The Merchant Of Cool By Barak Goodman And Rachel Dretzin

Getting teenagers to buy your items can be really complicated, especially with new trends changing from month to month. Even though the average consumer can’t possibly think how these stores are able to keep up and manage the sudden changes in culture the community brings, they do know that each day in a store brings new products and different arrangements throughout the store to fit the consumer's needs. Specifically enough, each store creates an image for themselves that exemplifies the culture and shows us something about the times we live in at that moment. Hot Topic influences the way the consumer buys their products by integrating family friendly items and American pop culture within their products in order to appeal and attract customers into buying merchandise that is relevant and trending.

Many teens in every generation seek to separate themselves from their parents. One way of creating that separation is by embracing different music. For the first time, teens had large amounts of disposable income that could be spent on entertainment designed specifically for them. Also, the new mass media meant that teens across the country could hear the same music broadcast or watch the same television shows. This brought a rise of an independent youth culture that was separate from adult culture. The new youth culture became an independent market for the entertainment and advertising

In the first chapter of The Rhetorical Power of Pop Culture by Deanna Sellnow, the author defines popular culture and explains the importance of studying the subject. Sellnow begins with a short explanation of ethics to convey that the influence popular culture has is not always used ethically. Secondly, Sellnow compares the different contexts of culture, elitist and diversity, to explain what popular culture is not. Popular culture is compiled of everyday things that influence people through subtle messages such as what is appropriate and inappropriate, good and bad, and so on.

Popular culture is a fusion of interest and activities that groups of people share. merely, anything that has to do with entertainment is popular culture, such as Movies, TV shows, actors, singers, toys, games, sports, clothes and the list continues. In many ways, popular culture touches every aspect of our lives. It plays such a major role in how our society views the world and how we perceive everyday things. Pop culture has a way of effect our lives no matter what we do to thwart its’ influence.

In past and recent reports experts tell us that this is accurate and they rely heavily upon trendsetters to popularize new brands for them so that they are successful because often times this can either make or break a company. Now a days marketers are using crafty strategies to win over the hearts of young kids. In today’s youth the age group that market consists of includes kids which are age 6-9 years old, tweens which are 10-13 years old, and teens that are 14-18 years old. For example The

If Tyler Durden from Fight Club was sitting inside $340,000 Lamborghini Aventador, his hatred towards materialism probably would have driven him to accelerate the car right into the ocean. If James Twitchell was sitting inside of it, he probably would have just left the car in a parking structure with the keys still inside. Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club and James Twitchell’s essay “The Allure of Luxury”both take negative against the concept and phenomenon of Western materialism, where society indulge on luxurious items to the extent of being the focus of life. In Fight Club, the idea of anti-materialism is taken to a great extent, with the book’s main character and Tyler focusing on destroying the materialistic society with violence to restore a more primitive way of living. However, in Twitchell’s piece, materialism is taken more moderately, describing how materialism has rapidly expanded throughout the Western nations, questioning the if it is beneficial or malicious. I believe that materialism does provide great benefits that allowed us human beings to advance as a society. However materialism introduces numerous complications that impact our society on a macroscale. Before comparing and contrasting my view of materialism, we will first explore Twitchell’s essay, then Fight Club to first better understand their stance and concept of materialism.

Today popular culture has a substantial effect on our lives. It can affect what we wear, what music we listen to, or even how we behave. Many people decide what clothes to buy depending on what is in style or what celebrities are wearing. The same happens when people choose what movies to see or what music to download. While pop culture may seem harmless, it exposes people of all ages to sex, drugs, and violence. Children and teenagers all over the world are watching these shows or listening to these types of music. They take what they hear or see and develop bad habits or make poor decisions. Popular culture including movies, music, and franchises mostly has a negative effect on countries who import it.

Our second essay is a response to the readings from the Chapter “Is Pop Culture Actually Good For You?” and should include specific references to the text when appropriate. You may also develop the essays with examples from your own lives or other courses you may have taken that covered similar themes. In other words, personal experience is o.k. to use as evidence in your essay, but keep in mind that this essay is primarily a response to a text. You must use at least one of the texts as the “they say” to your “I say.”

In The Cool Kids, Waldman shares common interests with her audience concerning the ideas of cool. The audience that Waldman addresses is adults around there 20’s and is interested in popular culture. Waldman first begins her article with her own experience of what was considered cool throughout middle school. She utilizes examples of different television series that were once considered cool, as well as different fashion trends that only cool kids wore throughout those years. Through her own experience, Waldman is able to draw a connection to her audience as her audience has most likely experienced scenarios that were similar. Since her audience is people who are concerned about the current events regarding popular culture, it is guaranteed that they have all gone through the struggle of trying to keep up with popular culture, whether it is trying to keep up with the latest television

Reaching fame and winning awards in each one of these categories. He not one that has run in’s with the police. As a matter of fact, he is clean cut and squeaky clean. Making him a splendid role model for children and young adults, being that they hold him in high regard. He even performs a tremendous amount of charity work. Lyrically he has put success before decency, still with his success he performs a decent amount of charitable work. Furthermore, in the article, “Selling to Children: The Marketing of Cool” by author Juliet B. Schor, she states, “While there is no doubt that the desire for social acceptance is a central theme of growing up, marketers have elevated it to the sine qua non of children’s psyches. The promotion of cool is a good example of how the practices marketing to teens, have filtered down to the children’s sphere.” These tie into each other, for the reason that big corporations are targeting the next generation with their products. Big corporations that include Patron, Hennessey, and Grey Goose will go as far as paying these musical artists for mentioning their products in their songs. For instance, big tobacco companies target children and young adults with their advertising. Even candy companies promote tobacco with items comparable to cigarettes, they are candy cigarettes. There is even a gum that comes in a pouch exactly like chewing tobacco, called

In her article “Selling to Children: The Marketing of Cool” Schor discusses the techniques used by ad makers to manipulate children. She points out that marketers look at consumers to understand what is cool for youth—by tapping hip-hop and rap culture—and the reverse, creating a feedback loop. Also, Schor argues that cool is usually associated with an antiadult sensibility, and thus ads portray children with a blatant adverse attitude towards authority, such as parents and teachers by promoting an antisocial and mischievous behavior. Furthermore, ads are targeting kids using products and messages initially conceived for an older audience—strategy knows as age compression. A perfect example of this new trend is the Victoria’s Secret “Bright

One example why today’s youth is being hooked on media is the TV channel, Adult Swim, which is the nightly block for the channel that most kids watch during the day, Cartoon Network. I can say, from personal experience, that Adult Swim is the first broadcaster to truly embrace the digital platform of the internet. When we look back on some of our most cherished forms of media content from our childhood, we don't just think about the music or the laughs or the rest of the emotions that they evoked. We cherish these films, TV shows, and bands because of their ability to capture the spirit of our youth. Not everyone looks back on The Beatles and wonders what the 60’s were like or you don’t look over The Breakfast Club without constantly thinking

They also state that the media forces images and ideas on how to dress and look like. The authors continue discussing strategies they use to target young female teens and how they influence certain teens, they also state that some magazines state that their clothes they advertise can attract men. The article also states that young people buy clothes not just for fun, but for a statement that the person wants to make. Not only are advertisements everywhere, but now certain advertisements promise young female teens certain things if they buy their clothes.

Media influence is the force by which ideas are injected into people’s lives shaping the very culture of society. This influence is masqueraded through hidden media message, resulting in a change in its audience which can be positive or negative, abrupt or gradual, short term or long term. Although mass media’s influential effect can reach a wide ranged audience as an agent of socialization the responsibility to contain what it releases has not been of importance. “The media’s socially significant obligations are formally ignored.” (A.S. Zapesotskii, 2011, p 9). Media messages can be exerted through many different outlets such as TV shows, music, movies, commercials, news, magazines, games which are all gravitated to entertain audiences ultimately offering personal gratification that can sometimes blur the lines between reality and

Popular culture is generally believed to be comprised of a variety of elements. For example, popular culture covers the most contemporary and instant aspects of our lives. These aspects can often show the characteristics of rapid change, especially in today’s highly technological and informative world in which, people are highly influenced by the universal media. Certain standards of behaviour and common beliefs are reflected in pop culture. Because of its cohesion, pop culture both influences and reflects people’s daily life. Moreover, brands can reach iconic pop status. However, these aspects are not constant and may change rapidly. (Abbott and Sapsford, 1987).