Cool Market
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 prod
Nike coined a term for this custom. thereby effectively selling the concept of the American dream (Rose, 106). The reality is this: Privatization has slithered into every crevice of public life, and selling out is not only accepted, rather it is considered hip in many circles. Their first task is to identify the 'cool kids'. These 'Cool Hunters' "search out pockets of cutting-edge lifestyle, capture them on videotape and return to clients like Reebok, Absolut Vodka and Levi's with such bold pronouncements as 'Monks are cool'" (Klein, 72), thus they have in effect become legal stalkers of youth culture. Peer pressure, once considered a social ill, is now the largest marketing ploy. Thus, companies like Stussy, Polo, and DKNY have even backed away from any attempts to curb the pirating of their logos for T-shirts and baseball hats, after all, its just free advertising. Naomi Klein notices that not even college students were able to escape the corporate-fueled youth culture stalking with companies like Daewoo, which hired two thousand college students to establish 'a buzz' about their product on campuses across America, and Anheuser-Busch, with its practice of employing frat boys and 'Bud Girls' to endorse their beer at campus parties and bars. The nineties also witnessed the explosion of Hip-Hop, which was then followed by the extensive focus on the lifestyles of inner city black youths. To capitalize on this urban fantasy, Hilfiger walked the tightrope between the yacht and the ghetto by associating his clothes: more consciously with these sports, shooting ads at yacht clubs, beaches and other nautical locales.
Common topics in this essay:
Wall Street,
Lives Youth,
Polo DKNY,
Cape Cod,
Revolution Soda,
America Anheuser-Busch,
Klein Advertisers,
Report Bureau,
Vodka Levi's,
Aaron Cooper,
youth culture,
college students,
thereby effectively,
target audience,
basketball courts,
klein 68,
inner city,
black youths,
'cool hunters',
black style,
|
Acceptance Essays
