ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to explore lifestyle journalism articles as a means of brand communication and interrogate what that means for branding and journalism. Specifically, the chapter applies a Consumer Culture Theory lens to Abercrombie & Fitch’s A&F Quarterly (published in 2000) and Uniqlo’s The LifeWear Book (published in 2015) to compare how each fashion brand used lifestyle journalism to provide tangible communications and intangible meaning to the brand and its products. By comparing these marketing materials, it is possible to see how the materials sought to achieve different goals based on the time they were produced and how these examples fit into a larger trajectory of brands using journalism for marketing purposes. This chapter concludes that the blurring of advertising and journalistic forms can prove problematic by straining credibility and erasing the line between fact and fiction.
