Merchants of Cool

Merchants of Cool

Merchants of Cool is a documentary following popular culture and the teen market. I had actually watched the documentary in a high school economics class. The film focuses on how companies are trying to keep up with teen trends. The film relates back to Hall’s article of popular culture constantly changing. The companies understand that trends come and go. I’m going to go on a film tangent because I think the film has more value as the years pass by. Although high school wasn’t that long ago, I find myself having different interests now compared to my past. The more disconnected the audience is, the stronger realization is how often these trends change and how far the companies have evolved. Also you can see how current advertisements draw from their past. Two of the more recent and popular Sprite commercials are using/parodying their tactics. The Lebron Sprite commercial has him telling the audience not to drink Sprite despite the company asking him to tell the audience to drink Sprite. Another one is showing they still have hip-hop connections using new rapper, Lil Yachty who changed the lyrics to one of his song to be “cold, like a sprite soda.”