Collected Item: “Corona Culture Products”
Give your story a title.
Corona Culture Products
What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?
Photographs taken on a smartphone
Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.
These pictures are a collection of Corona themed products from summer 2020 to January 2021. As you can see, there was a great variety of products and some of the most unusual appeared starting 2021. Of particular note is the coffee mug and a small wall plaque. Even the infant phrases "Social distancing" and "Healthcare worker" had crept into daily items in real stores. By fall, masks were being advertised in stores on long plastic hangers and had become just as common on random aisles as dish gloves, scrubber pads, and dryer balls. By January 2021, companies had begun to get creative with masks and shields. The final picture shows a set of children's face shields encased with the features of animal heads. This was likely to appeal to children who like to pretend to be animals. One company also began to make masks in small, medium, large, and extra large, to accommodate the variety of face shapes among the public (not pictured). The most important thing about all these products is that they show how deeply embedded Corona had become in United States culture despite the fact that it was not even a year since the virus appeared in the U.S. This indicates that companies were actively involved in both creating and maintaining a COVID consumer culture that tied what people experienced to what they could buy. Although more difficult to determine, it also shows a demand for such items both out of necessity (masks) and for leisure or fun (mug, animal shields). These items also reveal that COVID-19 was a highly unique event in that it was so marketable. No other event in the 21st century generated as much cultural/societal presence as Corona. These products should be further studied to see what better understanding about Corona can be gained from them.
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#ASU, #HST494, #CoronaCulture, #Texas, #CoronaStores, #Humor, #MentalHealth
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
Kayla Nicole Phillips
Give this story a date.
2021-01-21