The Merchants of Cool

In our society today, especially due to its capitalist nature, corporations are being forced to target and pull in consumers and audiences through any means possible. While some of these means are less than honorable when viewed through a standard moral lense, they can barely be blamed for them, just like man, forced to evolve, couldn't be blamed by nature in the advantage his tools he was forced to develop by hand to fend off the aggressive forces surrounding him. In short, the media corporations engaged in this sort of intrusive marketing are forced to do so by their situation. To not adapt, to not break through the protective, selective bubble consumers now have around themselves, would mean the utter demise of the corporation. No entity, business or otherwise, wants that.

In an era where teenagers are rapidly changing and rejecting trend after trend in pursuit of the one thing that will put them ahead of the crowd for that one, fleeting moment, media producers have stepped further and further over the line, becoming a stalker of sorts of the youth culture. The creepy old man in the back of the room, these producers watch with their teeth gnashing and their eyes rolling, jotting furiously down each and every aspect they can then sell back to these youth for triple the price.

And that's the real problem I have. These media producers essentially produce nothing. They take what we have discovered for ourselves and proclaim it as their discovery. They elevate underground trends, giving no credit where credit is deserved. These old men at the back of the room disguise themselves in these veils of cool like the old man of "Death in Venice", hoping to attract youth by wearing the trappings of youth themselves. Yes, in this day and age, it's necessary. But that doesn't stop it from being unnerving.