A single word can group together all (or at least a large majority) of today's youth, that word is Hedonist.
Hedonist (noun): a person whose life is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure and self- gratification.
In a world where young people are only living for themselves, the corporations and brands are booming. Having expensive clothes, the newest phone and an overpriced cocktail in your hand on a weeknight has never been so important. This is the essence of youth, going to parties to show off your brand new purchases, buying a whole new wardrobe for your one week holiday to Ibiza. Major fashion brands have caught on to this and youth culture has began to feature heavily in campaigns.
Well respected Fashion Photographer Elaine Constantine has been used by some of the biggest fashion brands to photograph their major campaigns, brands like H&M, Diesel, Jack Wills and American Eagle. These brands are the epitome of youth in the fashion industry and their campaigns portray the life and soul of being young and fashionable. One of her most notable campaigns (for me at least) is the Jack Wills Winter 2010 campaign; Elaine Constantine has shot many campaigns for this particular brand but this is one that really stands out for me. The short promotional film and accompanying images encapsulate the brands identity and shows a fun, carefree group of friends enjoying winter in a variety of different festive settings that inevitably end up with a couple kissing, or one or more people getting down to their Jack Wills underwear. In other campaigns for Jack Wills she has kept the same frivolous, youthful tone that resonates with the viewer. Elaine Constantine makes images that relate to a younger generation which is why so many of these brands use ...
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...gs that are relatable and I refer back to the first statement I made about a large majority of today's youth only being interested in this pursuit of pleasure, pleasure is an easy, and very popular, way to sell something. Showing these images where young people are leading spontaneous, interesting lives encourages the target audience to try to live in a similar way and a quick, satisfying way to start off is to buy something that they think will make their lives more like the people they see in these photographs.
In conclusion I think that the images that are presented are not necessarily an accurate representation of an average persons life but act as a reachable goal that a young person could react to, all the environments that are shown are experiences that most young adults go through at some stage and can be perceived differently by different types of people.
Lianne George’s article “Why Are We Dressing Our Daughters Like This?” (2014) focuses on the societal issue of an increasingly earlier development of young girls. George states that companies facilitate this early development by producing adult like goods for children that push an adult mindset and behaviour. Through the use of various examples George argues that this trend is ill advised and should not be continued.
In the 1997 article Listening to Khakis, published in the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell effectively paints a vivid picture of the thought and science that goes into advertising campaigns. Gladwell begins his paper by focusing on the Dockers’ advertising campaign for their line of adult male khaki pants, which he labels as extremely successful. This campaign was the first line of successful fashion advertisements aimed directly toward adult males (Gladwell, 1997). This campaign was cunningly simple and showed only males wearing the pants being advertised with the background noise filled with men having a casual conversation (Gladwell, 1997). This tactic was used because studies showed that Dockers’ target market felt an absence in adult male friendships. (Gladwell, 1997). The simplicity of the advertisements was accentuated as to not to deter possible customers by creating a fashion based ad because, based on Gladwell’s multiple interviews of advertising experts, males shy away from being viewed as fashion forward or “trying to hard” (Gladwell, 1997).
In defiance of some of the controversial arguments that were presented in the film “The Merchants of Cool”, one in some ways should be affected by the actual realization that this level of disinformation could be present within our society. Tv executives, movie producers, record producers and many others confine teens today with the most contradictory marketing pitches that causes teens to look towards the media to provide them with a ready-made identity of what is considered to be “cool”. Instead of empowering young individuals, the continual focus of their desires leaves them off course
In “The man behind Abercrombie and Fitch.” An interview conducted by Benoit Denizet-Lewis displays a glimpse into the life of Mike Jeffries and his views of his company only hiring “good-looking” people and targeting “good-looking” people to wear his clothes. This has been done in order to force his audience to recognize that the issue of acceptance one’s peers and exclusion of a community mentioned by Mike Jeffries, is a result of cultural perceptions and individual self-image. Denizet-Lewis skillfully shows that while Jeffries remarks of not wanting the “not-so-popular” kids to shop in his stores, it poses a question to consumers asking what change in our attitudes will come or if there will be any change at all. Thus comes the issue of how consumers today have a shift in the reasoning behind why one buys clothing and the motivating factors that influence one to buy certain clothing. Denizet-Lewis also demonstrates the different messages that controversial advertisements and statements affect different groups of people and how what they project is really what people desire, though deemed by many people as unacceptable or inappropriate. The author also examines how in the news media, the image has become more important than the message and how images have taken precedent over actual issues and character. As a result of this, various communities have formed by the construct of selling to “beautiful people” and how popular appeal has become an extension of a person.
The term hipster was coined during the jazz age (1940s), when the term hip emerged as an adjective to describe enthusiasts of the growing music scene. The modern hipster is a composite of individuals with a certain bohemian, new-thinking lifestyle, as he or she rejects mainstream norms, and embraces and contributes to unconventional culture. Hipsters are a subculture of people that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and music, creativity, and intelligence. There are two sects of hipster: the authentic, indifferent hipster and the consumeristic hipster. One of the most prevalent ways of analyzing hipster, bohemian, and artistic identities is through consumeristic habits and ideologies.
The confidence is overpowering because many young adults strive to be that confident about their life in their mid-twenties, while most people their age are confused where life is leading them. The confidence of these individuals, in a way, boosts the self-esteem of the viewer to somewhat reach the potential that the people in this ad have managed to achieve. For example, Stewart and Bernhardt did a comparative study on Millennials and pre-1987 students in which they measured psychological health, impulse control, achievements assets, self-assuredness and narcissism. In their results, the Millennials scored lower on four of the five measurements. Additionally, there was a significant increase in narcissism for the 2004-2008 undergraduates. (Stewart and Bernhardt, 587). Therefore, this supports the argument that the Millennials are facing adult responsibilities, but are failing to live up to them as they are dissatisfied of not meeting their full potential. They believe that they are entitled to something greater, which results in higher narcissism. It signifies the youth presented in the ad and the one outside the visual medium is not the
In society today, the clothing that someone wears is basically a billboard for his or her personal, or family's financial situation. For children in public schools, fitting in with the popular, or most fashionable people is probably the most important thing to them. When children are preoccupied wi...
Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure; “the belief that pleasure or happiness is the most important goal in life” (Marriam-Webster).
Hedonism means to live only for pleasure. It means not thinking about the consequences of your actions as long as make you happy. It’s a total abandon of all responsibilities. This type of lifestyle often has negative results. I mean, look at the hippies, and how their hedonistic society turned out. They are all either in rehab centers or have kids running around with names like “Moonbeam” and “Starchild”. But enough hippie bashing - let’s look at how the Hedonistic way of life is integrated into The Great Gatsby. Let’s take the parties for example. Gatsby has a party just about every week, no matter what. He has tons of people come over, and they party all night. Gatsby has tons of booze at his parties, and no one thinks of consuming anything but alcohol.
Hedonism is a way of life that is rooted in a person’s experiences or states of consciousness that can be pleasant or unpleasant. The ethical egoist would state that a person should maximize his or her pleasant states of consciousness in order to lead the best life. Act Utilitarian on the other hand would state that these enjoyable states of consciousness should be maximized by one’s actions for everyone in order to attain the most utility. On the surface, this appears to be a good way to live, however, as Nozick states through his example of the experience machine that living life as a hedonist can be detrimental. It is a hollow existence that will ultimately be unsatisfactory because of the lack of making real decisions and relationships which are important to living a fulfilling life.
In ancient Greece, many philosophers came up with lot's of great ideas and particular ways to think and go about your everyday life. More than just different ways of life, some of these great ideas that philosophers have been able to come up with are aimed to change a persons daily thought process to only seek happiness or pleasures on the journey of life. Hedonism derived from early Greek times and has evolved today in many different forms. A well practiced Hedonist has trained their mind to only seek only the upmost pleasure for the intrinsic good and to block out all pain that shall cause a person's suffering or discomfort in ones life. Some hedonist focus solely on just avoiding pain, while others main goal is to seek as much pleasure as
Moore, Andrew, "Hedonism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = .
Women desire to become beautiful and powerful, even if they don’t say it in words. And the Photographer plays with that concept and creates that desire, that you can become that person you see in the photograph. And live that lifestyle. Photographers use techniques from the cinema/cinematic, to create the desire of viewers/Buyer/Consumers. The cinematic techniques made it possible the way people lived and the...
...age. Some products may also have meanings related to sociocultural events and traditions (Smith & Colgate, 2007). Gamers may purchase virtual goods to enhance their self-image or express their social identity. We name purchases that satisfy symbolic needs as self-image hedonic purchases.
Hedonism comes from the Greek word hedone which means pleasure. Hedonism states that a life is good only to the extent that