Rosie the riveter is a famous WWII public service campaign.Celebrate International Women's Day on Saturday, March 8th.
- DUE SESSION 8 (3/12) -
Writing Assignment: Journal 7
Project homework: Submit blog design & sample survey questions.
Reading: The Culture Industry – Horkheimer & Adorno
Viewing Assignments (required):
- Merchants of Cool. Frontline, 2001.
- What example of the culture industry does the video show?
- How do corporations in the video use culture to sell products?
- Does the video promote a culture war? How?
- Give an example of another culture industry you have encountered this week?
- What culture war does it promote? How?
25 comments:
Merchants of CooL:Frontline, 2001
Merchants of cool (frontline), is centered around teens, and the way corporations gear their campaign to target the teen generation. In order to find out what teens are thinking, and what the teen population wants, was to sit down and talk with them. Therefore, talking to different teens, will show the directions the teenagers are headed. Teenagers seem to be the biggest consumers,then the time of baby boomers of yesturday. The video shows a group of teens, being paid for their feed back concering their thoughts,their likes and dislikes on different products, and issues. In order for the corporation to sell their products, was to come down to their level, by using hip-hop, and etc.. I do believe the video do promote a culture war, by the use of sex on screen vs a nice family style screen show. The culture industry I have encountered for this week was: Randy Jackson's America's best dancers. I choose this show, because it related to mostly a teen audience, which shows the different culture of dancing. The only culture war promoted, was to find the best dance group. For this reason, the dance group will be competing against each other in hopes of winning the war of being the best dancer.
Linda Shorts
MERCHANTS of COOL
Merchants of cool are focused on teenagers. They talk to them so they will know what they think, like, wear, eat, and listen to.
Corporations send out culture spies to find the trend sitters, and they have teens doing Social Networking. MTV goes into the homes of teenagers they say it is all about understanding teenagers as customers. In reality teenagers are there biggest consumers.
In addition, they pay teenagers to tell them what sodas they like, what company they buy their clothes from, who are their favorite artists, and to appear in videos promoting different advertisements.
Yes! The video promotes a culture war and it is all about sex teenagers in sex movies, advertising sexy garments some videos with no garments at all.
The culture war I encountered this week was American Idol and it relates to audiences of all ages. The only culture war was finding the best singer of any culture.
Betty Corbett
Jen; my computer decided to start running again, this computer of mine is very slow and works on its own @ times. I hope to purchase a new one soon, therefore, I did not finish watching the Merchants of Cool, Frontline, 2001 and now I am getting very tired it's been an extremely long day for me especially with me losing an hour's sleep.
Cathy E. Page
Merchants of Cool is a video about young people and how the spend their money. This video shows what teens and young adults think are hip and trendy in all aspects of their lives, i.e.fashion, food, music, and media. Corporations use culture by paying teens to figure out what they think they want. Big corporations spend millions and millions of dollars to survey, grill, question, and even follow teens around to see what they buy and where the next trend could be. The video does promote a culture war between the social norm and the counterculture, the anarchist. The video tells kids what they should wear, eat, look, and act; but at the same time the corporations are always looking for the trend setter or the kid that just sees things differently. A culture war of ageism is what I encountered this week was with my own son. He is taking his senior photos and I want short hair and he loves his precious long locks. The culture war over what is fashionable for my 16 year old son has truly become a war in my house.
Dana Fernandez
Merchants of Cool - Frontline
This documentary reminded me of a show once aired called "Dinosaurs" which the father worked for a corporation entitled "Because We Said So" These youths are being brainwashed into believing to be accepted, or just being somebody, that they must jump on every bandwagon that is thrown in front of them to validate themselves, thus never learning their own identity or being able to expose it, because it wouldn't be cool.
The culture war I encountered this week was basically the typical parent, teenager conflict. The teen wanted to purchase a new cell phone with his own money; his parents opposed it, because they felt he would become a target for other teens who were out looking for trouble, and he should save the money for more important things. The teen eventually won, and purchased a $400 cell phone.
Catherine Lewis
I found “The Merchants of Cool” to be an incredibly powerful documentary, well worth watching as a parent, now I know where my daughter is coming from, when she wants everthing that teen advertise. The culture industry that the video shows describes a feedback loop in which marketers conduct complete studies of teens to figure out what’s cool, then amplify it and feed it back to them via media that is controlled by fewer and fewer hands. Ultimately this process not only affects, but in fact creates the culture it’s studying. What this system does is it closely studies the teens, keeps them under constant surveillance to figure out what will push their buttons, and how to sell their products that is advertise through the teens. It does create a culture war between the teens and their parents because whatever the teens are wearing is in style and of course our teenager want one no matter what it cost. Kid’s culture and media culture are now one and the same, and it becomes impossible to tell which came first, the anger or the marketing of the anger. More than any generation in history, people who are young today are not free to create an authentic culture of their own. Instead their hopes and desires are intensively studied by marketers, then amplified and sold back to them in a diabolical feedback loop. An example another culture industry that I have encountered is “Making the Band 4” an ABC/MTV reality television series that focus on a specific music act with groups of teenagers. Overseeing "Making The Band" is Sean "Diddy" Combs, acting as the man of the house who makes the final decision on who will be in the band. My 14 year old was telling me about the show and how it is the hottest show for teens, because they all want to part of it one day. I saw the show and it did create a culture war between my daughter and I, and if any parent saw that show they too will also have a culture war in their house.
Sharon Teekasingh
Merchants of Cool- Frontline 2001
The merchants of cool frontline are focused on teenagers and what they like and dislike, and what type of music they like and the way they dress. One part of the video was centered on the “Midriff”, the campaign target young girls showing their midriff. In order for the corporations to target young teenage girls they show a video of Britney Spears dancing and showing her midriff. “The midriff – the character pitched at teenage girls, is the highly sexualized”, it is all about young girls consumed by appearances. They show commercial about girl wearing jean showing their midriff. Saturday I went shopping and there were a manikin in a store with a big butt that had on jean showing it midriff. The culture war it shows off is that anyone can look good in tight jean showing off their midriff. And they will sell many of those jeans just because of the advertising. Teenagers are the hottest consumer in America today because if one or more like it and wear it then the consumer have did there job.
Denise Bradley
Frontline: Merchants of Cool.
This show is geared towards teenagers. The culture industry shown in this video is how big corporations take advantage of cool trends created by teenagers. The aim of the corporations is to market these trends to other teenagers and project a trend of being “cool”. The corporations find agents who then go after trendsetting teenagers and use these trends to influence other teenagers. The corporations would pay a small stipend to the teenagers in exchange for information on their habits and then turn around and make millions of dollars. Some of the culture industry shown is fashion, skateboarding, music, tattoos, etc. The video promotes a culture war because the trends do not last to long and creates competition among the various trends that are constantly being sought after. A culture trend I encountered is one that I see daily, is the constant “sagging” everywhere I look. Young men with pants buckled at their thighs and their boxers showing. I still marvel at how they are able to walk much less run if necessary.
Yvette S.
The culture aimed at in the video is today's youth. We see in the film that corporations observe these young people the way anthropololgists observe a foreign culture. It is amazing to see the money these young people spend and encourage their parents to spend on them.
It reminds me of the 80s where being cool ment owning a pair of Jordache, Kalvin Klein, or Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans. You certainly weren't cool if you didn't own a pair of nike or puma sneakers. I think that the corporations are behind any culture wars that exist. For example, the high-priced female marketing executive said that once finding a market that is cool, it's no longer cool anymore.
The most recent culture that I am experiencing personally is the male over forty baldness syndrome. I personally began losing my hair in my early thirties. I decided to go completely bald because I didn't want to be confused with Bozo The Clown. Which brings me to a co-worker of mine who just paid over 12,000 on a hair trainsplaint. In the beginning his scalp looked like a garlic bagel but hair is actually starting to grow on it. I think it's promoting a culture of men who don't want to accept their aging process gracefully. I personally consider myself to be 45-year-old, brown-skinned, bald and beautiful SBM (Single Black Man).
David Esquilin
Merchants of Cool: Frontline, 2001
The Merchants of Cool Frontline video focuses on teenage culture. Today's teenagers are forced into consumer spending. This is a highly influential and billion dollar consumer market. The creator and seller of popular culture has appealed to teenagers making them the hottest consumers in the United States.
Within the teenage culture, the Merchants of Cool displays the soft drink sprite and its success amongst the youth. This was a strategist move in marketing sprite with Viacom's interest and the use of other media outlets.
In the show 106 and Park, its audiences is majority teenagers, who are entertained by celebrity guests. Within this arena they not only entertained, but they also promote their upcoming albums.
The culture war that this promotes is the choices that the teenagers find themselves making. Many times it is the parents who encounters the burden of supplying the child needs and wants to acquire what is being promoted by such celebrities.
Dawn McKenzie
Marketing means finding out what people want, then fulfilling
their needs and wants while creating a profit in your own company.
Marketing also involves showing the consumer your product is above all
the others in your target market so that they recognize it in a crowd
of other products.
A Target Market is the group of consumers at which you are aiming your to
product, i.e the company that I saw on the frontline would mainly try and sell its products
to teenagers and young adults, which is the main market for clothing,
and other products Etc, gearing to teenagers . To market your product to
a specific group of consumers, a form of marketing is needed which
will maximize product interest whilst maintaining a profit. Today's teenagers are unruly and lack concentration. Their lack of concentration is a result of the overabundance or distractions in society. Teenagers should be taught discipline and mobile phones, computer games etc should be banned from the age or 14 to 16, I have other things to say but Iam very ill right now.
Jennifer Romain
Corporate marketing research teams have a difficult task in this industry. To select the teenagers in order to maintain or overtake the market is an excellent strategy technique. Advertising and involving the youth is a good approach, however do we use these techniques in order to gain wealth and loose our children in the process?
Teaching our thirteen years old girls that exposing your body will get them where ever and what ever they want is not a wise statement. Exposing our teenagers in a way like that can promote wars like pornography and prostitution. On the other hand, our rebellious boys are promoting wars of disrespect, for themselves and especially towards the girls. Why is it acceptable to be called a b---- or a w----? I have a name and a nickname and it is neither one of them. I can not image walking down the street with my child and another child calls them one of those names after returning from spring break.
This definitely promotes wars, wealth vs. low self esteem, wealth vs. prison, wealth vs. peer pressure just to name a few in the culture industry.
The thought of teenage culture being our biggest consumers is a bit frightening. They need guidance and now society is allowing them to decide what is right and wrong for everybody else? Wholesome family shows may be a thing of the past. Welcome to the war of sex, disrespect and drugs (over the counter and illegal).
Denise W.
Merchants of Cool-Frontline 2001 puts focus on our teens, which is the largest generation. Corporations in this video, use individuals who were trend setters and cool in their days, to seek out teens. The video uses the ploy of pitting competitors against competitors by using artists and athletes with their products. The video does promote a culture war, it uses teens to sport the preppy look, the sexy look and the hip hop look. An example of a culture industry that I encountered this week was the TV show, “Your mama don’t dance”. The culture war that this show shows is who are the better dancers, the parents or their children.
G. Martin
The online documentary titled Merchants of Cool is an excellent example on how powerful the culture industry can be when it comes to targeting a specific audience. In this documentary the targeted audience is teenagers.
The example of the “culture industry” used in the video is - how large corporations use their various forms of communicating in finding out what’s on the minds of teens. In other words they wanted to know what the teens thought was trendy or as we called it “cool” when it comes to what to wear, eat, and music to listen to - etc. “in their world.” The corporations did what they needed to do to get this information from them “money.” For examples the corporations issued money to the teens for their ideas on the trends and would use those trends to entice other teens to hop on the band wagon with the new styles. As we know now - and back in the days most teens want to keep up with the “Jones” Then there are some that don’t participate for their own reasons (likes/dislikes) which results in a culture war.
This brings me to an encounter that I had this week with my nephew regarding him wearing his pants so baggy and without a belt; that he could barely walk. When I approached him about the matter about tightening his belt he responded by telling me I am old fashion and this is the new trend. In other words he was informing me that I am in the old school culture. Old school culture vs. New school culture. The war was on!
This is a strong example of what can cause controversy between parents and children.
For me, I am going to keep fighting this war.
Corporations are well aware of their tactics in making sure the strategy they get the trends out their – Front and Center” for everyone one to see. This is what we seen in the video. It’s all in how you communicate the message to your targeted audience; even if it initiates a culture war.
It’s all about them selling their product. But it’s all about me protecting my product “my children”
Theresa
Merchants Of Cool, Frontline 2001
This documentary shows the depth of the teen culture, how it is formed and also how trends continue. Corporation use the teens to obtain their needs, wants and styles and then use it to resell their image to them and their peers. The end product is satisfied teen and wealthy corporations.
Teens, as stated in the documentary boost the economy because they are billion dollars spenders. Corporations need them and targets them solely for economic reasons. They in turn start a war between teens and parents, because whilst parents try to teach their teens values in regards to spending and dressing, the corporations places an emphasis on such items and causes a fanatic characteristic in the teens and they look at their parents as the enemies of "cool"
The presidential candidates are ideal examples of cultures war. Obama protrays new, cool and changes, whilst Clinton protrays routine, comfort, and old views. They use their war to sway voters and invoke "change vs Norms"
This documentary was interesting and shows small portions of the lenghts industries take to sell products and gain riches.
Dionne Vincent
The examples shown are focusing ads to teens/youth. They make things more hip, to show Brittney Spears or basketball stars selling their products. The cultural war would be between parents and their kids, spending the monies given them on products marketed to them, ex: sprite, midriff outfits, etc.
Maryann
Carmen Cintron
3-12-08
Merchants of Cool takes you on a tour through a youth world so versatile and difficult to grasp that one has to become the subject in order to understand the young people’s psyche. This video is about market research. It seeks out the coolest kid or trendsetter in a group and studies the individual for marketing purposes. Although, the cool hunter as they are known hunts and interviews the cool teen about their likes and dislikes, and asks about their peers as well – they are not about that teen per se’ they are about the teen as a customer. They listen in order to know exactly what they want and don’t want, and what they are thinking- so that they can give them what they want them to have. That’s the distinction. Take for example a company like Viacom/ MTV, their researcher are not trying to please the teens nor do they want to create new music, they tune in so they could pitch what Viacom has to sell. Once the researchers discover what the product is and sell it to the industry, whether its music, clothing, or technology then they have to rediscover something else because cool dies when it is discovered by merchants. It is no longer cool when it is marketed; the cool must then continue to reinvent itself. It is a know fact that the teens have the buying power, that is way market research has become so competitive and researcher have to in a sense live like them to better understand them and for the teens to allow them entry into their real world.
Jen I finally was able to view Merchants of Cool (Frontline 2001). Merchants of Cool is geared towards teens. After watching a few of these I am going to share this information with both my girls so that they can see how these corporations try to promote their products and also to educate themselves in this culture war. The videos showed how teens are easily influenced by commercials, ads, and peer pressure. I especially thought that the focus groups were a good source for the corporations to get ideas from the teenagers. The teens were able to express themselves freely and to voice their opinions about certain clothing, fashion trends and various campaign products. Over the weekend my daughter's phone broke and i gave her $100 to buy a new phone and told her to make the best of it. However, after shopping around to various stores, and trying to convince me to give her a few more dollarlsl, she ended up buying a phone but did not like the phone but had to get it anyway because she needed it to go back to school. She tried to convince me to spend a little more because she wanted a phone which was more money but I kept my word and told her that she only has $100 and that I was not going to give her any more money for the phone which was more. The phone she wanted was smaller, more fashionable and it was a slide phone instead of a flip phone which she had before. In any event, she got the phone that was $100 because that was the deal.
Cathy E. Page
Homework #7
From the video “the merchants of cool“ , I under stood that these people work by going out and looking for cool kids or potential trend setters. They take pictures of them and their style and they also interview them. Teenagers are the biggest consumers today . They make their parents spend a lot of money every year. My opinion on this video clip is that people will never stop “hunting for cool “ because there is always someone coming up with the next big thing.
Martha Fuentes
"Merchants of Cool" was an informative documentary that focused on the culture of teens and young adults. This video exposes the younger generations lifestyles and what they deem to be acceptable and cool in today's society. Their statements on what is hip and cool can range from the clothes that they wear, the food that they eat, the electronics that they must have, the music that they listen to and the videos that they watch.
Big corporations are entrigued by this younger generation of unique trendsetters. Big corporations have spent millions of dollars studying and observing the youth. Their goal is to understand the mindset of the youth by interviewing them and paying them for their feedback, after they are asked, what products are hot and cool, and what their views are on different issues in todays cultural wars.
The cultural war that I encountered this week was when my 12 year old son, asked me to by him a pair of jeans that was 2 sizes too small so he can walk around with his pants off of his butt. Of course, he did not win.
Aquilla Anderson
Merchant of cool
This documentary was very interesting. Teens are being influenced and are not aware of the impact that it has in their life. Society has a way of luring teens into a world of commercial and physical appeal. Teens want to in the in crowed so they go along with what is presented to them. Teens want to know what's hot and what cool so they get be up to date. Being accepted is very important for a lot of teens.
The way people seen themselves is very interesting. As the documentary shows that girls are portrayed as sexual and boys are cured, Viacom is evil, all their shows are negative if their not showing sexuality, stupidity, etc.. the don't feel that its worth producing.
Nekeisha Forbes
WOW! I wonder how many parents watched this program with their child(ren), that was really crazy, teenagers are something else, I hope i wasn't that wild, i had a smart mouth but nothing like what is going on today WOW! i can't stop saying it. This crazy but very true video is giving us an example of the Teenage culture, this is really off the chain. But you want whats relly crazy the corporations that are helping to push our teenagers in this direction of distruction all because they want some money. Like the little girl at the party, I don't have a daughter all you would see on the the camra is snatch and hearing her scream mommy nooooo. I am very shocked how these adults use these children and they know what they are doing. The man in the first segment he was ok he was the only i saw that used they kids in a sort of honest way, he just wanted to know how to reach the teens BUT THAT GOTT DAME MTV they need to be BANNED. I did not look at MTV that much i did not know the full extent of what they were actually doing and the stuff that i just saw was not what was put on tv. These companys were paying these children $50 bucks to come to parties that should have been held for adults. They would offer to put them on tv, give them free items or the products they were selling. I would say yes they promote a culture war maybe more than one, lets see we have the girls that want to become succesful at being beautiful which is a culture war within a culture, then there are the rockers in the last segment, Oh boy! Eventhough the program is showing us an example of the teenage culture within that cultrue are many small ones like what i mentioned above. I would say that each segment was a differnt cultural war amongs the teenagers. Unfornatily this is a late blog, but i did encounter a culture war last week, I was watching the Korean new. and lot of thier and alot of their famous stars are commiting suicide, literally. I say that this is a culture war because being in the entertaiment endustry is a culture, they are having a war, not with another culture but with themselves. Reports say that most of the entertainers have been depressep about an upcoming movie, show or cd. These culture wars that these stars are having within themseleves are because somewhere along the line they lost cofedence within themseleves, they don't know how to get it back and when they seek help they are only put on meds.
Octaiva :)
Merchants of cool is focused more on teenagers. They want to know what are on teenagers mind. What they like to wear, what they like to listen to. Whats hip whats's not hip.The culture war would be teenagers vs parents. Society makes it so hard for parents these days. Teenager want to keep up on whats hip, whats in style, while parents just want to make sure that their child is dressed clean and look neat. So you now you have the child and parent at odds.
Nicole A.
Merchants Of Cool, Frontline 2001
Merchants of cool it targets young teenager. too find out what teenager like and dislikes. it also uses young teens to promote trendy products . by paying the teens to let them know what styles are trendy and are not fashionable.
the corporation uses the ideals of the teens to create products and sell them to the consumer to also get their opinion as well.
I watch Make me a Model, they have young people trying to make it in modeling. the clothing they use in the show is not only to promote them as models, bu to promote the products as well. so you see it's one hand using the other to get what they want.
Ethel Thiam
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I think that the Merchants of Cool is aimed at teenagers. By the style of clothes, their hair styles, cut and color give them the impression that the only way they are considered cool is to look the same as everyone else or be considered an outcast.
Jeannie
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