Chapter 1
In chapter one, Rice discusses the meaning of cool in everyday terms and the online term. In everyday terms ‘cool’ means something or someone that is popular and doing the right trends. Online ‘cool’ is used to attract young audiences. A major question to consider in this chapter and throughout the book is that, is ’cool’ a rhetoric? I personally do see ‘cool’ as a rhetoric because it attracts an audience.
Chapter 2
In chapter two, Rice gives a brief history of the internet, how it first started being used and for what reasons. What interested me here was that the internet was used as a text and was first started by hippies from the ’60s. Sites that contain cool are often sites for younger audiences. For example the site Yahooligans! is aimed towards a teenage audience. This label of cool is to help with younger consumers.
Chapter 3
In Chapter three Rice deals with advertising; how to get consumers to buy and be interested in a product. This chapter gives us the definition of ‘cool’ as being rebellious. With this definition in mind, advertisers apply it to products to get consumers interested. Icons are used to represent objects, ideas, or people. Icons help sell products by relating a certain product to someone or something famous. Rice uses Nike as an example of a icon; a famous basketball player is shown wearing Nike shoes. What the advistisment sent out was to be cool you have to wear Nike.
Chapter 4
Chapter four continues with advertising in a ‘cool’ way by creating “brand names out of teenage attitudes” (31). Agencies try selling products through images that appeal to teenagers. Rice uses the Sprite advertisement as an example. Douglas Rushkoff has done some studies that paid attention to how companies make their products appeal to ‘cool’ audiences.
Chapter 5
This chapter gets into how to write in an alternative way rather than going with the mainstream. Adbusters produces ads that emphasize the ‘cool.’ Rice tells about the ads of Camel and Kool and how they attract teens to buy, by sending images of expensive things. An important thing to think about of an ad is if it’s better to have a typed memo or to use an image. Cultural Jamming undercuts certain cultural traits. They look for advertisers that could mislead others.
“The Merchants of Cool”
Douglas Rushkoff’s “The Merchants of Cool” discusses how corp. America attempts to lure teen audiences. Teenagers now days have become the trendsetters of things. They have more say in money and can easily get anything they desire. According to the video, 75% of teens have a television in their rooms. What I found very interesting is that there are studies of teens going on in their ‘natural habitats.’ Businesses need to know what the hot and big things are in an everyday teens life. Advertisters are wanting to show they can be a part of their life and culture. Marketers need to learn what belongs to kids and be able to adapt with them. After watching this video, I do not believe you can disconnect cool from consumerism, because consumers only want what is cool and hip. If they where disconnected consumers would lack interest in products. I imagine that if teenagers made a video like Rushkoff’s it would probably be similiar with the MTV, sex, and dancing being shown, but from their perspective. Yes, I do believe they would have cared enough to make an video because they want to be heard and to have a voice of their own.
