Homework 29 - Merchants of Cool

Recently in class we watched the movie “Merchants of Cool” from Frontline. This movie was about how corporate companies manipulate teens into buying their mass produced products. The movie investigates what teenagers believe cool is, and how companies can market cool to teenagers in order to get them to buy their products.

It is a known fact that corporations manipulate teens into buying their products, all while pretending not to, as shown in “Merchants of Cool”. Companies hire people to go “cool-hunting” for them, people who will find those 20% of teens who set the trends, who make their own style, who don’t feel the need to confine to the next best trend. They take pictures of these teens, and sell them to companies so that companies know what teens find cool. But once companies market off these styles to be cool, it is not cool anymore. Everyone says that in order to be cool, you must be yourself, and have self-expression. But when buying mass produced products, how can one be cool and be yourself at the same time? We all want to appear as if we don’t care about being cool, and we don’t care what others think of us, but while doing this there is a part of us that seeks that attention and approval from our peers. Companies, as shown in “Merchant of Cool”, know this, and decide to subtly sell off their products without overselling the product. Once something “new” comes out, such as a new trend, teens flock to it. They gobble up the merchandise, spend millions of dollars on their new wardrobes, all trying to confine to the definition of “cool.” This works out in the companies favors, because they’re making millions of dollars. Once that trend dies out, something new will pop up, gaining a company more money.

Does this make corporations evil? Are they the enemy in our lives, always trying to sell us the next best thing? Or are they our best friends, the ones who show us the next greatest thing, the new trends that make us seem “cool” to our peers? I don’t believe it is evil that corporations manipulate the minds of young people for the sake of profit. Yes, when put in that sentence, corporations seem like the enemy, the ones who want to take our money and make a profit. But think about it…marketing is the process where people sell a new trend or product, and make money of off it. Isn’t this how our society works? We buy mass produced products, making corporate companies richer, and making ourselves happy because of our new products? Companies are actually smart for manipulating the minds of young people, because they know that young people follow the trends the most. They know we always want the next best thing, the things that will make us appear “cool”, and feed off of that. So maybe they make a profit of off it…isn’t that how capitalism works? It’s a cruel world, it’s true.

Should advertising to young people be banned? From watching “Merchants of Cool”, we learned that by the time young people are eighteen, we will have viewed over 10 millions advertisements. That’s a lot, isn’t it? But how would you want advertising to young people? Everywhere we go, we are smacked in the face with a new advertisement. Whether it be in the subways or on city buses, or the bright lights of Times Square. How can you get rid of that? Advertising to young people is what tells young people what they should wear. It helps us find new trends, or find items that we want and like. Advertising helps both corporations and us teenagers, because it keeps us up to date, while generating profit for them. In this Capitalist society, money talks and we listen.

I don’t believe that manipulating our young minds is wrong. It is just how our society works. Corporations know that teens always want to have the next best thing, to be perceived as cool by their friends. As told to us in a lecture by Matt Fried, teens want to be viewed as cool by their friends. He explains that teens are always craving that attention or approval from others, and companies supply teens with that. They boost our confidence levels by selling us products that they know will make us feel better about ourselves. Okay they’re making money, but aren’t we all happy? Think about that next time you call corporations evil.