Blog Post About "Merchants of Cool"

Some of the main ideas presented in Frontline's "Merchants of Cool" were the different techniques used to advertise to teen males and teen females, and what teens find "cool." many reality assumptions that adults have about teens were revealed in the video. Companies use a "Mook" to advertise to teenage males based on the reality assumption that boys like loud obnoxious characters and a "midriff" to advertise to teenage females based on the reality assumption that girls are obsessed with appearance. This led to the question about if media influences teens or if teens influence media. It could be that the messages that media has sent have influenced teens and in turn, the behavior of teens influences the messages sent by media. Another reality assumption made by adults that was shown in this video was that teenagers like things that are undiscovered which shows the need for autonomy. At the same time, to be considered "cool," it is assumed that a teen should fit in a group and be admired which would show the need for affiliation. The dilemma that most companies face when trying to advertise to teens is that when the cool trend is used in advertising it is no longer considered  "cool." It's often too difficult or expensive to keep up with trends because they change so fast and it's also difficult to tell what the new trend is sometimes. Some companies try to fix this problem by using correspondents or culture spies. Culture spies are in charge of answering the question of what is "cool" to teens. They do this by interviewing teens according to "Merchants of Cool." Many reality assumptions made about teens were revealed in Frontline's "Merchants of Cool," as well as various advertising techniques.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/