Cop - Task 2

Task 2 - 16th October

I found this session quite difficult. Solely because I had no initial idea what to do for my essay apart from that I wanted to do something political or social. Although, I think we should have had a task before this to have us think about what we wanted to do for our essay, as I know a lot of others hadn't thought about what to do yet. I think we should have been told to have something ready for the session so it could flow better and more ideas would have been generated.

But anyway, being in a group I found really useful. You all bounce ideas off each other and spot common interests. They helped me come to the point of HYPE from politics - media portrayal - hype.

Then we were told to walk around and spot things that linked to your theme/subject. I found this task quite hard, especially as we only had half an hour and were in an environment that didn't necessarily suit people's needs. Although for me this is where I got an idea for my theme. Being in the canteen and spotting a coke can - coca cola being a massive hyped brand, you can't go down a road without seeing someone drinking a can, or it laying dead on the floor, or big and boldly printed on a billboard. This made me think of what other brands are a massive hype, what's the biggest brand that everyone must have/do/eat/wear… Starbucks?

So, for my essay I want to explore consumerism and Starbucks, why must everyone drink this? Why is it seen to be cool to Instagram your pumpkin spiced latte? And also why does it have this 'White girl' stigma? I want to try and find what others have said about this, and see if there's any illustrations or images that reflect this.