Homework: Watch and Respond
1.“The paradox of “cool hunting” is that it kills what it finds.” - Douglas Rushkoff
What are the implications of cool hunting for the development of new ideas, new music, new art forms, etc.?
What are the implications of cool hunting for the development of new ideas, new music, new art forms, etc.?
2.“The Merchants of Cool” describes the practice of “under-the-radar” marketing, including hiring teens to log-on to chat rooms to talk up bands and recruiting college freshman to throw campus parties where they distribute marketing materials. Ironically, marketers have justified “stealth” marketing as necessary because teens have become more media savvy. Do you think that “stealth” techniques are ethical? If a marketer offered you money to log-on to chat rooms or throw a party, would you?
3.As “The Merchants of Cool” shows, Sprite’s success with the youth culture was created, in part, by intertwining the marketing of Sprite with Viacom’s interests in broadcasting and other media. Look at how a new film or the latest release from a popular band are promoted. Are there links between appearances or performances by stars and the producers, sponsors, and broadcasters of those shows? If so, does discovering those links influence your opinion of the film or the artist? Why or why not?
Links
Italian Wal-Mart Commercial
Store Wars - When Walmart Comes to Town
10 Mind-Boggling Facts about Walmart
Links
Italian Wal-Mart Commercial
Store Wars - When Walmart Comes to Town
10 Mind-Boggling Facts about Walmart
1. What are the implications of cool hunting for the development of new ideas, new music, new art forms, etc.?
ReplyDeleteBy cool hunting, you have to try to find new sub-genre's of cool as fast as possible and then exploit them as fast as possible. because cool is constantly changing. what is seen as cool in music, or art, or just general consumerism doesn't take long to become uncool. This seemingly paradoxical trait of cool suggests that once something becomes cool, it no longer is cool for long and that is why "cool hunting" kills what it finds. And so the development of new forms of art and music are constantly changing.
2.Do you think that “stealth” techniques are ethical? If a marketer offered you money to log-on to chat rooms or throw a party, would you?
Personally i dont think that "stealth" techniques are very ethical, because essentially what they are doing is paying kids to lie to other kids. And since this isn't happening on TV or bilboards, kids are left defenseless because they have no idea that these parties and their peers are just being paid to do this. The marketers are now controlling "cool", not the teens. Personally if a marketer offered me money to log-on to a chat room, or throw a party, i would; so long as the things i am advertising are not intended to harm others, such as weapons, or so long as the things i'm advertising are things which i personally hate.
3. Are there links between appearances or performances by stars and the producers, sponsors, and broadcasters of those shows? If so, does discovering those links influence your opinion of the film or the artist? Why or why not?
While watching "The Merchants of Cool" i have came to realize that everything is intertwined, more so than one would imagine. Companies such as sprite would host parties by paying kids to make it look cool to ensure more people would go and pay attention to it, then companies like MTV woud televise it and bring on the "cool" rappers and singers to play at the party. which will both act as advertisement for the rappers, Sprite (because their band name will be everywhere and associated with the cool rappers), and will boost MTV ratings, which will then boost the above mentioned parties. it's an ingenious system which just grows stronger.
I also realized that although i am now aware of these links, i don't really mind, and it doesn't affect my opinion about the film or the artist. Because even if they have been pre-determined to become "cool" i will always have my personal opinion regardless of wether the film or artist is deemed as "cool".
1. “The paradox of “cool hunting” is that it kills what it finds.” - Douglas Rushkoff
ReplyDeleteWhat are the implications of cool hunting for the development of new ideas, new music, new art forms, etc.?
By cool hunting, people have to try to find new things which can be related by the people as cool and to exploit it as fast as possible and in the greatest numbers as possible in order to make a higher revenue. This is due to the fact that the definition and objects which are cool re constantly changing. What a person thinks that is cool in music, or art, or in any other type of new ideas becomes rapidly uncool and people no longer want to buy it. “"cool hunting" kills what it finds” because after the short period of time in which the song, or object or even iPhone app is cool then no one will ever go back to listen to it or use it. This is due to the fact that after some time new forms of music has developed and consequently the old form of music has become uncool.
2. “The Merchants of Cool” describes the practice of “under-the-radar” marketing, including hiring teens to log-on to chat rooms to talk up bands and recruiting college freshman to throw campus parties where they distribute marketing materials. Ironically, marketers have justified “stealth” marketing as necessary because teens have become more media savvy. Do you think that “stealth” techniques are ethical? If a marketer offered you money to log-on to chat rooms or throw a party, would you?
I think that "stealth" techniques aren’t ethical in a manner because they basically try to inculcate in the subconscious of a person to buy a product or to change their favorite drink because the other people or popular people are drinking another. This type of “stealth” publicity doesn’t occur on TV advertisements or on posters in the streets so basically the kids have no idea that their peers are just being paid to sponsor something to its friends and are more likely to change their ideas while on the other hand on TV a person just ignores advertisements and only looks at new innovative stuff. The marketers are now control the definition and the objects which are "cool", so basically they are controlling the age groups which go along with “cool”, such as us teenagers. I would accept if a marketer offered me money to log-on to a chat room, or throw a party, because I would have fun in doing these things, so I would accept if I would like the things such as Coca-Cola. I would definitely advertise for Coca-Cola, I would just have coke gratis and no need to advertise because everybody wants it. Just think what would you choose at a party: boring water or the splendid taste of coke?
3. As “The Merchants of Cool” shows, Sprite’s success with the youth culture was created, in part, by intertwining the marketing of Sprite with Viacom’s interests in broadcasting and other media. Look at how a new film or the latest release from a popular band are promoted. Are there links between appearances or performances by stars and the producers, sponsors, and broadcasters of those shows? If so, does discovering those links influence your opinion of the film or the artist? Why or why not?
I think that there are links between the appearances or performances of the stars and the producers, sponsors, and broadcasters of those shows. This is due to the fact that the actor and the appearances of the show have to both sponsor what the broadcasters of the show have decided and have to convey the message that the producers want to suggest as “cool” in the society. The discovery of these links has not influenced my opinion of the film and the artist because if I liked the film I’ll still like it and it I didn’t like it I still won’t like it and hardly these thinks will make me change my mind.
1.“The paradox of “cool hunting” is that it kills what it finds.” - Douglas Rushkoff
ReplyDeleteWhat are the implications of cool hunting for the development of new ideas, new music, new art forms, etc.?
2.“The Merchants of Cool” describes the practice of “under-the-radar” marketing, including hiring teens to log-on to chat rooms to talk up bands and recruiting college freshman to throw campus parties where they distribute marketing materials. Ironically, marketers have justified “stealth” marketing as necessary because teens have become more media savvy. Do you think that “stealth” techniques are ethical? If a marketer offered you money to log-on to chat rooms or throw a party, would you?
3.As “The Merchants of Cool” shows, Sprite’s success with the youth culture was created, in part, by intertwining the marketing of Sprite with Viacom’s interests in broadcasting and other media. Look at how a new film or the latest release from a popular band are promoted. Are there links between appearances or performances by stars and the producers, sponsors, and broadcasters of those shows? If so, does discovering those links influence your opinion of the film or the artist? Why or why not?
Answers
1)THe implications of cool hunting, would be that it would have to try to find new sub-genre's of cool the earliest possible and then exploit them immediately, because cool is in a constant changement.This trait of cool suggests that once something becomes cool, it no longer is cool for long and that is why "cool hunting" kills what it finds.
2)I think that "stealth" techniques aren’t ethical because they try to enter the subconscious of a person to buy a product or to change their favorite drink because the other people or popular people are drinking another.
3) I think that there are direct links between the appearances of the stars and the producers, sponsors, and broadcasters of those shows. This is because bothe actors and the appearences of the show have to sponsor the broadcasters to convey the message that the producers want to suggest themselves as cool in the society.
1) Cool hunting is trying to find new things and exploit them to the people as soon and as fastest as possible in order to have a greater revenue. The meaning of something being cool, today, is constantly changing. The consideration of things like music or art and other ideas being cool is constantly changing and when something is uncool, people stop buying it. And that is what it means. This causes the development of today's things to constantly change according to how people find something cool.
ReplyDelete2) I don't think that the "stealth" techniques are very ethical because by paying them, they are making others lie and the kids don't even know for what they are doing it for. The markets are controlling the things that are considered cool, which means controlling the different age groups that belong with the different things that belong to the idea of 'cool' ( teenagers). If a market offered me money to log on a chat room or throw parties, I would accept it as long as
3) there could be links between the appearances or performances by stars and the producers, sponsors, and broadcaster of the shows. This could be because the actors and the appearances of the show have to convey the message that suggests something is cool that is given by the producers. This did not affect my opinion because I don't really care.