Who's in Control?

1. Spurlock had such a difficult time finding sponsorship for him film because he was going to explain the way that media works and how it controls what we buy.
2. Big corporations play a huge role in trying to take money from teens by many ways. Whether it’s having a celebrity make it look like they use a certain product or by billboards, teens will buy it. In movies, worldwide brands like Nike or iPods will pay the movie company to be put in, just to make it seem like every buys them.
3. Some that I identify with are:

-Converse. A lot of teens now are starting to bring back the high top look. Basketball players used to play in them. Now with rappers endorsing the “Taylor Gang”, more

teens are trying to get a hold of many pairs as they can.

Victoria Secret. Many teenage girls are trying to fit in to the Midriff styles. And by doing so, Victoria Secret has become very popular amongst us teens as well as young adults. Young teenage girls want to try and have that certain sex appeal and by doing so, Victoria Secret has been advertising more.

-Coach purses. Many stars today have tons of coach purses and related articles suchas shoes and wallets. Coach does a lot of print advertisements because they are trying to target a more mature audience, so in saying that, I think that some of the teenagers buy them because they want to come off as mature.

4.believe that the cool hunters are only selling what we already have and just making it seem cooler. They claim they are researching what we like, but how can you when it’s already out there? They are very similar to colonial powers because they make it seem we need them in order to function.

5) I believe that the merchants of cool kind of got it right, but they really don’t know us. With MTV, we do like to listen to whatever is playing because they say its cool. If they were to stop playing a certain song or type of music, no one would really listen to it.

6) I believe that we are manipulated by brands. In commercials, they want us to buy a certain phone or look a certain way and even drive a certain car. By doing this, it’s like they are telling us who the “cool” teens are and in order for us to be cool, we have to buy what they are buying.

7) Some ways that companies go after teens are through music. The biggest teen stars? Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus. Another way is through social networking. Teens generally follow or like their favorite artist or bands or even TV shows.

8)These videos have shown me that teens are always obsessed with how they look or if they are cool. I can admit that I am trying to fit in with the “in” crowd. The only question I have is do teens know the power we posses over these big companies?