Vogue, It's a magazine and an adjective

Started in 1892, Vogue has been an international standby in the realm of fashion and life. With varied articles throughout its history, vogue has a fairly wide draw, though its predominant focus is on fashion. The February print issue features Kristen Stewart on the cover, and stories ranging from snagging classic trench coats at reasonable prices to a woman’s near fatal brain injury. However, the stories take a back seat to the advertisements. I was literally on page 54 before I was able to get to the table of contents just to see the articles.

However, I was immediately given some great Louis Vuitton fold outs, and four consecutive pages of Prada, featuring cacophonously colorful shoes that look like boy scouts made them out of gimp twine for their ‘crafty fashion’ badge.

Ads like this take up every other page, interspersed with the occasional article, most of which don’t continue past a page. If by chance an article does stretch on past its allotted ¾ page, the remnants are tucked away in the back, in simple columns, with not life whatsoever. You have to be damn motivated to go back there to find out what happened with that New York artisan pasta maker.

In the online version, you’re given a pretty nifty little feature that makes you flip through the articles until you find the one you’d like to read. Baggy polka dot pants? Count me in. At this point we’re shown the sometimes preposterous, sometimes moderately decent street style of New York during fashion week. This is absent in the print edition, probably because it isn’t quite enough of a draw, and since the labels are on the inside of the clothes, the advertisers would have absolutely no reason to sponsor that madness.

In the world of fashion magazines, Vogue has been around so long it has become the standard publication by which many other are measured. This is an automatic leg up on the competition, simply because of the name recognition. However, in all reality, it’s just a fancy way to market clothes. Granted, it’s a wonderfully photographed, well organized advertising vehicle, but that’s really all it is. This is pretty similar to all the other fashion magazines on the market. Vogue is simply a higher tier than many of the rest. Editorially, the main focus is going to be clothes and the people who wear them (which could be you! If you have $790 do drop on the back cover Miu Miu pumps).

In print, we get the wonderfully glossy, tangible advertisements, and the adorably girly feeling of flipping through a magazine, presumably while sitting under a dome hair dryer gossiping. Online, I get to pretend I’m totally not reading that Lady Gaga interview… which I may or may not be able to resist.

Of course, online, I don’t have to shell out 4 bucks to do this, but I also don’t get many of the stories featured in the print edition, and looking through the website for specific stories is a pain, it’s cluttered with slideshows and vague categories like nobodies’ business. However, in print, what you see is what you get, I don’t get to read comments, go further in depth, or show everyone on Facebook just how terrifying the wide legged Kate Hepurn pants revival is.

Of course, the target audience in Vogue is going to be those interested in fashion. Predominately women, and despite the ridiculously high priced brand names, most of these women are going to be pretty average, hence Vogue’s continued popularity. The ads blend seamlessly in with the articles, because that’s how it’s intended.

Personally, I prefer the print version. I’m not a big fan of reading online, and I’m really not a fan of the somewhat forced flow through the website. Though I appreciate their attempt to make it ‘magazine like’ in feel, but they don’t account for my ability to flip through pages at nearly inhuman speeds. It is nice to be able to comment on articles, but let’s be real, that’s just for me to try and show off my own wit in the online community, nobody actually takes article comments on “Steal of the Month” seriously. I just read it and call it good.

Surprisingly, despite Vogue’s fairly superficial subject matter, there’s been quite a bit to discuss here. Obviously plenty of people put a lot of time and effort into crafting this publication, and it’s been fun uncovering all that.

Jersey Shore Season 3

From: YouTube

Describe: Jersey Shore is a reality show that follow 8 roommates that live in one house, work, and party together for one summer. This Season it follows Snookie, JWOW, Sammi, Deena, Mike (the Situation), Vinny, Ronnie, and DJ Pauly D. They live in one house at the Seaside Heights, New Jersey aka the Jersey Shore. The Jersey Shore is filled with GGuidos and Guidettes as they GTL during the day and party at night! This sounds like the perfect summer to have romance, drama, and wild times. During the commercials they had an ad where Snookie cracked a pistachios shell with a tanning bed. This was for Wonderful Pistachios commercial. This was a brilliant idea for the pistachio company because it promoted pistachios to the younger crowd by using Snookie and tanning beds which Snookie is known for using. It collaborates style of Jersey shore while viewing a pistachio.

Analyze: The style of this reality show is toward high school and college students. Thats an age ranging from 15 to 25. Its all about having fun with friends and drama unraveling. When they go out you see them getting ready and its all about the fashion and hair with the boys and how little clothing the girls wear. The main reason is the catch slogans the characters make up such as GTL, DTF, MVP, FTD, grenades, T-shirt time, guido, guidettes, fist pumping like champs, don't fall in love at the Jersey Shore, gorilla juice head, we got ourselves a situation, and my favorite; wanna smush? These weren't scripted like other reality tv shows. It was just their personalities which makes it so entertaining and obsessive. The show only shows them during the day and at night. Every episode shows a week long of reality and every Sunday night they cook and have a family dinner. This shows that they do value some family qualities which makes it unique, unlike other mtv shows like Real World.

Interpret: Character's stereotype themselves as the typical Italian Guido stereotype. This includes big attitude, tan, obsess with body image, flashy jewelry, family values, and love to eat Italian foot. All the guys every day go to the Gym, Tan, then do laundry so they will be ready to go out at night, hence GTL. The girls do the same as in getting their nails done, tan, then go shopping. The commercials attract to the younger crowd by car, designer clothes, and music commercials. I think its smart that ad companies show ads during shows that pertain to the audience. This show gives an image that young people don't know how to control the alcohol use which is very true. In season 3, Snookie got arrested for being drunk in public at 2 in the afternoon. A lot of young people start drinking at an early age and its becoming more popular because the media puts out this kind of image.

Evaluate: For entertainment value the show has a very high popularity because its so catchy to get a long with the character's personalties. They also have family value and cook together once a week. The weakness that it shows fist fighting between girls, the girls sleep with random people, the guys get drunk girls and sleep with them, also dating violence. This does reflect real life because these kinds of things like girls fighting, alcoholism, and promiscuity is an all common thing with young adults. I like how I can relate to it but I don't like the unnecessary drama between Sammi and Ronnie. They are dating and they fight constantly about annoying things. My friends and I just use their slang terms like how they use it and laugh because we both know what we are talking about. Professional critics report that how they talk, dress, and act doesn't reflect all American-Italians. A review from The New York Times says, American-Italians are offended by the world "Guido" and Guidette"to use to describe themselves. Also the obsession of gym and tanning has led to parodies on the internet and SNL did a parody of Snookie. Even President Obama referred to Snookie's dark tan and proposed a tanning-bed tax. Another argument is that MTV puts in offensive viewing just to get ratings. Like in Season 1 episode 2, Snookie got punched at the bar, the ratings went up fifty percent more, for the second episode. I think it catches attention and creates curiosity to what the show is really about. So I like the reality of it and MTV should't cut anything out that might be "offensive" to viewers and to other American-Italians.

Engage: I've never missed an episode of Jersey Shore. You can say I'm a faithful viewer. All my friends love the show but my family says its "trash tv". It's because they are old, plain and simple. I'm a fan of pauly d and snookie on facebook. A lot of people, including guys, dressed up as snookie for halloween. Even.

Conclusions: I learn that uncovering a certain type of social group can be entertaining for some but hurtful for others because it is stereotyping. It surprised me that it would show violence in a relationship by hitting the significant other without a warning sign at the end of the show like they do in Teen Mom, another MTV's reality show.