Jan 2008 Meeting

January 23, 2008
2:00pm
English Faculty Building, Rm. 5

Gossip Girls and Shopping Princesses: How a production company created a genre.
Johanna Koljonen, St. Edmund Hall

Gossip Girl, The Clique, The A-List, The Au Pairs, Pretty Little Liars, The It Girl – the bestselling "clique lit" (high school chick lit) novels are published by different publishing houses, but they all originate in the same office at US production company Alloy Entertainment, which is also copyright holder of the novels. Alloy is a leading provider of target group research, innovative marketing and consumer contacts within the teen segment. I will be speaking about how the books reflect the business model, and ask what Alloy is ultimately selling – and consider the possibility that these books are being used as advertising space.

Suggested reading: any titles in any of the above-mentioned series; they are quick reads, but if you don't have time to read whole books, pick a random chapter or two.

For an article on Alloy, see:
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/0701girlbook01.html