Overall Response to Making Cents out of Teens: Merchants of Cool / blog 10

This PBS documentary was quite shocking to me. I never even thought that the marketing business was so interested in children and teens. They are no longer interested in our well being, but more so in our pockets. The stereotypes that the media and advertisers enforce on us is saddening. For example, the idea of "the Mook and the Midriff" are gateways for teens to become the adult stereotypes that the ad companies enforce on adults. The world adolescence has become even more clear to me through this documentary- the ad companies want us to conform to the Mook and Midriff to make their job easier, (so they can target to more teens, as they will be conforming to either the Mook/Midriff) and to get us obsessed with material products before we become adults. They create people that we should be and want to be- and this is harmful to the teen's perception of themselves.

I would like to say that I am a better consumer from watching this video, but every day and and home I am pressured to look my best and follow society standards. It is hard to break the cycle of expectations. So, I will likely hold these themes form the film close to my heart but I will continue to stay stuck in the circle of society.

Lastly, I wanted to respond to Naomi Klein's argument that ads have shifted from sponsoring culture to being a part of our culture. I find this to be partially true. Our society's trends are based off of being different and standing out from one another while blending in. The advertisers come in at the blending part, while our teen identity covers the differences. They supply our want to blend it and enforce our want to be blend in, but I do not believe that they start the majority of our trends. It is vital to uphold our individuality, and we have to be different to do so.