HW 29: Merchants of Cool

Of course the corporations manipulate us while pretending not to, so they can make more money off of us. Of course we actively seek commodified coolness while trying to claim "self-expression" and "being ourselves", so we can feel a sense of importance and gain attention and approval. So what?

By throwing us all these products and images of cool, these corporations are only reinforcing the idea that chasing coolness is cool and popular. Therefore, it's just adding more heat to the fire. We seek out individual looks and when we see our looks on T.V. or on a billboard in Times Square, we receive a boost of confidence. Why is this so bad? Because we're are being dragged around by the media and happily skipping down this path that they've carved for us without even acknowledging it. And even when we do, a lot of us don't care. And why should we? As long as we get the new purse or the new shoes, we're happy. In the "Merchants of Cool," they said that teens have become the largest group of consumers, profiting 150 billion from them. They're easy targets. Now teens are stuck in this mind frame that if you want to be somebody or if you want to be important, then you need to stand out. They do this either by following trends or creating trends of their own... which will probably later be stolen by the media. Instead of dressing to show off who they are regardless of what others think about them, they're starting to dress to impress.. everyone.

What specific manipulation techniques work best on the specific insecurities and emotional needs of young people, according to Merchants of Cool?

The corporations started realizing that corny ads don't work anymore, so like the Sprite commercial, they filmed it to mock the stereotypical Star-approved ads... with a Star. Teens soon caught up to that too. So Sprite started studying teen culture and incorporated its own brand name into their party life to show support to its music and scene. This worked because teens really believed that Sprite was really there for them. The documentary said something like "It looked like Sprite was only studying the culture and not how to advertise to the teens. Thus, Sprite became the culture." So pretending like they weren't out to manipulate the teens successfully manipulated them.

Even the Dove commercials attempt to reach out to "normal" people by putting elders, mothers, curvy women, and others into their ads. They're trying to make it seem that normal is the new cool and that they support this movement. Their focus on "real" women has made those insecure about their bodies the next target. Except their way of approaching it is different. Instead of saying, purchase this so you can change yourself and feel better about yourself, they're saying purchase this, don't change yourself and still feel better about yourself. This works and it still sends a great message.


They also started filling the media with archetypes such as the "mook" and the "midriff" to convince teens that characters such as these get the most attention. They were sending the message that guys that were obnoxious and annoying were fun and popular. Girls who showed off skin and dressed provocatively earned them confidence and attention. So for teens, that was the secret to solving their insecurities, although I think it only made them crave attention even more.

Should advertising to young people be banned? Up to what age? Or all ages?

Obviously, teens can't hide from the media and all its sumbliminal messages. But they should limit the types of commercials that are put out to the public. Teens shouldn't have to look at commercials and feel compelled to purchase a product because it's what's popular at the time. But of course, commercials are bias . There would never be a commercial that would just come out and say blahblahblah this has this feature and that feature and it is this price, without any cool images or people endorsing it. Ads that constantly pressures teens to be cool shouldn't be shown to them until 21, when most of them are mature enough to make the right decision. But then again, no matter what age we are, we are still prone to the pressures of being cool and important.

Should Rage Against the Machine or Mos Def have refused to play the corporate game to prevent their revolutionary music becoming a source of capitalist profit? What if that meant that they would gain far fewer listeners?

The whole concept of their band in the first place was to fight capitalism or "the machine." They've lost all sense of dignity once they bought into the game. If I were them, I would rather have a couple of listeners who really believed in my music rather than having my music promoted as anything other than what it was supposed to be in the first place.