Film Analysis: The Merchants Of Cool

The Merchants of Cool:

Teenagers reflected in media

Corporate America: the marketers of popular culture. They broadcast their influence nearly everywhere: billboards in Time Square, music videos, and teens' clothing. In the expository video documentary, "The Merchants of Cool," Douglass Rushkoff interviews teens, industry professionals, marketers, and academic critics to explore the symbiotic relationship between teenagers and media. Rushkoff defines the feedback loop as a marketing stratagem in which "media watches kids and then sells them an image of themselves." Teenagers, young people who are searching for their identity and individuality, change the market every day; for the image they hold of themselves is identified then broadcast

You're absolutely going to lose." In the 1990's markers were failing to reach their target markets: teenagers. Pina Sciarra, Director of Youth Brands, Sprite, explains why this was: "What we found by talking to teens is that they had seen so much advertising that they were on overload and became very cynical about that traditional approach to advertising." Stone explains that Sprite was the first company to identify the problem and that, "All of a sudden put their arm around that kid…" and said, "We understand you. We recognize you. We want to be part of your life… They were selling the fact that they understood the culture." To understand teenagers marketing agencies perform anthropologic and ethnographic studies in attempts to understand their target market. Among other ways, their studies consist of interviews, focus groups, street photography and using Cool hunters. Professional researchers get paid to study and identify teens that epitomize "cool;" their expressions in clothing fashion, music, and other products provide the basis for a marketable stereotype, lifestyle, attitude or popularity. But, the market is ever changing. Malcolm Gladwell,Writer, "The New Yorker" Magazine, explains that "by discovering cool, you force cool to move on to the next