Merchants of Cool

When we started watching Merchants of Cool, I didn't really know what to expect. I thought it was just going to talk about how teenagers never get off their phones and think they're so cool, but it was really informative about the way that advertisers get the right insight into what teens think is popular at the moment.



It also shined the light on the idea that nothing is really ever cool for longer than a month since teens change their minds all the time about everything. So advertisers have to constantly question a variety of teens about the current trends to figure out what to sell them. I think this is really true because every few months I'll get tired of wearing that one red shirt, or those jean shorts just because most of the school already stopped considering it "cool" and stopped wearing it.

 A lot of people are affected by the way everyone else dresses and the things that everyone else watches or plays on their free time. Society's "cool" is pretty much based on what is worn the most, and what people find the most appealing or attractive. One example of this is the image of girls showing off their stomachs. I can't remember what it's called right now, but they mentioned it a lot in the video. It talked about how advertisers show models and "cool kids" wearing crop tops with cute shorts or jeans to sell to teens that in order to be "cool" and look good, you have to buy a crop top just like everyone else. I see this happen a lot at school, but mostly during the summer when there aren't any dress codes holding students back. People should just stop conforming to the way that the rest of society is to stand out and end up being the only actual cool kid around.

The one thing that really stood out to me in this movie was the causal link between aggressive TV shows and teenage boys' violent actions. One speaker said that advertisers are trying to sell the product to teens who they believe hate their parents, teachers, coaches, etc. I really couldn't believe this. I mean I thought that advertisers were just trying to sell a product... Not encouraging whether or not we like the adults in our life. This surprised me, but when the speaker went on about the WWE shows and the violent video games, I knew exactly what he was going to say because I have a teenage brother who plays and watches all of those things. He went on to say how violence on TV can really hurt a teenage boy's mind because they are all premature adults, that don't know how to behave themselves yet. I found a really interesting article about some data taken on boys and girls who watched aggressive shows in their adolescents and were very likely to commit crimes by their adult life. You should check it out here!

Well, that's all I have today. Thanks for reading!