I’m not sure what’s been going on over the last two months or so, but it looks like Jet, Cosmopolitan, and Every Day with Rachel Ray all seem to have on thing in common – they love me! …so much so that they’re just showing up in my mailbox even though I didn’t order them.  Nice for me, right?  Well, this month, the answer is yes.  While they are another set of things I need to recycle, the arrival of the September 6th issue of Jet caught my attention, specifically, the Style section. In this issue, all the way in the back, was a little story about Hauls.

Have you ever seen a Haul video? I watched one for the first time back in March. They’re not particularly interesting, at least, not to me. But to young (mostly) girls sharing – and watching – hauls, they’re pretty popular. Basically, teenagers post YouTube videos of themselves showing off things they’ve just purchased. They explain why they bought this or that and where you can go get your own this and that.

Not only do the teens think this is super cool, so do some major retailers. I discovered this in the Jet article, School Shoppers Help ‘Haul’ Clients Into Marketplace. They report (via the Associated Press) that teens who make hauls are being courted “during the all-important back-to-school season.” J.C. Penney recently gave away $1000 gift cards to well-known haulers with the expectation that they report back to their fans. According to J.C. Penney, “they are the next-generation’s bloggers.They are becoming fashion authories with huge followings.”

So if JCP is to be believed, they are furthering the career of future fashion bloggers, yes?  I’m sure it has very little to 75 million views that hauls videos get . There’s no need to be concerned about over shopping (not to mention over spending, materialism, clutter, etc.), especially when you’re spending someone else’s money, right?

If you’ve never seen a haul before, check out this one that I found on NPR recently. It’s about nail polish. What do you think?

Retailers are willing to take the risk that the reviewers, so to speak — the young girls in this case — will be very honest and their audience will appreciate the honesty.

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• J.C. Penney, others turn to YouTube ‘haul’ videos for help (usatoday.com)
• Young Fashionistas Take Over YouTube (360prblog.com)
• Back to Campus Shopping Season (theretailmuse.blogspot.com)
• Major Retailers Latch on to ‘Hauler’ Viral Videos (abcnews.go.com)