Merchants of Cool

The video “Merchants of Cool” identifies the media as the root of all evil in this situation.  They are considered the rhetor in this situation.  They are the ones that influence their audience to act the way that they do.  They influence their audience, teenagers, to feel the way they do.  Teenagers are very perceptive to what they are told.  They want to be accepted by society; they want to be “cool”. 

The media tells teenagers that the only way that they will be “cool” is if they submit themselves wholeheartedly to what they are told.  Teenage males should act obnoxiously and wreak havoc on anyone who tells them differently.  And teenage females should focus on what their bodies look like because they will never amount to anything using their brain.

The video calls the media to stray away from the very perceptive teenage audience because they are the future.  This is the exigence.  The media can shape a society in both negative and positive ways, but as for teenagers they tend to focus on the negative, or rather the “fun” byproducts.

The video itself calls the media to reevaluate their advertising campaigns.  The rhetors in this situation are the teenage researchers.  They insist that the media may be causing irreversible damage to our future generation.  This is their thesis.  How can teenagers be expected to conduct themselves with any decency, if everyone and everything around them tells them to act in the contrary?  Teenagers are like sponges, they soak up everything around them.  They possess this burning desire to be “cool” or be accepted, and they are willing to do anything to scratch this insistent itch, even if that means abandoning all of their morals.  Teenage females are willing to give their bodies in pursuit of this goal, just as teenage males are willing to isolate themselves from everything they believe in.  Who knows whether the media shapes society or vice-versa, but either way it needs to stop.