Compare and Contrast

Compare and Contrast
“The loss of space happens inside an individual; it is colonization not of physical space but of mental space.” (Naomi Klein). Both the documentary of Merchants of Cool, as well as Naomi Klein’s book No Logo put emphasize on the marketing strategies of companies towards the youth trying to take over the mental space. Two important factors were mentioned, cool hunting and marketing teen rebellion. In cool hunting researchers follow teenager’s everyday life to find out what the next cool is going to be. Companies hire cool hunters to make their product cool and The Merchants of Cool even follow one of these cool hunters on his work. He goes and talks to teenagers in their homes; they show him their cloth, video games and talk about their personal life. By learning everything, starting with the time they get up, to the places they go out for dates, these cool hunters can analyze the teenagers, predict what the teenagers are going to find cool and therefore sell them what they want, packaged in a way that the teenagers think it will be cool. Those teenagers who refuse to accept this packaged cool create subcultures, such as the Rage Rock mentioned in Merchants of Cool as well as Woodstock 94, as noted by Naomi Klein, the place where Rage Rock was commercially marketed. The corporations pick up theses subcultures and market them, slowly turning them into one of their products without the rebellious teens noticing it and simply selling it back to them. Bands of Rage Rock signed label contracts and suddenly they were in the charts, street hockey events were sponsored by beer brands and there is no more room for a youth culture created by the youth itself. With all the marketing around them teenagers have no chance of establishing their own space, because their mental space falls victim to colonization.


While both mediums agreed on cool hunting and teen rebellion, there are other marketing strategies where to opinions are going apart. No Logo displays the ironic view of companies on their own product as another successful marketing strategy, for example with Showgirl, while The Merchants of Cool finds it rather short lived. As a matter of fact teenagers are not stupid and after constant bombardment of advertisements they are bound to ask themselves why they should believe what the media tells them. A way of solving this problem is mocking the product, however this can backfire after a while when the teenagers start realizing that it is simply another form of marketing and therefore then rejecting the product. Certainly this also depends on the product itself whether this tactic works or not. Also as shown in this example No Logo focuses more on the companies while The Merchants of Cool view the effect on the teenagers. These two ways of looking at the same topic give if both considered a good overview on youth marketing and that there is not really a way of escaping it.