Matthew McAllister
Associate Professor, College of Communications, Penn State
Thursday, March 6, 2 p.m.
Carroll Hall Room 340 (Research Center)

"Girls With a Passion for Fashion":
The Bratz Brand as Integrated Spectacular Consumption

Matthew P. McAllister (Ph.D., University of Illinois) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film/Video & Media Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include advertising criticism, popular culture, and the political economy of the mass media. He is the author of The Commercialization of American Culture: New Advertising, Control and Democracy (1996, Sage), and the co-editor of The Advertising and Consumer Culture Reader (forthcoming with Routledge), Film and Comics (2007, University of Mississippi Press), and Comics and Ideology (2001, Peter Lang). He has authored several book chapters and has published in such journals as Journal of Communication, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Popular Communication, Journal of Children and Media, Journal of Popular Film and Television, and Journal of Popular Culture.

Abstract: This presentation examines different media and merchandise featuring the "tween" girl brand Bratz, originally a group of teen fashion dolls that quickly became heavily licensed. The concept of "integrated spectacular consumption," in which commercial forms are naturalized and celebrated as mainstream culture, will be applied to the brand's consumption ideology which pervades Bratz movies, TV episodes, print media, and games. The analysis argues that Bratz positions itself as a consumption-based "lifestyle" brand through an emphasis on brand appearance, promotionally based media, and a celebration of group consumption and shopping, all of which have implications for youth culture and identity. The presentation is based on work that was published in the Journal of Children and Media, Volume 1, #3, 2007.

More information on the spring colloquium series may be found at:

http://www.unc.edu/~congli/colloquium_spring2008.html

The colloquium URL can also be accessed by clicking on the "Mary Junck Colloquium Series" link from the school's homepage at: http://www.jomc.unc.edu/