The early nineties ushered in an interesting phenomenon, the market that mainly catered and accommodated to the baby boomer generation had, like its' target audience, underwent an identity crises. In the ensuing recession, Wall Street noticed that: "among the industries that were holding steady or taking off were beer, soft drinks, fast food and sneakers – not to mention chewing gum and Barbie dolls" (Klein, 68). Finally, it dawned on the manufacturing sector and the entertainment industries that the main correlate to this was the fact that 1992 was the first year that the number of teenagers in America increased, this hasn't happened since 1975. The time came for a complete revamp of the companies' images. If they wanted to appeal to this exploding new demographic, they would have to 'get with it', embody the image of nineties cool, and embrace its music, its style and its politics.
             But where can one locate the origins of this ever-elusive coolness? The product-driven companies were swift in meshing their products with the identities of the 'in-crowd' by taking their campaign to the schoolyards, inner-city basketball courts and colleges of America. As Klein states:
             Advertisers, brand managers, music, film, and television producers raced back to high school, sucking up to the in-crowd in a frantic effort to isolate and reproduce in TV commercials the precise 'attitude' teens and twenty-something's were driven to consume with their snack foods and pop tunes (Klein, 68).
             The corporations have used various methods to unearth the concept of 'cool'. Their first task is to identify the 'cool kids'. David Gee, whose job at IBM is to make IBM cool, refers to them as the "People in Black". He emphasizes the importance of being relevant to the PIB's; his career is dependant upon it. When asked about the goals of the company Phil Spu...