can be defined as content that is “widely favoured or well liked by many people” (Storey, 2009, p. 6). Many YouTubers s...
8 comments
Read more

Yanfan Wang Prompt #5

As usual, Yuka Kinoshita sits behind a small table and joyfully greets her audience, welcoming them back to see her enjoy her daily meal. In this recent video, she has three large size Domino pizzas and milkshakes and is about to consume up to 6700 Cal. Known as oogui bijyo, “gluttonous beauty,” Kinoshita is one of the most well-received Youtubers in the Mukbang community, which features hosts eating enormous amounts of food in a short period of time. The theme of Kinoshita’s channel is centered around her eating vlogs. From the familiar setting of her living room, to the same uplifting background music, to saying “gochisosamadeshita” with her hands clasped every time she finishes the last bit of her food, these elements have become part of the signature components of Kinoshita’s videos and attracted more than 5 million followers to her channel. In all her videos, Kinoshita opens by presenting the food she eats, some sponsored by companies and others sent by her fans, telling her v...
8 comments
Read more