Response to "The Merchants of Cool"

What do you think is cool? Well, honestly, from past experience, “cool” is what everyone else is into and likes. You “cool” only if your “in with the crowd” and basically fit in with the popular group. I know, it sounds a lot like those years called high school, but for the most part, they are almost dead on. By definition, cool means of a colder temperature, but the times have changed since that was invented and cool now means, “the want to be like or look up to someone or something that is awesome.” Confusing, maybe, but I think with the youth intelligence in our class, this is already engraved in our minds. Teenagers, especially, live by this definition 24/7 in order to function and make friends. The video “The Merchants of Cool” dramatically depicts these intertwining meanings.

In this film, the merchants are trying to find what is “cool” to the head boy or girl of the popular group in order to try and sell that product or idea to them so their interest with spark other interests as well and create a downward spiral of money profit to this merchant. This plot becomes rather interesting because this idea doesn’t really come out they way these workers hypothesized it to be. The kids, first off, don’t tell them exactly what’s “cool” or what’s “in”, and whenever these workers do figure out what is “cool,” it’s too late and the ship of popularity on that product has sailed. I found this very entertaining and funny because it just seemed like a big rat race and these merchants ended up just running around in circles. The “cool” factor in society is forever rapidly changing, and I can back this fact up personally. For example, I don’t know how many songs I go through on my ipod just because I get sick of them or hear something new that has come along that sounds more appealing. I guess this is just how we kids are, short enjoyment characteristics or something.

I personally liked this film because it used our country’s youth’s likes to shape the future of everyone. They way the producers use this appeal to tell the story made the documentary way more aggressive and appealing to a wider audience. The people or kids that they chose to use for the film couldn’t have been better. I liked the variety of different kinds of kids they used, such as the cool “gangster-ish” boys in the beginning or the girl that would do anything to look good so that she can become a model. In addition to all of this, the commentating provided an easier medium for the audience to comprehend all of the material together. This film could easily be used in a classroom setting for students to appreciate the evolution of “cool” from our societies past, present and future. I would recommend this film to any teacher who might be struggling to Memetics to their students, no doubt.