The influence of youth

I knew that Sanrio was created by Japan. But, it was not until I read the article, "Cuties in Japan," that I learned how the history of the company began by the youth culture in Japan. As the author, Sharon Kinsella remarks, "Sanrio began to produce cute-decorated stationary and fancy diaries for the dreamy school students booked on cute handwriting craze." I was surprised that a company would begin to create cute items to satisfy the cute desires of the youth. The continuing success of Sanrio marks that cute style continues and that the production of the items has spread to meet the demands of not only Japanese youth, but of those abroad. I used to go to the Sanrio store in the malls to buy the cute stuff that I would not be able to buy in ordinary American school accessory stores. I desired the cute stationary that they had because I liked a certain character that I admired. I found it hard to choose from the stationary sets since they were all cute. Now that I think about the purchase that I had made, I bought those items because they were cute. There was no requirement or need to purchase a item in the store. I guess I participated in cute culture.

There is no doubt that the compact challenge has become more difficult for me. I had been around some shops or malls in the weeks that the challenge was continuing and I could not participate in purchasing alot of the items, but only browse. Also, when I watch commercials or trailers online, I notice some new items that I may have purchased if I was not on the compact challenge. Nonetheless, I still have not made any new item purchases since the challenge began.

By: Alice Phun, Blog #4

Sources:
Outside source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35468124@N07/3877971407/

Inside Source:
Kinsella, Sharon. "Cuties in Japan." Print.