HW 29 - Merchants of being cool

Some people think that it is wrong for people or corporations to manipulate others to make a profit off of them, while others think its right. I see it all the time and I feel that sometimes people or businesses need to do what they have to do in order to make profit and if it means manipulating kids buy selling stuff that teens are addicted to then so be it. So is it evil to help the corporations to manipulate the minds of young people for the sake of profit?

Businesses have to make money. And not only that but they have to make profit as well so they can keep growing. The fact that there are 33 million teens in our generations, means that if you sell the right thing, there could possibly be a lot of money coming into your business. So what do you do if you want your business to grow financially and there is 33 million teens who most likely what the "next best thing"? You sell WHAT THE TEENS LIKE. Plain and simple. You can't get mad at the businesses for manipulating teens with stuff to sell that they like. It's the parent's fault. Corporations aren't worried about how teens are buying their product or when they get it, they are worried about how much money is coming in from their product. So I don't think that its evil to manipulate young teens to make profit. When they said "Marketers have to find a way to seem real: true to the lives and attitudes of teenagers; in short, to become cool themselves. To that end, they search out the next cool thing and have adopted an almost anthropological approach to studying teens and analyzing their every move as if they were animals in the wild." I think that is a perfect idea! That's an excellent way of getting 33 million and counting teens to buy your stuff. See what they like because PEOPLE BUY STUFF THAT THEY LIKE! That is the way life works. If companies didn't know what kids liked then how would they know what's "the next best thing" they like. And they wouldn't make any profit.

When media critic Mark Crispin Miller said "What this system does is it closely studies the young, keeps them under constant surveillance to figure out what will push their buttons.", that was an excellent way of finding out a capitalizing teens and their desires. The only way it could be evil for them to do this is if they are interfering with their personal lives to the point where it gets annoying and abusive. But they have the right to interview people to learn about whats the hottest thing out in our teen society. Ain't nothin wrong with that. Even when the analyst went to the concert to speak with teens to see what kind of music they liked to listen to and why that music is so appealing to them. What's wrong with that? I think that is a completely good idea for them so they know what kind of music the teens like so they can make money. I just feel that companies do what they have to do to make their money and that it's the parents fault for pulling out their wallets to buy these companies products. I say this because if the parents didn't want to buy their kid this stuff they could easily say one word.."NO".

Even though companies have great ways to sell things, there also can be looked at in a bad way. Them selling bad things for you like 50 cent drinks, cigarettes, sour patches, etc. Those products that the companies puts out to sell is bad for you but since its peoples desires to have them that's all they care about, they don't really care about people's health and the fact that their minds are only set one one thing. But Companies like that you can't blame, but then at the same time you can blame them. You can blame them for putting these products out to mess up peoples bodies. But then again, you can't blame them buecause at the end of the day, someones health isn't going to make profit, desires and products thats a must-buy" are. So the argument of businesses manipulating teens minds for profit has 2 arguments to it. It's not wrong but it ain't because you can manipulate them towards the wrong products.