PBS Frontline Video: The Merchants of Cool Complete the following questions:
1. How does marketing affect you? How does it affect your desire for consumer goods? Your acceptance by your peers (e.g., whether they think you are "cool")?
2. If you were training a "cool hunter" to come into your school, what would you train them to look for? (note: cool hunters are marketing experts who look for the kids who are on the cutting edge of what's new and hip, because they're going to influence what all the other kids do).
3. "The Merchants of Cool" describes the practice of "under-the-radar" marketing, including hiring teens to log-on to chat rooms to talk up bands and recruiting college freshman to throw campus parties where they distribute marketing materials.
Ironically, marketers have justified "stealth" marketing as necessary because teens have become more media savvy. Is it ok to accept payment to go to parties and promote products? Why or why not? (Jagermeister story; Red Bull).
4. Did the marketers in "The Merchants of Cool" get it right? Do they really know you? What did the film get right and what did it miss?