I daresay that upon viewing "Merchants of Cool," I became slightly frightened. Don't you all realize that the media is continually pulling a "George Orwell" on us wherever we go (for lack of better words)? Our situation is almost as extreme as Winston's once was as he faught against the Party.
By age 18, we will have all set eyes upon at least 10,000,000 ads! A mind-blowing statistic, indeed.. Corporations hire correspondants to track our every opinion, our every fashion statement, our every abberation. Their findings are then posted on a website which is accessed by the media for a cost of $20,000 a year. We have become a generation of mannequins, of experimentation. What happened to the good old days where sticking to an agenda was acceptable? Well, according to Hayakawa, nothing is ever static, now is it?
Well, alright, we can handle avoiding propagandists and correspondants, right? Wrong. At one point in time, Cornerstone was known for hiring under-the-radar propagandists to log into chatrooms and act as loyal fans of a certain product.
Even avoiding technology is no longer the solution to our problem. The media knows how to target our needs, our wants, our weaknesses. Years ago, teens were brainwashed into thinking that Sprite and Hip-hop were a single entity. The popular soft drink seemed to be the equivalent of pop culture.
Thus, my question to you is this:
Is there any escape from this brain-washing phenomenon? Are we shoved into its deceptiveness inevitably; or is there a way out?
(Sam Maliha)
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8 comments:
First of all, I don't really think that people aren't as easily brainwashed and that the video may have been exaggerating it a bit (not to mention, pretty old). I mean, seriously, I'm pretty sure most of us were shaking our heads many times throughout that video. If I remember correctly, there were even kids in the video who were saying how skeptical they were of the advertising.
So to answer the question: They may try to shove us into deceptiveness, but I think that it's not very hard to escape from.
I agree with Mary in that the video may have had some exaggerations for the purpose of entertainment. I add here some additional thoughts on this subject.
If you think about what we heard in the video, you can easily perceive how much marketing really affects today's (or modern) teenagers, the group in which all of us are categorized. Every day, we process thousands of advertisements. The number of ads we actually retain and become affected by are, or course, significantly lower. However, we are all still bound to be affected in some way by at least a few of these ads, either consciously or subconsciously. Sometimes we may not think that we are affected by an ad, when we actually ARE.
I am reminded of a commercial I saw on television a couple of days ago while I was watching the local news. The commercial (which many of you have probably seen) is encouraging young Americans to "Rock the Vote" (to vote in the upcoming presidential election).
While this commercial is obviously directed towards people who are at least 18 years of age, meaning that it is directed more at the population older than "teenagers", it is still an example of "marketing". The commercial features pop star Christina Aguilera singing the national anthem to encourage young adults to be patriotic by voting.
While we do not have the choice of whether or not to vote in the upcoming election because we are too young, 18- and 19-year olds do, and thus, are likely affected by the commercial. This is not necessarily limited to successfully convincing them to vote in the 2008 election: perhaps some may not be affected currently, but will be in the future.
In response to Sam's question, I believe that the "merchants of cool" are not really "brain-washing" us with their marketing strategies. Yes, most marketing does involve deception, but aren't WE ultimately the ones who decide if we will be deceived or persuaded?
After all, as was mentioned in the video, when it comes to "cool-hunting", marketers who wish to stay "cool" (in favor of teenagers) must be flexible and willing to change as teens change, and must really connect to teen culture, because once marketers find what's "cool", it's no longer "cool". So in a sense, the "merchants of cool" are the ones who's actions are being controlled by us, since they constantly follow our behavior and culture.
Thoughts?
(Janet Lee)
It seems that your response to the "Merchants of Cool" video is a perfect representation of how media can easily influence people. Everything that frightens you about the video is founded upon the assumption that what you are being presented with is true. Yes, they make a cursory mention of doing "research" through focus groups and such, but the statistics and information presented are largely unsupported.
Honestly, do we regard Sprite as the epitome of pop culture and "cool"? Then again, some ads do manage to successfully play upon our (supposed) needs and wants. It is, however, absurd to think that we are totally brain-washed into buying things. Some people may chose to give in to the ad while others resist. Nevertheless, you still make that conscious decision - the advertisement you've seemed is merely a catalyst.
While I agree with Janet when she says that it is likely that we control the "merchants of cool", their advertisements are aimed are sometimes aimed at creating rather than fulfilling our desires. Whether they actually gather any information that is actually useful is besides the matter - what matters is how we respond to their interpretations of what we want (advertisements).
In my opinion, this is why Mr. Laz stresses the importance of Hayakawa and the study of language. Yes, we can resist marketing ploys (Especially when they're badly executed and horribly transparent) for the most part, but better understanding of them empowers us.
I wanted to make the exact point that janet described when she said, "Yes, most marketing does involve deception, but aren't WE ultimately the ones who decide if we will be deceived or persuaded?" And I think this all relates back to our environments. I might find one commercial funny because it reminds me of my family while someone else might find it totally unamusing.
All of these advertising agencies are intervewing the type of people they want to market too and then taking a higher level abstraction of the things they like to make a successful ad campaign. It is then up to you to decide whether that abstraction has a lower level equivalent that relates to your life. Or they might try to do the opposite; give you a low level abstraction and hope you can go up to a higher level abstraction and back down. Take for example that verizon(I think...) commercial with the family who just got a new plan so they have more minutes and can talk to anyone they like. The dad tells the daughter that she can't call the guy with a mustache and a mustang. For me (I don't know about the rest of you), there is no guy with a mustache and a mustang I'm am eager to call anytime soon. But I take in the idea of calling that guy, which in a higher abstraction is any guy, then back down to the guy I do want to call. So isn't this commercial effective by presenting different level abstractions that I can relate to my life?
(Kelley Volosin)
I think we're all influenced by propaganda in one way or another. For example, why do we say to someone who says they're going to Camden, "don't get shot." The truth is we've been influenced by the media in this regard. For most of the events that go on outside of our own extensional worlds, we are forced to accept someone else's version of what happened. Since everyone has a bias, we are constantly having bias thrown at us.
However, as long as we do a good job of identifying bias's in the propaganda we see around us everyday, we free ourselves from being manipulated. It is important to be an independent thinker, and to always stop yourself and think "hey, is what im being told really true, or accurate?" As long as we think things through we retain control of our thoughts and decisions for the most part.
It seems to me that the "brainwashing" phenomenon is not was widespread as they tried to portray as in the video, nor does it work was well, at least in my personal experience. I'm leaning towards the idea Mary put forth, that it was exaggerated for entertainment.
Obviously we are all influenced by these ads to a certain degree, but as they mentioned in the program, kids in modern times are becoming "wiser" to these ads, in the sense that it takes more than a blatant "buy this" message to trigger us.
It seems to me if these corporations want to be effective, stop hiring these market researchers and hire teens themselves!
(Steve Szumski)
I think all of you have brought up extremely interesting points and the idea of our "assuming reports to be true" struck me as brilliant, but I think we are forgetting that most of our peers across the nation are not nearly as adept at interpreting bs as we are. I know that sounds vain, egotistical, and elitist, but this is a sad and true fact. How many girls have you seen wear $300 Aeropostale jeans when a $10 thrift store are just as, if not more so, practical and comfortable? TOO MANY. "We" (well not us, but the general we) are constantly being fed an image to conform, or not conform to. Either way you cannot win. You are branded if you fit in, branded if you don't fit in.
I'm so glad we watched that movie, because I can finally quote Fight Club. Brad Pitt's character, Tyler Durden is speaking to the protagonist about the overall petiness and worthlessness of life at the turn of the millenium.
"Right. We're consumers. We're by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty - these things don't concern me. What concerns me is celebrity magazines, television with five hundred channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra."
Perhaps, with the rapid growth of entertainment and technology around us, we have become so bored that we constantly strive for immediate, material gains. And with this boredom, we let us ourselves be exploited by companies who need our money to survive. And thus the cycle continues.
(taylor burke)
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