COMM 2360 1nd Edition Lecture 12Outline of Last Lecture I. Kidsa. Implicationsb. Case Study 2- Disney II. Merchants of Cool documentary Outline of Current Lecture I. Merchants of Cool II. Cool and Hip a. Rushkoff Feedback Loop Current LectureSeptember 17, 2014 Merchants of Cool documentary contd. -hip hop- way to get to teens- talk to them in a credible wayo not selling product- selling a lifestyle o NY marketing firm- cornerstone hire kids to log into chatrooms and pose as another fan recruit incoming freshman to throw parties- pass out promo material worked with Sprite- smuggle Sprite’s message into kid’s worlds through DJs o Sprite- fastest growing soft drink in the world (then) o big launch of website- marriage of a corp and a culture Sprite- a part of hip hop not just assoc with it- has become an icon youth culture – used to be act of expression and not consumption- nostalgic view of past -Newscorp, Disney, Viacom, time warner, universal o sell 90percent of music o own all major tv/film networks/station o all commercial cable channelso look at teen empire like national empire they’re colonizing Brits are to Africa as Conglomerates are to teens These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.-Coolest conglomerate of Viacom o second floor mtvall that mtv is a commercial -sometimes explicit ad -sometime music ad- vid-sometimes selling look on set -sometimes upcoming movie that’s paid for by same studio everything is an infomercial o cheap/easy content ex. direct effects -show like sprite.com party- cam over head were mtv’s cross promo free for all -violates first rule of cool= don’t let your marketing show 2 guiding questions for today: Contextualizing lecture 1. Why is cool a matter for teens and not kids? a. ended lecture saying that media marketing to younger aud i. Rushkoff- not talking about young children - why is cool related to this demo and not a younger demo 2. What theory or school of thought is best reflected in Rushkoff & Frank’s examination of cool a. Frankfurt School b. Fiske School Douglas Rushkoff’ Feedback Loop - marketing to teens is a continuous cycle - Parts of cycle: o 1. control/resistance ideologically- mass media trying to control pop; pop is trying to resist what’s being handed to them o 2. authentic subculture talking about marketing objectives going into subculture parallel to advertising/marketing - ex. hip-hip didn’t come from marketers- media conglomerates exists side by side these marketing execso 3. cool hunters trying to locate an authentic subculture to go into/exploit - teams of marketing personnel finding focus groups- to test feedback on subcultures - cool hunters- ask what’s cool o 4. mass marketing: “selling out” vast majority of people buying hip-hop music- large populations outside of the subculture (white males)o 5. uncooling ID with this to a certain degree- everyone when something gets too big- it becomes less cool (if everyone’s doing it- it’s no longer a cool part of culture)- losing cool factor once it’s reached a tipping point- it can’t be marketed as easily o 6. moving into deeper recesses of authenticity this is not a cycle that stops Malcolm Gladwell- - The Tipping Point use term colonization goes into other subcultures- doesn’t just complete the task consider the fact that cycle moves on ot other thingso 7. intensification of the cycle you never lock down on cool- it’s an ephemeral thing- the marketing/ad world has to adapt to what’s cool Thomas Frank: ‘we’re all revolutionaries now’; historical account of cool - what to do about “advertising cynicism”? o we become cynical to ads- not dupes and know when an ad is hitting us/being targeted to uso feeling cynicism to us towards machines of ads/marketingo given conditions- what do these fields have to do o advertisers begin to sell rebellion- one reaction to this sell ID that’s diff than everyone else Frank’s history of cool - what to do about advertising cynicism - advertisers begin to sell rebellion - 1960s a starting point o Vietnam war is happening- not a popular war- support is dwindling o counterculture is going on anti-mainstream hippie movement Woodstock communal living Jonathon Lethem - communal living - writer for Rolling Stone o protest generation becomes yuppie generation Europe- student generation Yuppies: people that were resistive to culture at first- getting white collar jobs- getting nice cars/jobs- more consumerist in generation - obsessed with material culture - generation of protestors fades slowly into yuppie generation- rebelliousness becomes currency of advertising o how do you sell counter culture to a population? goal of many of these ads/campaigns - subversive-ness, hip, irreverence, irony o irreverent- mocking mainstream culture- want to be difficult members of culture- want to make a mockery of those cultures o irony- important element of that ex. nike- irony/satire - rebel- “is the ultimate symbol of a system he is supposedly subverting” o ex. rebelliousness as coherent with the system instead of rebel being anti- now it’s in mainstream culture REBEL IS CHARACTER BEING SOLD IN MAINSTREAM CULTURE How to stay cool? - co-optation o one particular culture- appropriated into another culture o Rushkoff- hip hop was cool- Sprite knew that – to rebrand co-opted subculture o want to mimic rebelliousness- new cool character is the “geek chic” cool- offering social recognition regardless of whether it’s mainstream - development of anti-ads- o ads that make a mockery of ads in general- o Grant Hill- bags of cash ex. is obvs. ad it seems counterintuitive if we point out trick being pulled on us – it won’t work - “ask the internet” ad- geico ad (sp?) ads emerging that are making mockeries of the ad industry also ads that don’t give us info about product/service ad- showing us the trick - brand becoming an evolving relationship o metaphor works more and more territory- o brands are trying to expand market- o create new demos- go into new cultures - must continually reinvent itself as a site of rebellion o where can advertisers find rebellion- and bring
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