Zoella Flashcards
1
Q
Audiences
A
- Female
- 13 - 24 Originally + Later 25-35 Demographic
- Audience has grown up with her
- Middle class, white girls w/ decent education
2
Q
Products + Merchandise
A
- Zoella Beauty + DIrector of ZS Beauty Ltd + ZS Lifestyle Ltd (splitting off into different companies to minimise risk)
- Distribution deals w/ UK retail (Boots / Superdrug etc)
- Both companies discontinued (2019) - she “had a different vision”
- Difficulties of being successful in competitive beauty industry (REV £3.8 Million)
- Merchandise company “Sugg Life” w/ Joe Sugg - 2016-18
- Brief life span + created for a single purpose rather than grown in something bigger (Curran + Seaton)
3
Q
Representation
A
- Youthful, upbeat, authentic, middle-class, chic, stylic, emotional, intimate, heteronormative, stereotypical, traditional, mainstream, maternal, home-centred
- Offers very litter diversity in her content
- Few progressive notions through Alfie + other men - “metrosexual” - putting on makeup in videos etc (gender roles)
4
Q
Power and Media Industries - Curran and Seaton
A
- Internet: Disrupted traditional media power; companies contain/exploit it.
- Social media: Democratized; hard for big companies to maintain power, but they still own platforms.
- Zoella: Uses algorithms/clickbait to attract views, repeat success for profit/power.
Content shift: New topics (Sex/Health) expand audience, align w/ post-#MeToo. - Business practices: Adopting big media tactics, but short-lived ventures challenge long-term growth.
5
Q
Cultural Industries - Hesmondhalgh
A
- Technological Change: Enabled new profitable media industries to emerge.
- Zoella’s Growth: Started independently with a small team; initially relied on third-party MCNs for support and quality control, sharing revenue in return.
- Horizontal Integration: Brief attempt with A-Z Creatives managing both Zoella and Pointless Blog, centralizing management.
Vertical Integration: Zoella evolved into a fully independent brand controlling production and distribution.
-Diversification: Expanded into traditional media (books, magazines, TV, etc.) to broaden audience and minimize risks in the volatile social media space.
Social Media
-Conglomerates: Zoella operates on platforms owned by large companies that limit the internet’s potential for radical change.
- Commercial Interests: Zoella’s audience becomes passive, engaging primarily in activities that boost the commercial dominance of large-scale content creators and media companies.
6
Q
Regulation - Livingstone and Lunt
A
- Zoella’s paid promotions are regulated by the Advertising Standards Agency (e.g., ASOS incident), but otherwise self-regulated.
- Self-regulation happens via platform-specific rules, illustrating the balance between consumer freedom and citizen protection.
- Online regulation is often ineffective, with posts only monitored after publication if issues arise.
- Zoella’s brand self-regulates to maintain image—no political bias, strong themes, or sexualisation—ensuring appeal to mainstream advertisers. The blog’s shift towards mature content reflects responsible repositioning for an adult audience.
7
Q
Gender Performativity - Judith Butler
A
- Conventional Beauty Ideals: Zoella’s use of makeup, hairstyling, and costumes reflects traditional beauty standards, reinforcing normative ideas of femininity. Her polished, “girl-next-door” appearance presents beauty as key to performing gender.
- Performance Style: Zoella’s bubbly, approachable personality, often presented through a soft-spoken, friendly demeanor, emphasizes gender as performative. Her content revolves around stereotypically feminine activities (beauty, lifestyle), constructing a normative version of femininity.
- Traditional Gender Binaries: Zoella’s relationship with Alfie reinforces conventional male and female roles. The content often portrays Zoella in domestic or nurturing contexts, while Alfie takes on more active, adventurous roles, maintaining a clear division between masculinity and femininity.
