Chapter Notes

Chapter 2: Under-the-Radar Marketing

o Kids see marketers as the enemy (because they’re old)

· Market to kids without seeming to do so/ become cool themselves

o Hip-Hop became the connection between Sprite and teenagers

· Selling a life-style, not the product

o Marketing firm “Corner stone” –> under-the-radar marketing

o Hires teens to promote their products

o Hip-hop artists to smuggle their message into the world of the teens

o ‘cute campaigns’ don’t work anymore

o Get involved in what their culture is

o Understand where they’re coming from

o Think how they think

o Youth culture used to be an active expression, not a consumption

o Multi-national media corporations are now the true merchants of cool

o Viacom

o Disney

o Sony

o News Corp

o Bertelsmann


Chapter 3: The MTV machine

o MTV

o Commercial concept: Use record companies promotional music videos as creative programming

o Is now a youth marketing empire

o Everything on MTV is a commercial

o Violates the first rule of cool: Don’t let your marketing show

o Cool does not come with MTV, it belongs to kids –> kids change

· MTV has to change with them

o MTV conducted researched on teenagers

o On some shows, gave the viewers control on what would be showed

o MTV must understand where teen culture is moving

o MTV’s techniques:

· Ifnography study –> MTV market researchers visit a typical fan in his home

Understanding the teens as costumers, not as persons

–> so MTV can give them what it wants them to have

o Mook: crude, loud, obnoxious, in your face

o Created by Viacom

o Designed to capitalize on the testosterone driven madness of adolescence

o “grabs them below the belt, and then reaches for their wallets”

o Pressure on commercial culture providers (MTV) because of fewer owners but more choices

o To find things that ‘click’ right away


Chapter 4: The Midriff

o Multi national companies competing

· Will drag standards down

o Media machine has created the stereotype “Midriff”

· Pre-maturely adult

· Consumed by appearances

· Sex

· “I am a sexual object, but I’m proud of it”

· Ex. Britney Spears

· Not only pleasing young boys, but delivering a message to girls

o International Model and Talent Association

· New vacancies for Midriffs everyday

Chapter 5: The Giant Feedback Loop

o TV shows (7th Heaven) new approach

· Keep it clean

· American families can watch TV together

o Had to compete against radical shows (90210)

o WB changed plan: show about sex-obsessed high-schoolers

· Made Headlines

o Tremendous revenue coming in through sex and violence

o Teens are confronted with sex through television & advertisement

· Media is just a mirror to teenagers lives

o MTV has made Spring Break into a staged performance

o Real life and TV life have begun to blur

o Giant Feedback loop: media watches kids and then sells them an image of themselves. Teens watch those images and aspire to be the Mook or Midriff


Chapter 6: Teen Rebellion: Just Another Product

o Can you escape the feedback loop?

· Rage rock (shock lyrics, make fun of women and gays)

· Middle finger to the main stream

· Hate is directed at commercialism (against MTV)

o An extreme teens go to ensure their authenticity (Cultural resistance)

1. Find a controversial band

2. Package them for the main stream

3. Claim to just respond to demand

o “Cool hunt” ends: teen rebellion becoming just another product

o Advertising world view:

· Parents are creeps

· Teachers are idiots

· Authority figures are laughable

o No one can understand kids except the corporate sponsor

o Is there room for kids to create a culture of their own?

· Even when they rebel, it is sponsored and sold back to them