VAL CHANG

Bumping off of last week's post about FENTY beauty, this week we're touching on Tarte cosmetics, more specifically, they're recent fiasco. Last week, Tarte released a post on their Instagram ( x ) with this meme: Users and customers responded furiously, criticizing Tarte's use of a well-known Asian slur (ching chong). This post has since been deleted, but the effects haven't disappeared. Tarte first apologized in a social media post which placed the blame on an intern, but it didn't do much to help the growing disdain for their public image and brand. Maureen Kelly, CEO & founder of Tarte, personally sent out an apology saying, " From the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry and embarrassed. " Twitter blew up from the scandal, with posts such as: Some users directly put Tarte on blast for their initial half-hearted apologies. Some thought it was silly for an intern to be handling such a large account, and for there to be no ac...

So if you haven't heard yet, Rihanna released a new line of luxury makeup products under the brand name FENTY ( x ). She already had a line of shoes and clothes under the same name in a collaboration with Puma. But now she's entered the highly competitive, especially with social influencers and "beauty gurus" headlining the industry, beauty market. Her brand image is one of simplicity, diversity and empowerment. It's only been about a week or so since it's release, and she's sold out of several of her products both online and in store (Sephora is currently the only store which carries it). "FENTY Beauty was created for everyone: for women of all shades, personalities, attitudes, cultures, and races. I wanted everyone to feel included. That's the real reason I made this line." xx Rihanna Being a woman of color herself, and known for speaking out against issues of institutionalized racism and issues in diversity, this brand com...

Last week, I talked about Hulu when comparing the various options we have for streaming content. Shortly after, students across the nation received news that Hulu was joining Spotify for student pricing. For a while now, us students have reaped the benefits of Spotify Premium for Students which costs a measly $4.99 a month. Now, we can enjoy Hulu as a part of the package, costing a total of $4.99 when before it was $9.99 for Spotify and $7.99 for Hulu ($11.99 for Ad Free). The benefits of this bundle are incredible for Hulu, and Spotify, too. Students calculate every penny they spend since usually, they're on a tight budget for the semester. This means cutting out extraneous luxuries so we can afford to eat out and attend events and just generally make those pesky utility bills. But now with this bundle, students are scrambling to get this deal to enjoy maximum entertainment. The marketing aspect of this move is incredible. It shows that Hulu wants their service to be as a...

Ten years ago, most of us couldn't imagine binging shows the way we do now. We relied on TV reruns, rental stores like Blockbuster and DVR (back when that was the "hot new tech" in TV) to watch television. It used to be a battle of satellite dish versus cable, and now we are streaming media directly into our smart TVs and laptops, even our smart phones! The way we consume media has evolved exponentially in the past decade and when streaming first got popular, Netflix was the pioneer in the market. It became such a phenomenon, memes and slang such as "Netflix and chill" came about. Now, of course, with time and growing popularity other competitors have entered the market promising better selections and faster updates. So let's talk logistics: For most of us, especially us college students, Netflix is our go-to streaming service. It was the first in a line of brands that offered titles to stream immediately, although first they were a mail-in DVD based...