How Marketers Cater to Teens

In the Frontline episode "Merchants of Cool" they explain what makes teens want to buy something or watch a certain movie. The narrator explains that in a 90s tv show "Cruel Intentions" there are lots of sexual innuendos an lots of teens making out. The tv show's producer explains that teens would not be satisfied without these scenes since they like seeing scenes with sexual undertones. The marketing director explains that teens want sex therefore they have to cater to teens. MTV caught on to this sexual trend and created this tv show called "Spring Break" which follows wild partying teens around during Spring Break. Spring Break displays teens as young as 13 years old grinding and sexually dancing. Another thing that is deemed cool is rebellion and listening to rock and roll. It's explained that there is a growing subculture that does not care about consequences and parties to rock and roll music. The co-chairman of Interscope Records explains that there is no way to stop the growing rebellious teen epidemic since the rebellious teen stereotype appeals to a lot of teens. In conclusion, teens will follow things with sexual undertones and rebellious music bands since it's deemed "cool."

What is a Midriff and a Mook?

Recently I watched the "Merchants of Cool" by Frontline and I have to say that it opened my eyes on what sells and makes a something well known and cool. The documentary covered the topic of sexualizing premature girls to make things sell. An example is Britney Spears, she was considered a midriff or a young teen girl that is sexualized. This earned her record label an abundance of money due to the majority of teens enjoying what they see when she performs. Midriffs definitely influenced young girls to be more mature. Young girls not only watched celebrities with lots of sex appeal, they aspired to replicate their style and habits as described by the episode. The midriffs helped girls gain confidence and empower them as well as encourage them to flaunt their sexual side. The male version of this is a mook. A mook is a crude young boy portrayed in the media to capture the attention of teens to market shows to ads. Although not sexualized, a mook sells to the majority of teen boys. After MTV displayed mooks and midriffs in their shows, their ratings and viewership went to an all-time high.

Anti Vape Ads

Have you ever seen an anti vape ad? Chances are you have. You probably have seen the one with puppets saying that vaping kills. I came to question how are these ads effective? In my opinion, I would believe that most teens would probably ignore these ads due to the cringiness of the puppets. A puppet with an annoying voice telling you to stay away from vaping doesn't seem like an effective approach to tackling teen vaping. Since teens don't like being told what to do, imagine how uneffective a puppet telling them that what to avoid is a good idea. I personally think that showing anti vape ads are good for spreading awareness but not for ending teen vaping. Although these puppets do look creepy, they catch attention which brings attention to the anti vape movement. The attention may not always be positive though.

December 15, 2019

The Fall of Instagram?

Recently Instagram announced that they will be removing likes from the platform completely. Since Instagram is a social media platform that is heavily focused on likes, I predict that people will eventually lose interest in posting. Think about it like this, if someone gets lots of recognition from an audience they will do a lot to get more recognition. In this case, recognition is likes.  The more likes a post gets the more successful it is perceived.  This feeling of success is highly addictive which is why people who become successful on Instagram have over 200 posts. You don't have to be successful in order to feel this feeling of success. Even if you are an average person getting 30 likes on a post, the day you get 200 likes on a post you will be encouraged to post more and make your content better. This is a strategy that Instagram favors in their algorithm. I believe that this is why Instagram is so widespread. Removing this feeling of validation will make people's purpose in posting fade. Because of this, I believe that this will be Instagram's downfall.

https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-removing-likes-what-it-will-look-like-2019-11

December 15, 2019

Ikea's Off White Collection

On November 1, 2019, the major furniture store IKEA launched an Off White collaboration. This collaboration included grass rugs and other basic furniture. I believe the main goal of this collection is to give IKEA exposure to the younger demographic. Since Off White is a brand that especially appeals to the youth, his makes sense. Lines have also formed in the early morning of its release due to the tremendous demand and hype. Resale has also occurred after the release since everyone bought the entire stock of his collection. I can conclude that IKEA's marketing strategy was to introduce IKEA to the younger demographic as well as give off the appearance of their other products as fresh and trendy. I think this is an incredibly clever strategy that can make IKEA millions. Off White being looked as a brand that the rich can only afford makes people see IKEA to not be the company that sells cheap low-quality furniture but as a trendy company that sells quality. Personally, this collaboration makes me want to wait in line for hours just to get my hands on anything. This is the case with lots of people who are into designer-streetwear. It also looks pretty edgy and cool which is a clever marketing strategy on IKEA's part. Keep in mind that the grass rug is a couple hundred dollars itself. Think about how much revenue IKEA can bring this month!
The words "wet grass" on the rug are also so distinct that you can point out this rug from a distance which targets attention seeking customers which is basically everyone on this planet who wants to look cool.  The rug also looks memorable which appeals to many who want furniture that makes an impact on their guests. Trust fund kids will also want this furniture collection to show off. Overall. this is incredibly genius and many companies should try to incorporate everyday to high end.











December 8, 2019

The Subliminal Messages of the Democratic Debate

The well known Democratic Debate happened on November 20, 2019. This debate revolves around the democrat presidential candidates discussing what they will do as president in hopes to gain votes from viewers.  In other words, the candidates are trying to persuade you into making you believe in what they believe in by using diction. An example of a candidate persuading you with diction is Elizabeth Warren when she discusses issues with ambassadors and donations. Warren uses the word corruption quite a few times which can make the viewer feel as if there needs to be a solution to the problem since when people hear the word corruption they think a corrupt president which Americans want to prevent. This persuades Americans to take action to get rid of the ambassador conflict. Persuasion using diction is also seen when Andrew Yang discusses issues that Americans will face in the near future. He uses the word threat repeatedly as a tool to cause the viewer to think that he is the solution to those threats. This causes the viewer to vote for him. I also found that Buttigieg uses simple words in order to make things easier for the viewer to understand. This may be because of his demographic that he is trying too commutate with being immigrants who aren't very adept in English. Since immigrants understand what he's saying, they may actually vote for him just because he doesn't use complex words. Being someone from an immigrant family, this is very true. Seeing someone that you can connect with makes your chances of being remembered exponentially higher which is Buttigieg's reasoning.

https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/on-demand-watch-the-full-msnbc-washington-post-democratic-debate-73805381739


December 8, 2019