Merchants+of+Cool+Discussion+LPC+UWC+11+13

Join the Frontline discussion ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/talk/ ) here. Type only your first name (the Wiki is public).

Sophia: Watching the documentary “the Merchants of Cool” only confirmed my previous insecurities about this issue. I must admit, that I was (am sometimes) myself pulled into this ‘web’ of what seems ‘normal’. Using myself as an example, when I was a little girl, one of my favourite play toys had to be Barbie dolls. I remember begging my mother for a new doll house, a new Barbie to be my current Barbie’s best friend and I would de a doting owner; combing her hair, dressing her up in colourful dresses, telling her how pretty she is. I’m glad that that obsession was accompanied by my love for books by Enid Blyton (thank heavens!) but in essence, what I’m trying to say is ever since I was young, it was already normal or it ingrained in me, even if not consciously, that I had to be pretty. I feel very sad as I type this, extremely disappointed and sometimes quite helpless because this has become a small part of me. And it has not only become part of me, but I see how it has become part of so many people (girls and boys alike). The documentary portraying what is ‘cool’ and what ‘isn’t cool’ reflects a lot of how life is for teenagers. I am thankful that as I grow older (and being here in UWC and learning all of this helps a lot too), I am becoming more aware of what is happening to me and many girl and boys around my age but I don’t think that I have fully grown out of it. The media here seem to be a horrible manipulative tool aiming to target the impressionable and unfortunately it has succeeded in doing so. TV shows, drama series, reality TV shows, movies in any genre be it romance, action, horror will always carry the stereotype that image and looks and trends and ‘that certain way of behaving’ are what will get you to places. Because of that, we see more girls optioning for plastic surgery, spending loads of money on branded clothes, wanting to look ‘sexy’ for their boyfriends and doing lots of other things that sometimes degrade and devalue humanity. We are so much more than what we look like. Also, it makes me question, where do you draw the line between what is excessive self-consciousness and important/necessary/basic self-consciousness? Is wanting to look slim and exercising regularly to be fit (and to be slim for the added bonus) considered ‘bad’? How about wanting to buy clothes from mid-range brands instead of ones from Walmart or Tesco? Is wearing make up to look ‘better’ or ‘more presentable’ a form of caring too much about looks as well? I find it ironic that even during the documentary we watched before on Sex Inc, the women who were the social workers/counselors/physicians themselves had lots of make up on and had their hair styled up into overly stylish buns. Does anyone have an idea of how we can reduce the effect that media has on children and teenagers, considering the fact that it has been part of their lives/maybe some of ours too, for a long time? I would love to hear your views on this.

MIA

I don't remember correctly the name and place I heard this from, but I remember the story. Simply: Somewhere in central America a while ago, democracy was introduced and TV stations from the US started appearing on the television. People were very happy about their new found freedom and life seemed like it was never better. But then, suicide rates started getting higher especially amongst teenagers and young adults, then soon doubling the number it was before - no one knew what was the issue. People seemed happy, yet more and more were taking their own lives. Then the country hired researchers from overseas to investigate the problem - what they discovered was very interesting. In the past, people had nothing to compare their lives to. Yes they were unhappy with the government, but locally they were happy with their lives. As soon as democracy was introduced and commercialism brought in full force, they started seeing the world through another pair of eyes. Where were their Ferraris? Why were they not living in mansions like those in the MTV music videos? How come that girl got so many guys chasing after her and I don't? MTV was depressing the entire generation and killing people. Watching the "Merchants Of Cool" only confirmed to me that this story has a very high possibility of being true. While looking through the website Linda sent us, I found a page titled "What's this doing to the kid's?" and read a story about what happened to Chile being very similar to the one I presented above (it might even be the same story). Here is the link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/themes/doingtokids.html One thing that stuck out to me from the documentary was when they asked the question : Is commercial culture leaving room for kids to create a culture on their own? I was trying to think of what truly defined the culture of the youth. What defines us? Food? Music? Clothes? That's all part of the corporate industry though. Is there anything that is part of our lives that they have not packaged and sold right back to us? Another thing that made me think a lot was how they project sex to us. Shows such as Dawsons Creek and now Gossip Girl and 90210, they show sex as something that if you don't do - your not cool. Sex is everything. I know 14 year old girls who as I mentioned before watch Desperate Housewives and believe that 9th grade is the year they will lose their virginity.They sort of expect it to happen.What did they think about sex 50 or even 30 years ago? Were the teenagers of that time as sexually starved as we are now? Have the rape numbers around the world gone up since MTV or other televised and advertised programs released images full of sexual content? Of course I realize that sex has been part of human lives from the beginning of time, I'm just wondering if it is portrayed and thought of differently nowadays. I think this would be good to talk about in class. As Sophie mentioned above, I also found it ironic that the women who were preaching about how girl's just try to please boy's themselves were all done up. But then again, is that a BAD thing? I like to put on dresses and clothes that make me look good, sometimes when I go out I like to put make-up on as well. Have I been brainwashed? Am I a victim of the corporate/commercial monster?

Hannah: When we were watching the documentary in class I was filled with rage. I thought that all this excessive market research was sick, and how everything 'cool' had to be branded and marketed and profited from. All the experts discussing this multi billion dollar industry, the thrirteen year old girl saying that she NEEDED to look good for people and all the researchers following the 'trendsetting kids' and examining the lives of the teenage boys, it all really bothered me. I tried to think of why it was bothering me so much.

At first, I was thinking "we're not all like that!" and then "I'm not like that!". I was proud of myself for not having slipped into this net of commercialism, I believed that I was a morally better person for disregarding shows such as MTV and not being brand obsessed. I was so relieved that I'd escaped all of this, and I felt sorry for my materialistic counterparts. It soon became apparent to me though that I was being horribly patronising and naive. We are all affected by this media stream. Perhaps I don't watch shows like MTV but I do watch things like Skins, a programme aimed at teenagers and entirely based around sex and drugs. It is definitely unrealistic yet I and my friends cling to it. These are the lives we want to have. We feel like we’re lacking something if our lives don’t compare, which they never will.

I remember when I first started going our with my boyfriend last September. To the more dominant girls in my all girls school this was like some sort of a status symbol. I had instantly shot up the scale in their eyes and the fact that I had a boyfriend made me worth something and I became more popular. There was even a list devised, naming all the people who’d had sex. It accounted to about 25% of my year group of 15-17 year olds. This made loads of girls feel like they were not as advanced as the rest. I remember discussing this with my friend in the year group two years above my own and she was shocked as there were nowhere near as many girls in her year had done it. It made me think about all the pressure that’s put on us nowadays and how even in a couple of years it can increase.

Another thing that struck me was about cool not being cool once it’s defined as cool. This is extremely true. I observed so many trends in my time in that school, the more extreme being hair related, as our uniform restricted what we could express with our clothes. Last year, Rihanna dyed her hair bright red. Then Cheryl Cole dyed her hair bright red. Not long after, a certain girl in my year dyed her hair bright red. The following month, about 10 people in the same age group (about 5-10% or my year group) had dyed their hair the same shade. Another fad I found ridiculous was known as the undercut, whereby you shave a portion of your hair from the side of your head. At least 15 people in my year group of 108 got this done, and each was praised for their originality. All the boys I knew however, didn’t see the attraction.

So I therefore disagree with Mia and Sophia that girls do themselves up to look good for boys. I went to an all girls school for the past 4 years and girls would get up at 6:30 to shower and do make up and hair and adjust their uniform as much as possible, get driven into school for 9 and be collected at 4 having seen no boys. How “pretty” you look directly affects your social status. Let’s face it, if two new girls had come to our school, one pretty and one not, it would directly affect their popularity. The “cooler” cliques would all be done up each trying to outdo each other and almost intimidate the other cliques. I was hideously uncool during my first two years in secondary school and though I had friends I never really fitted in with any group. I tried to categorize myself as others tried to categorize me. It was a routine question from my peers - “What are you?”. It was only really by the time I turned 15 that I really began to “be myself” and get slightly more popular but as I recall this too had to do with how pretty or cool you were. I wouldn’t wear excessive make up but on the days that I did put on mascara or make an effort with my hair, I’d get recognition from the more popular girls. This would really impact me and though I've laughed at girls who smear orange goo all over themselves and glue eyelashes to their faces, I'm a hypocrite as I too have done this and so I must therefore have been sucked into this mainstream culture that I so despise. The question is though, if I hadn't, would I have had any friends? Would I be happy? I don't believe that the key to happiness is looking good, but there's no denying that it plays an integral role no matter how much we find that wrong.

Anna:

Talking about the media, it’s obvious that teenagers and kinds in general become the main audience. Raising the such topics, make me always think about the influence mass media is trying to make at my sister, as I know (at least I hope so) that I can resist and can decide what I need and what don’t, and she doesn’t. I see, how she is trying to imitate the dance, she had seen on TV, and I hear, how she is singing the song, which she hears all the time and understanding that I really can’t change anything drives me crazy. [] Let’s take the video, as an example. Girls are maximum 13 years old and the way, they trying to behave themselves; clothing, they wear; the image, they trying to create doesn’t really suit them. In the city, I’m living in, the change of fashion is very noticeable and the distance between ‘’cool’’ and ‘’uncool’’ is really small. For example, the year before wearing t-shirt ‘’I <3 NY’’ (even if you have never been there), having professional camera (even if you don’t know how to use it) and searching for the love of your life (even if you are 12) was more than just cool, almost everyone was like that, but now it’s shame. People, described above, now have a special euphemism ‘’vanilla’’ and it’s really offensive, if someone calls you like that. The popular thing now is hippies, so every second teenager has a bike and old-school clothing, and I even can’t predict what will be next. I agree with Mia, that sex became one of the most favoured topics in mass media. Themes like “I’m 13 and still a virgin” now are a usual thing, though it’s still shocking for me. Jokes with a hidden (or not) sexual context appear in teen conversations more often than 5 years ago. And such propaganda has harmful effect on society in which teen pregnancy becomes a problem. UK, for example, has the highest teenage birth rate in the Western Europe. Jan Barow has set the most argumentative reason of that: "We are setting them adrift in this sexualized society without giving them the tools to look after themselves." It basically means that media stimulates us to behave “in a sexy way”, but doesn’t actually explains what consequences it may lead to. In the documentary, we’ve watched at the lesson, was mentioned the film “Cruel intentions”, as one which is used to publicize sex, but it also sets an attitude to the opposite gender : it’s common for us to see how boys can use girls only for satisfaction and vice versa. It is really ridiculous to see accounts of 12years old girls with nicknames as “sexy bitch”. The situation with cigarettes and drugs is very similar. You can see lots propaganda of smoking not only in advertisement world or in movies, but also in books and in magazines. The most horrendous thing is that even famous people, understanding what it can lead to, are not willing to stop it. In his own words, Jobs said that taking LSD was “one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life.” This is what Steve Jobs himself believed was his advantage over Microsoft Windows, saying of Bill Gates, “He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”

The saddest thing is that adults can’t fence off their children. Mark Miller (media critic and the author of Boxed In: The Culture of TV) said, that it’s because of time poverty, and the fact, that parents mostly are out of life of their children, they don’t even know what is cool, so it’s very difficult for them to find a correct approach to their children and I can say without any hesitation, that I do can feel that barrier between my parents and me. [] Almost a half of my friends have relationships similar to the one, showed on the video above, and it is surely not normal, but even I can find only one reason – lack of time spent with their kids. As a consequence, I want to ask everyone, who has younger siblings, to take care of them and reduce the impact of mass media on their personalities as much as possible

Alaa: A question that really caught my attention while touring the site is a response from a 17 year-old who decides what the norm is?, some people where really angry and they directed their anger at frontline rather than the media itself. An irony because its one of the human traits that pass from generation to generation we blame the wrong person or pass the blame. I also found myself relating to the question 'where are the adults, its a question that comes to my mind when I see a young boy beating his friend up for the fun of it or another mesmerized in front of the video game for 5 hours, it seems like a logical question to ask. I remember telling my friends back home that if I had one thing to change in Egypt it would be the ads, and when I look back I find it ironic that I willingly change that, but when I say change I am not talking that I would change the //bad// media the documentary is talking about, I have different media in mind because the Egyptian media in my **//personal opinion//** has a sick sense of humor and I truly believe that the media reflects the people and the Egyptians have a unique sense of humor. I am bound to admit that ads. doesn't have a huge influence on people back in my country because we are no ad lovers and ads are not attractive or attention grabbing (again personal opinion). However, after watching this documentary I am just glad that the Egyptian media is the way it is after all. About the frontline discussion few things grabbed my attention, I totally agreed with one suggestion that the only way to rebel is to stop buying those stuff and vote with our money and opinion against it now lets analyze the verb used vote, is it possible to vote with your money yes but not literally, its an active verb a commanding order. A question that I am still hoping someone can answer is "who mirrors who?" its a very dangerous demanding question. A debatable comment was "its not the moral breakdown in families or young people, it is the moral breakdown of cooperation" and the speaker suggested that one way of solving the problems is having the people reign this cooperation, he suggests that the lack of morals is in companies for selling people something they don't want or need, but then I question whose responsibility is it that you are willingly buying what I am selling? Who takes the blame here? because in my opinion its the consumer and not the producer. I would also like to clarify that since the Egyptian media is not as effective as the US media, I couldn't really relate to the video, it projected a reality that doesn't affect me directly, But it put somethings into prospective for me, it explained some behaviors. However, what I find really ironic and paradoxical is that everyone follows the media in an attempt to fit in the crowd and in the process people lose their identity, but if everyone stopped trying to fit in then there will no longer be something that humans need to fit in, there won't be a crowd to follow anymore. If the media found no acceptance it will retrace its steps and change its tactics so it is our duty as consumers to reject the current media tactics.

Maxim:

For me it was hard to imagine myself in that kind of situation. I have never ever watched MTV or any similar programs (my classmates in primary school did), since I did not spend that much time watching television. Because of that, I never felt pressured by some thoughts of have we are supposed to dress, act, what kind of interests and hobbies we ought to have etc. in a same way as some of my classmates were influenced by the media. I have no idea how different person I would be now, if I would have watched all that junk that was and is shown on the television.

I think that the fact that my parents lived and were raised in Soviet Union affected the way of how we think about consumption in our family. I have never been comfortable with "over-consumption" or shopping, for example. And as many people have already mentioned, it is parents who have a large influence on their children's shopping and living habits. This is of course not always the case. For example my little-sister has completely different attitude and view on hopping, consuming and buying different stuff. I guess that girls feel more pressure from the media, friends and the society in general. It is hard to make generalizations, since there are so many factors and thing that can affect individual's actions. And it always changes as time passes by.

SALMA : Out of the many thoughts that ran through my mind as I watched the documentary ‘Merchants of Cool’ the one that struck the hardest was that the society as a whole is failing as regards the teenagers and what they consume, ‘cool’.

Producers, who are very much a part of the society, are giving to the consumers especially teenagers content that is highly sexual or violent with complete disregard to what such does to the people consuming it. They hide behind the flimsy justification that they are simply serving what is already existent in the society. They do not think of their action as propagating negativity.

Parents, in my opinion are also to blame. All those kids have parents or guardians, where are they? It was put well in the documentary that parents are not there for their children so they give them ‘guilt money’.

 **Alan: **

I had fun watching the documentary. It was really interesting to know the effort corporations do to sell a way of life. I could have imagined, but I didn't know corporations had groups of teenagers who gave their opinion on daily products and current issues. I think it is very smart to look for teenage leaders since they are the ones whom other teenagers try to mimic. It is something that does happen a lot. However, I think the questions asked to this group of teenagers were too direct. They might be able to get more information and understand the group better with more complex activities. I also wonder if the group changes it's opinion knowing that it is being analysed. An analysis of teenagers on their usual environment sounds more reasonable.

Although this strategy might be able to get information that represents a great percentage of the population, I still think there is a lot of teenagers that do not fall in that category. During his teenage years, each person looks for his own identity, for his own likes and dislikes, thoughts and ideas. There is a large period in everyone's adolescence where we do not like something just because "it is too mainstream." Therefore, they might not be able to get the taste of this isolated group of teenagers who do not like mainstream content.

I felt like the video made corporate advertising seem as too controlled and most people would not end with a very pleasant image of them. There is a part in the video where they make the rhetorical question: Can the new generation no longer choose their tastes by themselves because it is all controlled by corporations? This is a very dull way of looking at it. They try to give teenagers what they like, and teenagers buy their products in exchange. This is something both sides can benefit from, it is not that bad! Some teenagers find a sense of comfort identifying themselves with one product, why take it away from them? I wonder if this has a psychological impact in the adult lives of teenagers. If that was the case, there is an obvious reason. But I do not think so, I think this is a mutually beneficial relationship. Teenagers can still make the choice of following the mainstream or not. Nevertheless, congratulations for those who choose to take the challenge of trying different things.

Where I am in this whole group? I feel like I am neither too affected by mainstream content nor not affected at all. I recognise there are products, bands or T.V. shows that I like that were very mainstream at one period, and I also recognise that if they never were mainstream I probably wouldn't have liked them. There are also products, bands or shows that were never mainstream but are of my favourite. In general, I just choose to listen and watch what I enjoy the most, disregarding why I like it.

**NABEEH** Through out the media studies, I found ‘merchants of cool’ really interesting.

One of the reason is, it really forced us to reflect on our daily basis of life and made us see that we are impersonating the ‘cool’ world around us. For an example, I will mention something we come across frequently in our society. Cool is something commonly accepted within a group of people or within a community. Cool shows how dominant and inspiring people are. Cool makes us social and even acceptable too. The trends of fashion and celebrity life has a big impact on how we define cool. The perspective of ‘cool’ guys influence us so much that we have to dress like cool and act like cool. If somebody wears something unfit to the accepted “cool” ways, they are labelled ‘old fashioned’ or ‘corny’. We also have to remember that these prejudices are fashioned and implied by the role of media and nothing else.

The way of being cool in the 21st century has crooked its actual definition. Modern kids act, dress and be like their celebrities while celebrities are entirely shaped to disrupt the ethical and moral values we had in our society. Why not look into details about holly wood actors and music artists? Why not look into the hidden world behind the cartoon world? Young children and teenagers role model these celebrities and try to imitate them. The negligence children by parents also leads to these wrong “cool” ways. Parents shouldn’t give their children all the freedom they want. For instance, guilt money is completely unacceptable. If parents don’t provide time and love to their children, what is the use of giving money? What is the meaning behind that sort of“generosity”? In my opinion, it is supporting the children to do wrong.

thus, every body should be aware of the cool world around us and how cool we are. Be your self and respect all others.

__**MICHELLE**__ After watching the documentary, I find it particularly sad that we are no longer free to create our own unique culture. Instead, marketers study our hopes and desires intensively, then target at those specific things and sell them back to us. I do understand that marketing is happening to all of us all the time, and no one can escape from its influence. But the point that "Teenagers are the hottest consumer demographic" urges the markets to aim at teenagers even more, in fact, so much that it has become rather creepy. The marketers conduct exhaustive studies of teens to figure out what's "cool", then feed it relentlessly back to us through the media. "It's one enclosed feedback loop." We are misled by the media to believe that we are independent to make our own consumer choices, when we are actually under total control and influence of the marketers through the media. Their influence is so strong that to an extent, it has twisted our thinking. Then when you come to think of it, should we believe what this documentary has presented to us? Is it possible that the marketers of Frontline are simply making use of our sense of insecurity, hence created this documentary that a lot of people would be interested to watch? However, a point that I am sure of is, Merchants of Cool has truly provoked our thinking. We begin to doubt the media, or even, doubt ourselves. Are we what we are today because of how the marketers affect us? Watching all those TV programmes, listening to all those music, is it true that our thinking are being moulded through such process? What should we believe in? If we're really influenced THAT much, can we even trust our own "judgements"?

Beanka: Undeniably, Merchants of Cool denotes a sophisticated understanding of the mass media which questions and challenges the norms promoted. We are all aware of that. However, what I do find amusing is that topic that we have raised in class today - how reality disappears under the lens of camera. Marketing directors often carry out cool-hunting by interviewing “focus groups” to know more about the newest trends among teenagers. One of the posts responding to FRONTLINE mentioned that “ all of the teens on there (MTV interviews) were obviously good-looking and looked like they were well off financially”. Often, when people try to capture reality through lens, reality is twisted - or worse, manipulated - under them. This is often the case with a rising type of TV program: reality TV. The hottest reality TV shows include Americans’ Next Top Model, The Amazing Race, Project Runway, receive enthusiastic support from the public. When I was small, I used to watch Project Runway all day, gaping at the good-looking AND talented designers (and the equally beautiful models). I was gripped by all the melodramatic stories between the designers and models, every single cat fights and little caring moves captivated me, and of course - I firmly believed in every single thing the show presented to me. Little did I know that what I saw is an illusion, a perfectly rehearsed show laid out by the producers, who let the audience see only their version of “reality”. Then again, shouldn’t we be critical of the “facts” and the subsequent analysis in the documentaries?

I do agree that the documentary provides us with sound basis of deconstructing certain cool-hunting marketing strategies, but at the same time, we should process what the documentary wants us to believe and come up with our own conclusion. I would love to hear what you guys think about this.

Tinny: Watching “The Merchants of Cool” made me reflect on my consumption habit, and my perception of “cool” things around me.

As Salma has said in the class discussion, I felt that it was pathetic how consumers were to consume things that the producers deemed cool. It’s bizarre how the producers dominate the types of products they sell and actually lead the consumers market…

How do we hold on to our own values when the market is flooded with products that we do not truly desire? This brings up the point of social conformity and group norm – while people should not be defined by what they wear, what music they hear or what food they eat, we still have the tendency to follow what people do. I believe it is the fear of being the odd one that made us wear the mask: how is being unique different from being odd?

It is because of that fear, we consume what others consume; we wear what others want us to wear; we listen to music that others listen to - who is the real trendsetter then? In the 21st century, utility is not derived from our personal consumption, but rather other people's recognition.

I'd also like to comment on the nature of reality shows, as I personally follow some such as Project Runway, Master Chef, America's Next Top Model and Keeping up with the Kardashians, etc. I think that reality shows do somehow reflect the dark side of people, though somewhat dramatized or intensified for effect, it is nonetheless interesting to observe other people's conflicts behind the TV screen. Viewers of reality shows do not aim to know the stars they watch - they want entertainment - and I think reality shows do in some way satisfy that by showing the audience arguments or struggles to success.

Last but not least, yes, there is a phenomenon that consumers no longer consume by their wants. But society evolves, and I wouldn't call that wrong. Humans are after all a social animal.

Sana:

As an American teenager, I suppose I am part of the group that is the subject of this documentary. Although I do not feel pressured to always be in touch with the latest trends and be considered “cool,” I see these things happening all around me. The influence the media has on youth is astounding and I believe that this influence extends beyond teenagers to young children. This is partly due to numerous television shows, which project images that create stereotypes about teenagers. Young children see these images and develop a mindset about what it means to be a teenager. Then, they tend to conform to this instead of thinking about who they are and being themselves. I experienced a personal example of the media’s influence of children last summer while I worked as at a youth camp at my school. Around that time, many new teen television shows had just aired. For some reason they all portrayed similar images of high school. In almost every show there was at least one main character that was pregnant. One day I was eating lunch with a group of girls at the camp. While talking about school, one girl said to me “I want to get pregnant so I can skip school.” I was shocked. Especially since she was just 8 years old. I realized soon after that what she said probably stemmed from watching television. In this situation I was able to witness the impact the media can have.

Carter Reading through the above comments, this is quite common to see we are having a rather negative view towards the media on the teenage. But then, I was wondering if the media so bad. Perhaps not. Hence, I am here trying to stand from the media's angle or other angles, except the angle of the victims.

Some point their blaming finger to the media accusing them of going too commercialized and overly-emphasized in profit-making. For this point, I would say, true, the media do go make matter of message-conveying go more commercialized and profit-making. I dare not comment whether the commercialization is going over the acceptable extent. However, I do reckon that commercialization and going profit-making is not utterly negative. Like what Milton Friedman suggested, commercialization always enables more efficient allocation of resources. Then, better advert or media product could be anticipated as better products appeal to more audience/consumers make more. True, commercialization also means that the media may give in the integrity as righteous media if that helps making more profit. However, it is still undeniable that, complex animations, HDTV broadcasting and other high-hi message-conveying methods will evolve way far slower if the developers are not private or profit-making. Or, they may have never appeared on our planet. Hence, going commercialized is not all bad.

Lærke: I think, it was a bit of a paradox. The essence, the message of the documentary was basically that the companies are putting the teenagers in ‘boxes’. They stereotype the teenagers and then use the stereotype to sell their products to the different ‘stereotype groups’ in society. But by saying this, the documentary is putting all teenagers in a box; they are stereotyping us in the same way as the companies do. Because: the documentary is also a product meant to be sold. The documentary is what the producers //think// we want to see. In addition to the stereotype issue, I found it really interesting with the theory of feedback: The companies shade the teenagers to figure out what the teenagers like. The companies then tries to give the teenagers what they like – more precisely; what the companies //think// the teenagers like. When the teenagers turn on the television, they see what the companies think they want to see. The teenagers then believe this is what they want. That this is how they are suppose to act, talk, dress, eat, ect. The teenagers start to act, talk and dress that way. When the companies shade the teenagers again, the situation will have turned more extreme. The television will then turn more extreme. This goes on and on. Or another expression: Seriously, who started this?? In the beginning, I thought, the only way to stop the conversation above was if one of the involved parts stopped talking about sex (word chosen because it is what is going on right now). But then the documentary presented us for another theory. That ‘cool’ becomes ‘un-cool’ when the companies discover it. This means, that if the teenagers turns away from the television and start focusing on e.g. a subculture, the subculture becomes cool. And the television will literally follow the teenagers, steal the subculture and put it into television. Then the teenagers will look on television and believe this is how they are suppose to act – we go back to the old routine. OR the teenager turns away from the subculture and finds a new subculture. This hunt will go on and on forever. Is there no way to stop it? Do we really want to stop it?? What do you think? Winnie:

As stated in the video, teenagers are the hottest consumer demographic in America. At 33 million strong, they comprise the largest generation of teens America has ever. Last year, America’s teens had spent $100 billion, while influencing their parents’ spending to the tune of another $50 billion. For instance, it is a smart act for the corporations to set their market targets on teenagers and knowing that teenagers would absolutely be attracted to advertisements/products that can help them establish the image of “cool”. Teenagers are actually the main group of people who would be really willing to spend money on these products since they’re at the stage of wanting peers recognition and conformity. They want to stand out and always want to be cool in their friend groups.

From "Merchants of cool", we can see the power of media. On one hand, teenagers are the group that would be most willing to spend money on the cool products, on the other hand, the creators and producers also made the teens even the hotter consumers of the popular culture, the teens might originally have the desire of "being cool" but the creation of popular culture increased their desire as well as their demand for it.

These kind of strategy it reminds me of the magazines in Hong Kong. In recent years, there are more and more indecent topics and contents included in the magazines. Originally, people did not demand that much on these kind of topics and news. However, since the supply of these kind of “new” magazine culture, people consumed and demand even more. Similar to the merchants of cool, there're creators and producers who created the demand for people to consume and earn money from that. Personally, I agree that this way of use of media is a rather powerful tool to earn and generate more profit for the companies. Martin Merchanism of cool examines how and why the big corporations seek the ever-elusive ‘cool’ and using the mass media sell products to teens. It shows exactly how and why they use mass media for creating ideals about body image, owing to which many teenagers suffer from both inferiority and superiority complex, and resort to unhealthy practices to lose weight and get skinny or ‘becoming big’ and strong. The documentary also looks at how real life and TV life are blurring together, increasing aggressive tendencies in teenagers.