When I heard the term “youth culture” in Douglas Rushkoff’s documentary, “The Merchants of Cool”, I instantly thought back to one of my old time favorite songs in seventh grade: “Heaven’s on Fire” by the Radio Dept. It has a sample in it from Thurston Moore who declares, “People see rock-and-roll as youth culture and when youth culture becomes monopolized by big business, what are the youth to do? Do you have any idea? I think we should destroy the bogus capitalist process that is destroying youth culture.”
Seriously, what happened to our dollar votes?! Our consumer sovereignty where our preferences were the determining power?
Ever had that moment when a video starts automatically playing but you have a lot of tabs open and then you have to find the freaking tab where the ad is playing? You know what’s also relatable? Starbucks. Boba. In n Out. Patagonia. College Gear. Fjallraven backpacks. Hydroflasks. Uber. Electric Skateboards. Hoverboards. Teslas. Google Self driving cars. Drones. Fidget spinners. Memes. Desmos. Museum of Ice Cream. Netflix. We mention and endorse brands in our conversations from clothing to tv shows, and if you don’t know what it is, you will feel excluded and alienated. In order to join the conversation, you have to be part of the hype. Brands take advantages of the fact that teenagers constantly seek validation from their peers and hate not fitting in or belonging. Brands stratify themselves within classes as socioeconomic status symbols and serve as indications of “like-minded people”. Brands create communities—online and in person.
I wonder if our satisfaction comes from actually having the product or just looking like everyone else? Even the language we use, we all sound the same and even want to with all the “same’s” or “me’s”. We literally pride ourselves in looking in the same, maybe because it’s a blanket of protection and social security? They’re so tangled and inCORPorated into our lifestyles, and not just in conservations: What if all the things that we think that are “bad smells” is only because we have so many products that have “nice smells” marketed to us? Okay, maybe that’s just my excuse to not brush my teeth or put on deodorant...but it is irrefutable that products have distorted our perception of beauty. And oh also our taste buds. So everything from what we look like to what we smell to what we taste have been normalized by the marketing industry. Oh and also touch: ASMR. @Ikea (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=54&v=uLFaj3Z_tWw)
Besides the five senses, I was thinking of other marketing strategies that I actually learned from my psychology class: framing and subliminal messages. Framing according to the Myers textbook is “the way an issue is posed” because “how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments”. For example, yogurt cups might say 99% fat free instead of 1% fat to make it more enticing. Subliminal messages means “stimuli are below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness”. For example, fedex has an arrow in it, baskin robbins says “31” to represent the number of flavors, and and tostitos has two people that act at the “t’s” with a bowl of salsa that acts as the “o” in between them. Logos are the most compact way to send a message. They are the most successful mediums for popularizing a brand because it appeals to our short attention spans. They’re easy for mass distribution and can build a “corporate identity”, which we are literate in:
Aditi, this was a fascinating post. It was interesting to read about your connections between psychology and economics, specifically in advertising and branding. I realize that your insights tie back to the very first day or so of class, when Mr. Stewart mentioned how economics is, at a fundamental level, the study of human behavior. And of course, psychology is also the study of the human mind and behavior. So I think you've pinned it down really well, economics and psychology have incredible overlaps in the two fields, and the brands and companies who have a presence in today's society understand that. They apply psychological theories about teenage psychosocial development to advertising their products. Erikson's stages of psychosocial development suggests that as teenagers, our primary issue that we grapple with is identity. In our search for identity, however, we are exposed to the brands that have become a part of others' identities. By relating ourselves to them through these brands, we attempt to find our own identity in the shared identity of these brands. In that sense, brands have become inseparable with teenagers' identities. This is not true for everybody, of course, but there is no doubt that a large population of teenagers have this experience, and the companies know that and take advantage of that in this modern world.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Henry. I truly enjoyed reading this post. :) We, as teenagers, mention name brands everyday. Although we might not notice it, we are constantly advertising for products and over time, we start identifying with certain brands. Through the documentaries, we learned that companies aim to get consumers to connect with their products or form a "love mark." If consumers are able to relate or identify themselves with a product, they will most likely continuing buying that product or become loyal to that particular brand.
ReplyDeleteWhen you talked about framing and subliminal messages, I immediately thought of Starbucks's logo. I've always thought Starbucks has a very unique logo that is especially distinctive. Because the lady in the logo is a siren and sirens are known for luring people in and messing with their minds, maybe subconsciously consumers are encouraged to buy more when they look at Starbucks's logo. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI thought your post was really interesting. I liked how you addressed certain topics that related to us as teenagers. I also liked how you talked about the sensation of certain brands and how it connects to types of marketing companies do. I enjoyed reading about the development of brand communities because I think that this a really important aspect when marketing. To address those communities can be really influential to selling a particular product.
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