Merchants of Cool

In 1999, the teen industry was responsible for billions of dollars in spending, and that doesn't even include the billions of dollars that they get their parents to spend on them. It was interesting how MTV was deemed as a continuous channel of advertisements to appeal to teens. From the commercials for products, to the music videos that are also an elusive way of advertising music.
It's funny how a marketing agency that targets teens charges thousands upon thousands of dollars to be privy to their pictures. Their motive is to show what's cool before it becomes mainstream. Why? Because as soon as it becomes mainstream, it's not cool. It's a crazy scenario. The marketing that makes something cool is the same thing that kills it.
In a target group with 5 teens, each boy was paid $150 to participate in a focus group to help determine the next trigger for a multi million dollar marketing campaign. Yep, that's not a typo...a whopping $150. All of that money just to contribute to the million dollar campaign they probably helped discover.

Corporate Control

Today in class we looked at some of the big players in the media industry. It was very interesting to notice how the big names (AOL, Viacom, Disney, etc...) control so much more than just media airwaves and television stations. Their ownership extends into products, amusement parks, sports teams, and restaurants just to name a very few. The concept that intrigues me is the correlation between advertisements money and the big wigs that pump out the ads. Is there really much room to complain about the false light of advertising when the corporations are the ones that are putting out the images. I wonder because it seems more evident to me than ever that they are protecting their own interests. It was never really a doubt to me before that public interest took a back seat to financial interests, but after learning how many conglomerates were involved in one corporation, it is now more obvious how one ingredient affects the recipe of so many more dishes.