Merchants+of+Cool+Response+Paragraphs

Write a paragraph or two response to //Merchants of Cool//. You may use the following quote and question to get you started. Post your responses below.

- Douglas Rushkoff**
 * "They don't call it "human" research or "people" research, they call it "market" research."

Did the marketers in "The Merchants of Cool" get it right? Do they really know you? If MTV was really based on understanding you as a person, what would it look like?

What is your reaction to the "Mook" and "Mid-Riff" teen archetypes?

As a response to the accuracy of "the merchants of cool", i don't believe they really know their consumer. They pretend to know us by making their product sound like it will change our lives dramatically, telling us that we will feel better if we use this or have more friends if we have that. All that does is make teens feel like they need to do or have things to be "cool" and for those who go without the highly expensive clothes or awesome high-tech gadgets are left behind in the dust as the outcasts and misfits. It only perpetuates a behavior in which teens use materials to define themselves which leads to a numerous amount of social issues.-tiff

There is no way for "The Merchants of Cool" to get to know anyone, and even if so, every person has a different taste or appeal making it impossible to advertise to what everybody wants. What these people do know, is what the latest styles are, and what the general teen public likes and are willing to spend their money on. If MTV was really based on understanding me as a person the whole show would change, but I think that if they tried to understand every person the show would crash, because not every person likes what someone else likes and it would just never work. This is where the term "market research" comes in. To corporations or in this case a television show, the object is to find out what people like right now. This is what will give the company a direction in which way to turn with their products for the greater good for the company. If their were a way to see in the future companies would take every advantage of it to get the next trend out on the market as soon as possible to start making a profit off it. -Tyler

The "Mook" and the "Mid-Riff", personally, make me sick. The reason that they make me so sick is that i know at one point in my life i probably admired these characters. I pity the 12 and 13 year olds who have to wake up and see these people on the TV and think that is what they have to look like or act like. When in fact, they are perfect the way they are. MTV bases its advertising on understanding teens when it is clear from seeing this documentary that they don't.In a way I could even admit that the " Mid-riff" and "Mook" scare me. To know that our media in the United States would reach such great heights to completely discinergrate any respect for young men and women. It scares me to know that one day i will be raising my own children and, in my mind the ethics of the media will only get worse.- TAYLOR

I think there is not such a thing as "The Merchants of cool", they don't really know us, they just pretend to know us, and so they can sell their products. And if you don't have what they sell you are not "cool". I feel like programs like MTV are the ones that classified us based on what we wear, what we have and what we buy. If MTV was based on my understanding it would change, MTV is not even trying to get to know every teenager, because they know that the program it wouldn't work.- Carla.

I don't agree with "The Merchants of Cool." Every teenager of course will have something in common with other peers their age but for the most part we have different outlooks, tastes, and personalities. It's just impossible to please every teenagers liking with one product, show, or some other material item. A lot of the things in that video don't appeal to me at all, and I don't think they would of to me back at the age of twelve. The way the "Mook" and the "Mid-Riff" were presented made me think about the things I was doing at twelve and thirteen and hoped that that wasn't what I acted like. The media plays a major role in everyones life, we learn from what we see, I watch MTV but it's in all honestly to laugh at the ridiculous things that go on. So no MTV isn't marketing us correctly. - Meghan Sanchez

"The Merchants of Cool", to me, didn't get it right. They think that if they see how one or two teenagers act, they know how all teenagers act. MTV doesn't really know me nor do they really know most teenagers today. MTV thinks that all teenagers either like one thing or the other with barley any in between. For example, they will either have heavy metal rock music videos playing or rap. They don't try to get the teenagers today that like to listen to country music for example. But, it would be nearly impossible for them to have shows that everyone wants to watch. If they were to do that, MTV would have thousands of different shows. - Augustus

Personally, I feel as though "The Merchants of Cool" really think they've got it all figured out, but they don't. And as far as the entering the "normal teens" home to figure whats in and whats out, is practically illogical. Every person is different; now yes you may occationally find a group of teens to act alike, dress alike (i.e. possibly the mid-rif), and listen to the same music, but thats persisely why they spend time together, because they have alike tastes. MTV feels as though they show what we want and how we act on a day to day basis, which is a taste of us, but its not. Viewers are not particularly impressed by what MTV shows, but may feel as though that is how they should act, merely because if MTV is showing it, that must be the cool new thing (which is not neccisarily try). -LaSandra

You know, the marketers may have gotten it right. Not in the sense that they can relate to each and every one of us on a personal level and help us with our problems by selling us their product, but by the way they're making money. Look around you, how can you deny they aren't doing something right? These corporations are cash cows and rake in some of the highest revenue in the world, so for SOME reason, people are buying their stuff. Fads come and go. Trends change weekly. Whether we choose to follow these trends or not is up to us. But guess what? Somebody obviously is. - Kyle

I think it’s horrible to generalize a group of people as large as America’s teens; and I think it’s even worse that’s it’s so ridiculously easy. There are defiantly ways to get our attention, and big businesses take advantage of it. Do I think the “mook” and the “mid-riff” are real? Not at all… They are there for entertainment reasons only, and most of the time we can’t be entertained for free. The “mook” and the “mid-riff” sell us stuff, and I guess its working. I’m not personally offended by the marketing strategies, because I think if you don’t like the product you wouldn’t buy it. There is a lot more out there than MTV and Viacom. No one is forcing you to listen, so can you really blame anyone for doing their job? They’ll never know each of us personally, so they try to reach the most they can. -Rob

I don’t think the people doing the research on channels such as MTV look more into what they think we want to be, rather than who we really are. Recently there have been more ad campaigns on MTV for preventing AIDS, getting tested, global issues, etc. which targets what they think we seem to think are rising issues. I think they are starting to realize we are more than just hormonal teenagers. I think at one point being The Mook or The Midriff was cool. I think the way it was portrayed on MTV is slightly exaggerative. It is entertaining to watch and seems interesting to be, but people like these seem very small minded, and today is less desirable. -Bianca

Though the video is slightly dated, the stereotypes of the "mook" and the "midriff" are still found in media. At this point in my life I am completly disgusted with the mook and his nature to do gross things simply to entertain and I can honestly say that I have never been drawn to these characters. I never watched Tom Green, Jackass repulsed me, and MTV's spring break made me want to throw up. I am not saying that I am "too cool" to be effected by the media though. At some point in my life, though that phase has definately passed, I somewhat admired the "midriff." I saw her as a cool girl who was popular and pretty and everyone wanted to be her. The guys liked her so there must be some appeal to her. Now I can see her for what she is, a insecure girl who uses insignificant things to get her to where she thinks she wants to be.