I admit that I’m a sucker for stories in marketing. I love storytelling and I love creative angles and interesting packaging and pretty, pretty words. I’m optimistic and gullible like that.
When it comes to fragrances, there’s a lot of that. If you’re not already a household name, it’s not like the computer has smell-o-vision, and all you have is that story and the best graphics you can invest in and reviewers writing that they’re being taken to the moon by a whiff. It’s probably why this is my current expensive hobby over something more useful like tech or politics.
This new campaign of H&M’s is pretty insane if we’re looking at where the fashion industry, where the people featured in these series are either considered “fringe” or not considered at all. Beyond Mariah Idrissi’s hijab, the video features a young man wearing a simple pencil skirt, full-blown cross-dressers, Japanese lolita dress, traditional Japanese dress, Sikh turbans, mouth guards, a sheikh, and an amputee boxer.
Personally, having attended one of the most diverse universities in the world, where I’ve fostered friendships all across the board, and where the Muslim Girl blog got its beginnings, I actually think there are other characters way more interesting to me. I’d like the US to stop being so surprised that people who look and dress differently exist within their worlds, and I honestly thought we were getting somewhere with Muslim and Sikh dress, but I guess that’s just within the bubble of my university life and my friend group. Figures.
One thing that surprised me a little is that Elnaz Barari maintains that H&M does not take political or religious stands; unfortunately for Ms. Barari, the H&M’s board, and Ms. Idrissi, this, and everything else they’ve been doing to create a sustainable business model, is a political stand. Showcasing fringe and saying that everyone is welcome is taking a stand. At least according to conservatives it would be. And so here we are, where “It might be because hijab fashion has boomed in the last few years and to finally see a hijabi in mainstream fashion is a big achievement.”
Basically, Tasha (legally, Yoonmirae, but I know her as the stage name Tasha and I like it), an old-school KPop/KRap star from the US is suing Sony for the use of her song “Payday” in The Interview. “Payday” is a great song, so I understand why they used it, and it makes sense in context when you read the lyrics. But, of course, the issue is that they didn’t get permission, and I’m pretty sure no SK star wants to be associated with something as belligerent to NK as The Interview. Especially if they don’t even technically have a stake in it, because Tasha is a quarter black, a quarter white, and from the US.
There have been a few weak responses surrounding this, including that she samples “a” Jackson5 song in “Payday”, and that Sony owns the rights to Jackson5 music, but I’m pretty sure, since no one I’ve read so far has been able to identify which song, it would fall under fair use because what’s sampled is too little to prosecute.
And anyway, music companies don’t even go after South Korean anymore because of the 2011 Korean Copyright Act, which opened up seemingly all copyrighted music to be used without the copyrighter’s permission. Whether or not this is only in-country (which I’m leaning towards) or not is unclear, though I’m sure it makes much harder for indie groups to succeed, which is unfortunate. This, of course, does not apply to Sony, because Sony is a Japanese company and the movie is a US movie; they still have to comply with international fair use laws and whatever they have in their system, and since the US is one of the only countries to fully recognize fair use, well.
With that in mind, there’s one more KPop-related scandal I wanted to touch upon. I’m not quite sure what the intention of the allegations are, since allegations against KPop stars don’t usually work out, and it can’t be publicity because taking on KPop fans is a bad idea (Mr. Bullock’s single is now rated 1 star on iTunes), but apparently YG is taking countermeasures against the allegations and it’s going to be fun to see a small guy take on one of the big three. It’s usually just Sony.
Pomelo girl thoughts 