Market Yourself is the first episode of the Strawberry Shortcake YouTube Special series. It premiered on May 4th, 2018. This episode adapts "Market Yourself" from Issue #6 of the 2016 IDW Comics.
Plot[]
The webisode begins with Strawberry Shortcake entering the Orange Mart. She notices the abundance of fans on the shelves and jokingly asks Orange Blossom if she's putting out a single. Orange relays her problem to Strawberry: She ordered a surplus of handheld electric fans for her store in anticipation of an upcoming heat wave, which ended up being a constant rainfall instead, leaving Orange with unmoving stock that she cannot get rid of, nor have any space to store them.
Raisin Cane enters the store, much to the shock of the two girls. Raisin remarks that Orange has a problem of "too much supply, no demand", and offers to help due to her being a "marketing genius", and hands Orange her business card. Orange and Strawberry discuss whether or not she should take up Raisin's offer. Orange decides to, as even if Raisin has selfish reasons for helping, the outcome might still benefit both of them.
Orange meets Raisin in her basement, and is herded onto a stage by Raisin, who reveals that she'll be doing an infomercial. Raisin tells Orange to sit and look at the camera, Talk about the fans but not too much to avoid boring the audience, and act like she's having a conversation with the viewers before filming. Orange tries to do the commerical, but it ends up being poorly performed. Raisin decides to spruce up the video by adding chainsaw ice sculpturing, much to Orange's nervousness.
The video ends up being successful, as Strawberry and Orange discuss in the Orange Mart and recount several details from the commercial. Strawberry and Orange note the many followers flooding Raisin Cane's Berrybook page, but wonder why more customers haven't shown up. Raisin Cane shows up, and offers another video idea about chicken soup scuba diving. Orange says that sounds fun, but wonders why she hasn't seen any new customers. Raisin briefly questions why she'd want that, before remembering and dismissing it by "giving it more time" and tries to change the subject to planning the next ten videos. Orange interrupts her, and tells Raisin she no longer wants to do the commercials, as it hasn't helped her sell any fans. Raisin Cane decides to accept, but tells Orange that she won't be very successful with her boring videos.
Orange briefly laments that Raisin might have a point, until Strawberry comes up with an idea. Offscreen, the two film a tutorial on how to make a DIY wind tunnel using the fans and glitter bombs, which becomes a viral hit. Blueberry Muffin buys up dozens of fans, and Orange is satisfied. Orange then jokes that her next video tutorial should be about removing glitter from places it shouldn't be, which her and Strawberry laugh at as the episode ends.
Cast[]
- Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld as Strawberry Shortcake
- Amanda J. Barker as Orange Blossom
- Kaylin Lee Clinton as Raisin Cane
- Laurie Hymes as Blueberry Muffin
Comparisons to the Original Story[]
What Wasn't Changed[]
- Orange ordered a surplus of handheld electric fans for her store in anticipation of an upcoming heat wave, which ended up being a constant rainfall instead, leaving Orange with unmoving stock that she cannot get rid of, nor have any space to store them.
- Raisin Cane enters the store without anyone noticing, which is lampshaded by her.
- Raisin Cane remarking Orange's problem of "too much supply, no demand", and offers to help due to her being a "marketing genius", and handing Orange her business card.
- Orange discussing whether or not she should take Raisin up on her offer with the girl who entered (Lemon in the comic, Strawberry in the webisode), and deciding to go through with it, as the plan might benefit both her and Raisin, even if Raisin has ulterior motives.
- Orange meets Raisin in her basement, and is herded onto a stage by Raisin, who reveals that she'll be doing an infomercial.
- Raisin telling Orange to sit and look at the camera, Talk about the fans but not too much to avoid boring the audience, and act like she's having a conversation with the viewers before filming.
- Orange is visibly nervous and stuttering throughout the commercial, and it is considered a terrible attempt at a commercial.
- The second video is much more successful and garners a ton of online attention, but there is still a noticable lack of customers at the Orange Mart, meaning Orange still hasn't sold any fans.
- Orange mentioning she's having fun with the commercials, but feeling that she should've seen an increase in customers, which Raisin dismisses by telling her to "give it time".
- A mention of scuba diving in chicken soup is kept, but the context is different.
- Orange deciding not to continue doing commercials, though the context is severely different.
- Orange manages to sell some fans by the end of the story.
What Was Changed[]
- Lemon Meringue was originally the one who entered the store at the beginning of the story. In the webisode, it is Strawberry Shortcake.
- Lemon simply walked into the store, and remarked that there were many fans on the store shelves. Strawberry bolts in and crashes into a shelf, then jokingly asks Orange if she's releasing a single, because of her many "fans".
- Lemon Meringue entered the store to buy some jam, and leaves after noting that Raisin might have ulterior motives. Strawberry seemingly just barged into the store for no reason other than to hang out with Orange, and stays in the store for the rest of the scene.
- Raisin Cane told Orange she was shooting an informercial before she got onstage. In the webisode, Raisin tells Orange right when she's shoved on set.
- Two scenes after Orange's first commercial were removed. The webisode replaces them with Raisin telling her that the attempt was awful, but offers several suggestions to spruce it up, such as ice-sculpting, pulling out a chainsaw for emphasis.
- The first scene had Orange lament to Strawberry about the awfulness of the commercial, with Sour Grapes reassuring Orange that no one actually saw it due to its poor quality, and Strawberry comforting Orange by pointing out Raisin left her with little time to prepare. Raisin Cane then appeared and gave Orange a huge binder of notes on her performance, and noting her delivery was stiff, and she needs to be more personal to connect with her audience. Strawberry and Sweet Grapes agree that people learning more about Orange might convince more customers to go there, but Orange counters her life isn't interesting enough to talk about. Sour tells her to just make stuff up, as many reality shows do. Sweet asks if "Berry Scary Encounters" does that too, which Sour points out did an episode on the fake "Molasses Lake Monster", which makes Sweet question her beliefs. Strawberry then tells Orange she should ask Blueberry Muffin to help her write a story for the next commercial, which Orange decides to do so she'll be more prepared. Orange also decides to change up her wardrobe and hairstyle to boost her confidence.
- The next scene had Orange at a makeup chair with Lemon Meringue helping style her hair, Raspberry Torte preparing costumes, and Blueberry helping her rehearse the script last minute. Orange's next commercial begins with her briefly talking about the fans, before switching to telling a story about her ending up at Cocoa Butter Beach after falling asleep on a butterfly. Lemon Meringue questions if it actually happened, which Raisin replies with "Does it matter?"
- Strawberry and Orange discuss the success of the second video, with Strawberry mentioning snow flying everywhere and a bunch of fruit being in Orange's hair. Orange also mentions a horse caravan. Strawberry and Orange note the many followers flooding Raisin Cane's Berrybook page, but wonder why more customers haven't shown up. In the original comic, it was Orange and Raisin Cane discussing the successful video at Steve Piemanne's cafe, with Raisin bringing up Orange listing her favorite ball pits and reading several comments by viewers that want a followup. Raisin tells Orange to step up her game to keep viewer attention.
- The scene is merged with the end of the "third video" scene where Orange decides to stop doing commercials.
- In the comic, the "third video" scene showed Orange in a flashy costume preparing to scuba dive in chicken soup, before Bosley Bookworm interrupts the recording, as he wanted to buy olive oil to fix a leaky door, but Orange wasn't at the Orange Mart when he showed up. Orange asks for a break, and tells Raisin she feels that she doesn't know why she's doing the videos if it isn't helping her problem, and decides to stop.
- In the webisode, there is no third video commercial. Raisin Cane shows up right after Strawberry and Orange's conversation, Strawberry questions how she's able to show up undetected. Raisin offers another video idea about chicken soup scuba diving. Orange says that sounds fun, but wonders why she hasn't seen any new customers. Raisin briefly questions why she'd want that, before remembering and dismissing it by "giving it more time" and tries to change the subject to planning the next ten videos. Orange interrupts her, and tells Raisin she no longer wants to do the commercials.
- The scene is merged with the end of the "third video" scene where Orange decides to stop doing commercials.
- In the comic, Raisin was angry at Orange ending the deal, and storms off. In the webisode, Raisin acts nonchalant about it, but tells Orange that no one's gonna buy the fans regardless.
- The ending is completely different.
- In the comic, Cherry Jam enters the Orange Mart to buy guitar strings, and tries to reassure Orange that people will buy the fans once the weather gets warmer. Orange ponders that she wanted to prove she could solve the problem even after making a mistake, but letting Raisin Cane help didn't solve anything at all. Cherry Jam relates, recalling a music video she made where the director wanted an "artsy" performance, she felt it was a bad idea but still went along with it, and the music video ended up a flop. Jadeybug then enters, wanting something to clean a stain on her carpet, to which Orange gives her some carpet cleaner spray. Jadeybug then notices the sun coming out, and decides to buy one of Orange's fans. Cherry Jam then reads the comments on Orange's video, and is confused why 234 people want to see a video of her scuba diving into chicken soup. Orange remarks that she learned to not read the comments.
- In the webisode, after Raisin Cane leaves, Orange laments that she might not actually get to sell some fans, but Strawberry comes up with an idea. Offscreen, the two film a tutorial on how to make a DIY wind tunnel using the fans and glitter bombs, which becomes a viral hit. Blueberry Muffin buys up dozens of fans, and Orange is satisfied. Orange then jokes that her next video tutorial should be about removing glitter from places it shouldn't be, which her and Strawberry laugh at.
- Marmalade was present for the beginning of the comic, but is completely absent in the webisode.
- The rest of Raisin's line about staring at the camera "But not too close, don't give it some big creepy stare or anything" is removed.
- Orange ordering a bunch of plastic balls for a followup segment on ball pits is removed, as the context was severely altered in the webisode.
Trivia[]
- Despite Sour Grapes, Sweet Grapes, and Blueberry Muffin having a pre-existing role in the original story, and character models created for the webseries, the webisode outright cuts all three of them from the story, with Blueberry being relegated to a quick cameo at the end.
- This is Blueberry Muffin's only appearance in the series.
Videos[]
