The Merchants Of Cool By Goodman

In today’s media obsessed society, youth is greatly influenced by advertising. For example, Marketing to kids gets more savvy with technologies is how they ,“Online games like Webkinz show ads on the site draw youth to buy the product or just to look at it for ‘money’”. Because this tactic works, the ads are an excellent at make youth to talk about this and be annoyed. In Facts about Marketing to Children, it says, “Children pack 8.5 hours of media a day’, is what the Facts about Marketing to Children says.” Because children are on the media so much it is easy for marketers to advertise and get children to buy the product. “ Anne Lappe says that when her daughter grows up, and goes to a movie, the character might have a soda or fast food.”

M-rated video games, which are not recommended for children younger than 17-years-old, are frequently advertised in movie theaters, video game magazines, and publications with high youth readership. Young people see 45% more beer ads and 27% more ads for hard liquor in teen magazines than adults to in their magazines. An increasing number of web sites try to get teens to make direct sales. More than 100 commercial websites promote alcohol products. Most advertisers use techniques that children and teens are more vulnerable to, like product placement in movies and TV shows, action figures, kid’s clubs, and celebrity endorsements. Sex is used in commercials to sell almost anything now. American ads constantly use thin female models, which contribute to the development of self-esteem issues in young girls.

In order for advertisers to gain consumers of their products, the advertisers know they have to use certain strategies to reach out to all the different ages. Children today consume vast majorities of media spending up to 44.5 hours or more per week watching television, on the

The first advertising technique Schor examines is the idea of street-culture and the cool edginess inherent within. Street life, particularly in this article, describes the culture present in inner cities and is a lifestyle most commonly associated with poor blacks. Advertisers use the image of a hardened neighborhood affected by violence, drugs, and criminality to sell the cool feeling of faux danger to the middle class. Rap stars and athletes are often used to make products seem cool and “street”. While these people may have had past connections to true street life, they are now wealthy enough to live luxurious lifestyles,

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.

In the article, Every nook & nanny: the dangerous spread of commercialized culture, written by Gary Ruskin and Juliet Schor, the authors argue how corporations have had great influence on schools, television, movies, internet and other forms of media culture through advertising. Prior to 1989, advertising was not accepted in schools. Chris Whittle convinced schools to accept adverting by offering to loan TV sets providing children to view 10 minutes a day of news, banter and at least two minutes of advertisements through Channel One. Food and beverage companies soon entered the schools with ‘sponsored educational materials’ fed in their TV advertisements to the mass audience. Companies began ‘Ad creep’ because

Do you ever watch the Super Bowl for its commercials? Have you ever bought a more expensive product because you had seen its advertisement? If the answer is yes, then you might have been a victim of today’s marketers. Jean Kilbourne, the author of “Killing us Softly” stated in one of her lectures, “The influence of advertising is quick, cumulative and for the most part, subconscious, ads sell more products.” “Advertising has become much more widespread, powerful, and sophisticated.” According to Jean Kilbourne, “babies at six months can recognize corporate logos, and that is the age at which marketers are now starting to target our children.” Jean Kilbourne is a woman who grew up in the 1950s and worked in the media field in the 1960s. This paper will explain the methods used by marketers in today’s advertising. An advertisement contains one or more elements of aesthetics, humor, and sexual nature.

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

In Mark de la Vina's article, he addresses the issue of young adults spending money on high-end brands rather than an education, This issue he has brought attention to emphasizes the importance of what most adults prioritize. His evidence of ordinary people finding comfort in such high quality products prove that this is a completely normal habit to most of them. With this culturistic issue among the young generation, Vina's argument of the gold-collared generation hindering society is valid.

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

In the past years advertising through media has significantly impacted the marketing industry. Industries have successfully accomplished impacting children through media by simply incorporating the four p’s of marketing, product, place, promotion, and price according to The American Marketing Association (EBSCO1). Nevertheless, companies thoroughly research information to learn what comes across as appealing to children. For example, companies advertising media incorporated attention grabbers including flashing banner ads, contests, sweepstakes, google sponsored links that matches the individual’s search history, tv commercials, are sneakily capturing the youth’s attention (Media). Cartoon network and Nickelodeon devote all their time entertaining and

However, several of these marketing methods are picked out of the proverbial treasure trove and discussed at length by Naomi Klein and The Merchants of Cool. In "The Merchants of Cool" document produced by PBS Frontline, the marketing methods of focus groups and “cool hunters” are discussed. In these focus groups, corporations select a small number of teens to pay for their participation in a survey. In this survey, the teens are asked to list off and chose which brands they think are the most desirable, from a list of several companies. After doing so, the hosting company questions them about why they think it is desirable, and what can the hosting company do to appear more desirable to them.

People who play these roles today are celebrities ranging from Kanye West and Beyonce, to Warner Brothers Studios and J.J. Abrams. Every influential figure in pop culture has a duty to use their power wisely. What do kids pay more attention to in today’s society: Barack Obama’s speeches or VMA speeches? More often than not, teenagers will tell you more about a recent celebrity award show, than explain what’s happening in politics. That being said, we must make sure these influential celebrities are promoting the proper ideals, such as transgender awareness, gender equality, and pride in sexual orientation. These beliefs however were not shown in “The Merchants of Cool”. Back in 2001, when the documentary was made, media portrayed the wild side of our teenage

A ‘commodity sign’ invests symbolic meaning in products or services as a signifier with an image as signified. In recent times, consumer culture is driven by our desire for superfluous wants, causing the production and consumption of commodity signs to become more specialised according to the notion of capital. Capitalism is characterised by economies that are based on open markets and the ethos of individuality over community. French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (Distinction 1984) introduced the schema of subcultural capital, which ‘confers status on its owner in the eyes of the relevant beholder’ (Thorton, 2006: 100). Therefore people have the idea that they can buy subcultural capital, as it is seen as self-revealing, in order to impress people or become someone else (Frith, 1996: 5). Thus advertising was developed as a strategy in generating demand in a contemporary consumer culture. Mass marketing has split the unity of signifiers and signified into a language of appearances and images of which we realise as either visible, physical connections or indirect connotations to that which they represent.

Big name supports can be all the more immediately elucidated as any distinctive individual with open recognition who uses his/her recognition for any brand by appearing in a business for it (McCracken, 1989). TV advertisements have a strong impact on the viewers as diverged from print advancements. Multinationals uncover TV a more genuine source to attract the mind and hearts of youth. These Audiovisual promotions are amazingly engaging and have an enormous impact on their consistently plans. Investigates have exhibited that an expansive bit of the adolescents utilize a high rate of their time sitting before the TV especially in watching games