HW #29 The Merchants of Cool Response

I don't think ads should be banned completely towards young people because there are also the important ads that needs to be viewed such as don't smoke ads. There are also ads that tell everybody about abortion and what needs to be changed (for the greater good) in the world. But the ads that I am focusing on is the ads that teens look for, which is what's cool now. I think ads are put out there besides the markets getting profit is that it needs to be show to give the young people that "we care". Like how Matt, the psychologist said that we are born, to be value and nurture that if we do not see or feel it often, we would start feeling isolation and creating the need to get attention, which is to be cool. In a way, ads are out to make us feel better but also makes us crave for what we need to do to fulfill that need of value and attention.

However, I do feel that ads containing sexual or inappropriate should be banned in front of little children. Though I am not sure what age because as children reaches to teens, there are puberty and sexual desire so even if adults tell the teens/children not to do sex and drugs, it's rather hard since there is a need to fill the desire/need to be love and value/attention. Additionally, teens have to take (a) health class(es) that explains why we shouldn't do sex and drugs because we are young, still irresponsible from the "adult world", and it would ruin out lives. Because they tell us not to do it, we tend to go for it is what I hear a lot of people say when people do not wish others to do something. Of course, some teens/children are responsible but with the huge amount of advertising, other teens and children get affected, thinking it is cool. I wonder what would happen if when ads are ban, would the young people still do drugs? Would the younger people still succumb to the sexual desire and/or doing drugs that would make them overall cool?

I think even without ads, the young people would still want the need to be cool. They would seek it out even without ads because the marketing people know that the young people would do that. People showing people what they need to be like them are already an advertisements. Its just that the marketing advertisements are the digital type and the markets have those advertisements there because they did things like "cool hunting" to find out from the teens themselves what's going on. The markets need profit is fair because they need to live but we are also losing our money. It's a balance since we choose to buy from them and we blame the ads rather than ourselves for the result; and the world is at it is now. In the movie, "Merchants of Cool", they said the act of consuming, or buying things or (I'm sorry, not too sure how to explain it), not sold to us, but came from us because we made the teen market make what we desire out for us to really use it, not hallucinate it.

The need to be value, the need for attention from both family and friends are what changes the teens lives and their personalities. I see when people has been treated horribly, 1) would change themselves on the outside outside to prove to people they are not weak and either get snobby or make themselves be the opposite of which is 2) weak and in return, get bullied or sympathy from others. The people who go for number 1 tends to consume more than number 2 because they are changing themselves, and the best way to do that, is to buy what is "in". So that's why advertisements are there, to post what is cool to the teens but also replenish them the value feelings that the teens are seeking for. The teens market built the merchandises to make us feel powerful like what in the movie, "Merchant's of Cool" said how the MTV hooks teens gives teens power since they are the one that gives the money to the show to get them to work. The teens are the ones with the money and if they wish to spend it, its in their power to spend it.

In the movie, "Merchant's of Cool", it said that $150 billion was profited through teens because they are the largest consumers. Now that the teens have grow up "in a world of marketing", every time the teens walk out, there are ads everywhere, and we end up going into a store to buy something. However, to become cool, we end up going into a store many many times because cool flies away once its found. In the movie, it said, "when you find cool, the cool is gone" because "by discovering cool, it forces cool to move to another" thing. Which connects to how the teens minds work because we get tired of whats the current cool. There has to be something different and more interesting that can be the new cool. This is what I think: ads are there to show us what we want, what's in our mind though we cannot tell it out. We want something fascinating and exciting and the teens market are there for us. They built it for us to fulfill the value and attention we want to show it out to the world, to tell people that we are "cool" (and giving profit to the teens market).

HW #28 - Informal Research

"Cool (aesthetic)." Wikipedia. 12/04/2009. Web. 5 Dec 2009.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_(aesthetic) .

This article explain how "cool" is defined; how there are many concepts of cool but it always changes over time, and can be different among cultures and generations. The article also talks how it is viewed differently if it is by appearance or by "behavioral characteristic" or etc. It gives examples from different cultures, showing what is cool in that region of the world such as in the Europe, Art and aristocratic are consider cool. However, it does not tell how the people are cool, but what kind of poses from the different cultures give are cool. At the end, there's a category of "theories of cool" where it explain how cool is used in social, "elusive essence" and "marketing device" plus written books that speak about cool.

It's interesting how different cultures and generations see different things that are cool but what are the comparisons, why do they differ/why change to something different? People like changes but I think it is always improved from the old "cool" ones or non cool that became cool after a few fix up. Like what the article said, there are many types/concepts of coolness that everybody has but it seem they are always in the center of attention. It doesn't have to be people that are cool but the things people do are the ones that gets the attention. Once the "thing" gets attention, wouldn't the people who have started it would not get as much attention since other people are going to do that?

Kroker, Arthur and Marilouise. "What is Cool? Notes on Intellectualism, Popular Culture, and Writing."ctheory.net. 10/05/2002. Web. 5 Dec 2009. http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=338.

This article has three sections that talks about the definitions of cool, which are that cool does not have many "cool" to spread around; it is only for a few people or morphed into objects but many other people want it. It also talk about what kind of thing/people are cool in our culture (but he also adds his own opinions). As for the cool for writing and intellectualism, it is different than the popular culture because cool has become a language and what's cool? can spread around the world easier with the technology's access.

Words, and images are used to distribute what's cool and what's not. Many people use the language of cool to live by their lives and in the article, it said we can find cool in every corner, depending on the price but it is addictive. Similar to our own language, we use it because it is the only way to communicate verbally to others. Not that its addicting or not, but once we start getting use to speaking a word, we tend to fall with it as over time, it changes, we change. Cool never stays the same, like how fashion coolness changes and so we have to adapt to the new "cool" to still become the cool people. It's whether if our intellectual follow can follow "cool" or not.

DJD, . "How to Look Cool on the Internet." Writing.Com. 16/06/2009. Web. 6 Dec 2009. http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1554284-How-To-Look-Cool-On-The-Internet.

DJD, the person who write this gives a guide on how to become cool on the internet. He gives ten steps in what to do to show yourself off in the internet. Since internet has been largely use in our lives, it is one of the best way to become cool using the net. And like the life of cool, internet evolves too, giving more things and methods for us to get the "coolness". On the internet, a sophisticated look is better to become cool.

As I was reading it, the steps keep saying to join things such as communities and groups to get connections and to show sophistication. I think the guide to become someone new contradicts what my class was saying, to become true to ourselves. This guide shows the mix of popularity and cool by using the internet but to use the internet, we have to stay at home, which I think it is only secluding ourselves to become popular with people we won't meet physically. We can make ourselves into whatever we want but if we do that, it is only withdrawing ourselves from what we really are. It is important to show who we are but it is also important to conform like the cool people to become cool/popular. It seems either easy or hard to become a cool person if we have to sacrifice/leave something behind but also, whether we would regret it or not.


Other sources that I see cool are in t.v. shows. Having money, a car and a good job can lead people to get what they want but somehow, something is always lacking when these kind of characters appear in the show. Other cool characters such as in manga are cool looking, have friends and popularity but those cool characters try to find something else that is different from what they see in their everyday lives. They find something totally different from their lives because they think the "cool" life they are living is getting boring.
Like in the street interview, the second stranger said people want to become cool because something is missing in their heart, and by fulfilling the whole, their lives can be completed. But how do we know being "cool" is what can fill the whole? How do we figure that out?

In books, the characters are told to become who they really are or they tell the others to become who they really are. It gives a different feeling and plot than the normal coolness we seen. To be who you think you are is what's important, which adds to the coolness that people view you in. There are other concepts of coolness that everybody abides in and not everybody has to like it. People follow others to be like others but do they really want to be a duplicate of that person or are they just admiring them in a sense they still have something true to themselves?