Summary: The Merchants Of Cool
The concept of cool is ever-changing in today’s business environment due to the commodity of information, and the speed in which it travels to potential clients. With this being said, marketing is an innovative and competitive industry. Marketers are constantly looking for new original ways to engage their target audience. Studies are conducted in which teenager’s actions and habits are evaluated. The results of these studies help marketers to determine what is cool. The film, “The Merchants of Cool,” teaches viewers that marketers will go through great lengths to make profits. Marketers work continuously at creating new and innovative ways to keep their messages unique and engrained in their target audience’s lives. One way that this
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They looked at everything from favorite clothes to issues believed to be important by the subjects, such as dating and parents. These studies led to the creation of the “Mook and the Midriff.” The Mook is the character that is used for marketing to male viewers. As stated in “The Merchants of Cool,” “The Mook is not a real person, he is crued, loud, obnoxious and in your face.” The Midriff is the female character that the media uses to market to female viewers. The Midriff is prematurely adult, sexually cliché, yet still empowered. The creation of the Mook and Midriff is corroding the personalities of today's teenagers. James T. Broadbear claims, “The media uses increasingly coarse images to capture attention of young adult viewers and in so doing, contributes to erosion of traditional cultural norms and the building of a new media culture fixated on personal gratification and the call to young people to become entertainers for others.” Since the upcoming group of teenagers have been exposed to advertising and media more than any other group in the past, they are heavily influenced by what is being shown to them. Teenagers today are beginning to act more like the Mook and Midriff because it is what the media is portraying as cool. If teenagers continue to try and resemble
They looked at everything from favorite clothes to issues believed to be important by the subjects, such as dating and parents. These studies led to the creation of the “Mook and the Midriff.” The Mook is the character that is used for marketing to male viewers. As stated in “The Merchants of Cool,” “The Mook is not a real person, he is crued, loud, obnoxious and in your face.” The Midriff is the female character that the media uses to market to female viewers. The Midriff is prematurely adult, sexually cliché, yet still empowered. The creation of the Mook and Midriff is corroding the personalities of today's teenagers. James T. Broadbear claims, “The media uses increasingly coarse images to capture attention of young adult viewers and in so doing, contributes to erosion of traditional cultural norms and the building of a new media culture fixated on personal gratification and the call to young people to become entertainers for others.” Since the upcoming group of teenagers have been exposed to advertising and media more than any other group in the past, they are heavily influenced by what is being shown to them. Teenagers today are beginning to act more like the Mook and Midriff because it is what the media is portraying as cool. If teenagers continue to try and resemble