Teen Culture

The fast paced and ever changing teen culture in America gives high profits for companies that are on the leading edge and have the knowledge to know what types of cool or trendy products to market to this expansive cool hungry teen culture. Everyday, kids encounter all types of advertisements that are bright, colorful, eye-catching, all attempting

to pitch an new product trying to convey that by owning this item you will in turn be just cool and the kid depicted in the picture or maybe making you think that you’re social life will just explode and you’ll turn into Mr. Popular overnight. Whatever the companies aims are, it’s obviously working since teens are spending billions of their hard earned money every year. (Merchants of Cool)

Companies are always trying to fighting to be in first place when it comes to finding out what kids want and making sure that their company is the first one to produce and market the hot new product in order to maximize profits. But how does a company really know what this teen culture is really after. The concept is a simple one really. One company pays another to go on a “cool hunt” for them in search of cool and trendy kids so they can get valuable knowledge from the root of this consumer culture, the teens themselves. (Merchants of Cool) One company in particular named Look Look, gets the upper hand in this thriving teen consumer culture by hiring “cool kids” and interviewing them for the soul purpose of extracting valuable information on what kids in their age group view as cool. This info is so valuable to companies that most will pay $20,000 and up for this information and the teens that had participated in the interview sessions walked away with $125. (Merchants of Cool)

The teens don’t understand that they’re actually being gouged when helping out

the interview agencies. (Holmstrom) What happens is that the kids are being paid about $120 and the company is taking that newly gained knowledge and repackaging the information from then teens and selling it for thousands. (Holmstrom) The kids also think that by doing these interview sessions with these companies or by being a trendspotter that they are being cool. “Oh great. Isn’t it cool I did this for this

magazine or ad agency” (Holmstrom)

Companies