"social media seriously harms your mental health"

in the past couple of months, iv'e seen this quote plastered on phone cases on instagram (the irony). i found out that this phone case is made by a brand called "urban sophistication". they make apparel and phone cases that use pop culture to display the negative effects of being online.

here are some products i found the most relevant to what we talked about in class

this phone case includes the classic "social media seriously harms your mental health" and a medicine label that implies that likes on social media is what people use as a "loneliness reliever depression reducer". i like how they used satire to execute the message that focusing on getting likes is the cause of poor mental health such as anxiety and depression. it's clever to use a medication label bc the way i see it, striving for a certain amount of likes is addictive. i was curious about the simple black and white design for the social media label, and i found out that this is based on a cigarette pack health warning label that says "smoking seriously harms you and others around you".

i think this design would appeal to the growing teenage and young adult audience that is realizing that social media does harm their mental health. i find it interesting and kinda ironic that people that buy this case most likely still heavily use social media and focus on likes....




this phone case has a expiration date label that is found on food items. the label says "best before sep 2018 iphone release". the clear case with the simple sticker makes it seem like the sticker is directly stuck onto the phone. this is a tease for people who care about getting the newest and latest technology. even though their iphone 8 is still working fine and is practically the same as the iphone x, they want the iphone x to get that “dual optical image stabilization" instead of the lame "optical image stabilization". the average person doesn't even know what that means (unless im dumb and everyone knows what that means). people who buy the new iphone just for the heck of it are probably people who buy apple's lifestyle not the actual product. 

back

front

this is a sweatshirt that focuses on product placement. the description for this shirt on the brand's website says "Product Placement is a visualization of social media's commercial potential. Rather than limiting the sponsored content to the logo space, the entire sweatshirt is divided into several advertising spaces". urban sophistication speaks on the commercialization and capitalistic values of companies. on the back of the shirt, there is a definition of product placement, which we talked about in class for a little bit. it's embedding advertisement in things like the background of tv sets, music videos, instagram posts, and of course, clothes. the front of the sweatshirt just has advertising for advertising. there are two signs that say "YOUR AD HERE" and one that says "ADVERTISING SPACE AVAILABLE", all with the stereotypical phone number to call, dimensions, etc. this shirt brings awareness to people who are oblivious to the product placement in the tv shows and movies they watch and how it can affect what consumers want.


i really like this company and their many relevant messages about media and how they use pop culture references to convey these messages. on the urban sophistication website, the founders say that they "offer a way to perceive the fantasy we live in, without changing anything about it", which i think they do a good job doing. when i first heard of their brand a few months ago, i saw that they had an instagram which is ironic considering the messages they send out. but now their account is gone, so i guess they took their own advice. 

https://urbansophistication.boutique