In looking at hashtags it became clear that businesses have suddenly become a huge supporter of them. Marketing through hashtags has not only helped sales for many companies, but hashtags have also led businesses to see where their products will sell and where they wont. This is why through my analysis of hashtag’s I looked into Bourgeoisie and businesses forcing products on young kids.
Not only do adds show up on every social media cite, but there are also promotions through hashtags. Companies will put out a picture say on Instagram saying the first 1000 to re-hashtag or re-post you get a free ___. If you decide to participate in this, then your followers see if and can do the same thing. Then the picture will go to facebook saying this many of your friends liked this product on instagram. In turn the photo just went from one person uploading it, to a huge network of people seeing the latest styles. This therefore shows how fashions and brands of the upper class get filtered to lower classes and become the norm all around the world.
Through the new technologies, yes you may be able to see the tragic disaster in a foreign country, but you are also constantly being exploited to the new trends that your friends have, celebrities have etc. Gramsci is right in saying that this new emergent culture can not stray from those who control the trends.
Hashtags however have also started to hurt businesses. There are entire #McDstories that just destroy McDonalds. This has happened with Starbucks as well with people writing down wrong names on their coffee cups. People bash the employees by saying how stupid people are that work their. At the same time however, people want to go to Starbucks to see if their name is completely wrong. These companies are so established in who they are that even with these hashtags it doesn’t effect business as much as it could a smaller start up company.