The Merchants of Cool is a PBS documentary which deals with how young people are completely influenced by the material culture which surrounds them every day. The principal problem Rushkoff presents is the fact that young people are extremely gullible and will do anything to look cool and please their peers with the resultant fact that they end up purchasing things and gadgets which they do not really need.
Under the Radar marketing is continually practiced by several firms who make use of sophisticated marketing techniques to enquire what young people deem to be cool thus then passing on their information on several fields which then enables large multinational companies to come up with products which will eventually be purchased in their droves by young people. In a sense this is the method which these companies will use to drag the youngsters ever further into their web of materialism and this will undoubtedly (and is already) result in their ruin.
Other typical examples of merchants of cool are Viacom and its subsidiary MTV. These media giants have extensive leverage over the youth spectrum and come up with several new trends which makes teens and young adults completely dependent on them Rushkoff argues that be creating new products and trends, Viacm sucks young people into an ever widening net of deceit and materialism where these all are professed to be cool when in actual fact, nothing could be farther from the truth.
In a sense the causes of the problem are the intentions of the media companies and conglomerates to create their own world where youths can alwsy profess to be cool. This situation, according to Rushkoff is creating dangerous precedents as whole armies of young people end up completely influenced by brands and artists while these have no other intention other than that to make money. Global brands which are being created by MTV for example include the singer and pop artist lady gaga who has her own TV show on MTv while the singer Katy Perry is another. Thus all young girls will aspire to dress like Gaga or Perry as these promote their own fashion lines and clothes which are obviously linked to their main sponsors. This always results in added income for huge conglomerates and continues to spin off the fact that cool is good.
Another typical example of cool would be the company Apple where with its high tech brands of the iPhone and iPod, it is creating a culture of complete dependence on the internet. With this manner of subtle marketing and advertising, anyone who does not have an iPhone is not ‘cool’ and thus youths and youngsters, not to mention older people, are completely hooked by these new devices which become essential for survival in today’s environment. In this way, Apple are also destroying other competitors who come up with their own products but these unfortunately are not as ‘cool’ as Apple so they can never stand a chance in the marketing world.
Rushkoff sums it up quite well in his statement when interviewed when he explains that; “The effect of reduction on the consumer is a need to conform. If you are not fitting into the customer profile of the company that you like, then you need to change yourself so you're more like that profile”.
Intrinsically this means that the biggest problem facing youths today is the need to conform. Conformism has become such an important part of westernized culture that practically everything depends upon it. So large marketing companies will do their utmost to create a conformist society which can be bent according to their needs and which will bow to their products at will. No customer base is more gullible than young persons so that is the field for growth in this department and once these start there is no holding them back. This is intrinsically the case with media giants already mentioned such as Apple, Viacom and other companies such as the clothing apparel giant, Nike.
Rushkoff appears pretty pessimistic on the solutions if there are any to the problem of conformism. He describes the way these social media executives attempt to search out trends amongst young people to observe what’s cool and they end up themselves trying to act cool. This is an absurd situation as it demonstrates how people will go to any lengths to make money for their employers even if it is debasing their own self interest. As long as the money continues pouring in and the customer base is increased then the owners are happy as they are becoming wealthier even though it is at the expense of the young kids’ wasted lives.
Rushkoff is also very perceptive about the situation at the moment especially in this quote; “Children are being adultified because our economy is depending on them to make purchasing decisions. So they're essentially the victims of a marketing and capitalist machine gone awry. You know, we need to expand, expand, expand. There is no such thing as enough in our current economic model and kids are bearing the brunt of that. So they're isolated, they're alone, they're desperate. It's a sad and lonely feeling”.
This is quite an ominous portent for the future as it shows us that youngsters are becoming ever more slaves to the world of consumerism as time goes by. What can be done about this? Pretty much nothing at this stage as the situation is continually going from bad to worse with no end in sight.
Personally I have seen several youths even in my own area become slaves of the cool concept with no real direction in their lives. Young and affluent persons will want to inculcate the same materialistic values into their children to make them seem immune from pain and unhappiness. What they do not realize is that material things seldom make anyone happy and as time goes by, these are ever more drawn into the web of deceit that surreptitious advertising can bring about. Latest clothing is advertised continually in stores while the latest gadgets are continually churned out to create a need when there isn’t any. It is extremely hard to fight this web of materialism as otherwise one can act strongly and rebuff these materialistic advances but the minds of young people are not focused so it is much easier to dupe them.
It would require a radical shift of mind and reason to destroy this cool culture once and for all and with capitalism firmly entrenched in today’s society, this is well nigh impossible.
Works Cited:
Rushkoff D; Interview with Douglas Rushkoff Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/interviews/rushkoff.html New York PBS 2001 Web
Rushkoff D, Goodman B ; The Merchant’s of Cool; New York PBS 2001 DVD Film
