Ashley Justice

Popular YouTube videos include animals dressed up

        Discovery Channel has hosted the show called Shark Week for one week out of the year dedicated to sharks. Being the longest-running cable television programming event in history, the show first broadcasted on July 17, 1987. Shark Week was originally developed to raise awareness and respect for the different types of sharks; and what the sharks are capable of. Shark Week is now broadcast in over 72 countries world wide and is heavily promoted through social networks including Twitter and Facebook. Among different communities who watch Shark Week, new and different ideas are coming about to represent the Shark Week phenomenon.

Silver Spring, MD Discovery Channel Building

        Different companies have taken advantage of this program to advertise their products. For example, Wendy's has come up with a new box for their hamburgers that looks like shark teeth to represent the popularity of Shark Week. Different bakery's around the country have made specialized products for the show; including cookies and cupcakes with sShark Week. Some companies have even made jokes about Shark Week but in the context of the show as well as advertising. Tide laundry detergent has a couple of advertisement campaigns released stating their detergent will get blood out of clothes as well. The Discovery Channel headquarter building in Silver Spring, MD is also included in the dressing up for the show. Every year around the time of the show, the building is transformed into a shark including side fins, a shark head, as well as a tail and top fin.

harks on them. The company TOMS has made a couple pair of their famous canvas shoes with sharks on them in alliance with
Different individuals who watch the show have even dressed up their own animals as sharks to celebrate the show every year. In different images included shows a cat, a dog, and even a turtle dressed up as sharks. Even people are wearing shark fins to represent the show. From ordinary individuals, to the Teddy Roosevelt mascot are fining up in excitement for the show. Shark Week has been apart of everyone's lives since 1987 and will continue to steal the hearts of many future animals who are dressed up as sharks.

 In making Shark Week into eyes of interaction approach, this popular culture event is very peer influenced. I myself did not start watching the show until a friend of mine invited me to a Shark Week "party"; where sharks were themed throughout the entire house, as well as the animals. Collective effervescence is experienced by all who attend the different parties to watch the show (or even those who watch alone) and social solidarity allows for the annual meeting and conversing of the audiences who watch the show; whether being in the same room, or conversing over social media. The show itself has grown with the public through word of mouth, as well as advertisements through the critical approach. Both approaches can strengthen the epidemic of Shark Week by the different advertisements as well as what the promoters from The Discovery Channel are willing to do to keep the audiences on their toes and watching the show.