Merchants of Cool

Do teens really have control over what is cool? Do you, after all of our discussion in class, accept the main argument of Merchants of Cool that corporate interests have hijacked teen culture in order to exploit teens, their labor, and their parents' labor?



I feel teens do have some control of what is cool. Teens make the decison of buying the product and that's what makes the product be advertised. It doesn't matter if an artist is wearing something new, not everyone might like it. Corporates know teens spend money like crazy so they want to do all they can to catch teens attention into buying their product. By gathering teens interest is what makes new products and teens love it and it becomes cool. So teens might not be making the product themselves, but they take part in what is being created.