Hw 29: Merchants

This program on PBS revealed some of the tactics and lengths some large corporations go to sell a product. It proposed some complex points, that perhaps if a product isn't as in demand as to make them millionaires, they use pop culture and the desires of youth to make it into main stream and popular product.

"Is it nostalgic to think that when we were young it was any different. That the thing we called youth culture wasn't something was just being sold to us, it was something that came from us. An act of expression not just of consumption. Has that boundary been completely erased?"

If every unique interest and bold thought of a teenager is heavily analyzed by "cool hunters", examined, dissected and broken down to a science and then distributed back to them, are any of us teenagers going to feel any different then one another?
People become so money hungry, so power driven and need to be ahead of the competition that art has become one big marketing campaign. It seems like once these experts find admirable beauty in things they only thing of it as a way to get ahead as opposed to appreciating it and savoring it for what it is.

Body image is used in the same way. Cooperate America takes a demeanor that is desired by the majority, for instance the midriffs referred to in the video. The general population of teenage girls all look up to model's and actresses of a certain style, figure and features. Advertisers use this as a way to convince girls that their product will bring the girls one step closer to achieving

But then again, people need these products just as much as these corporations need their money. Americans are cereal consumers addicted to purchasing new things as a way of making themselves feel better, perhaps they think they deserve all the latest gadgets and would feel more valuable themselves if they had it.

Entertainment companies own many aspects of society,

Look at teen market as major empire, their going to take over with weaponry or music, TV, clothing and all a part of this market.

"The MTV machine listens heavily to children, being ahead of the curve so you can give them what you want them to have. The MTV tunes in so that they can pitch what Viacom wants to SELL."

These corporations try to use celebrities and main stream luxuries to make products they want to make a lot of money off of more appealing. These corporations want teens to think its what they want as if their being original on their own.