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Frontline: The Merchants of Cool | 
| Director: Barak Goodman
Actor: Douglas Rushkoff
Studio: PBS (Direct)
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.98
Buy New: $24.99
You Save: $4.99 (17%)
New (25) Used (6) from $18.29
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 21514
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 60 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 6909
UPC: 841887005562
EAN: 0841887005562
ASIN: B000B0WO44
Theatrical Release Date: February 27, 2001
Release Date: October 4, 2005
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Marketing to kids. June 15, 2008
Preston C. Enright (Denver, CO United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This film exposes some of the marketing techniques used on young people.
I'm glad to read that another reviewer shows it to his students each year.
Another teacher who showed it to her class was less impressed with the response it received from some students who thought it was dated. There are some more recent documentaries on this issue from the Media Education Foundation, but this Frontline presentation is a good place to start.
I learned in the film The Corporation that some psychologists hired by the corporate world work to achieve a high "nag factor," that is an intense pressuring from kids on parents to purchase particular items for them. The techniques are many, and are constantly used on adults as well. Another related field to marketing is public relations. PR's founder, Edward Bernays, wrote a book called Propaganda, that was utilized by Joseph Goebbels during the rise of fascism. Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, boasted that "If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it."
To counter all of this propaganda, I'd suggest the following resources:
Adbusters - Adbusters also offers items for teachers to use in the classroom.
Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel
So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids
New Moon: the Magazine for Girls & Their Dreams This commercial free magazine written by and for girls, includes a lot of insightful comments on media manipulation from the girls.
Teen Voices This magazine is for young women.
Hopefully there will someday be magazines that aren't manipulating boys and young men in the service of corporate interests.
Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media This documentary has become something of a movement, inspiring a new level of media criticism and countless efforts to create grassroots media.
Chomsky's work has been a big influence on Amy Goodman of the independent news hour, "Democracy Now!." Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times
 Good, but not great May 10, 2008
Laura OBrien (Los Angeles, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I purchased this title to show to my senior high school Economics students thinking it would fire up a lot of discussion about how teenagers are manipulated. Instead it elicited yawns and many comments about how the material was dated and didn't apply to them. I'm still deciding whether or not to include it in next year's curriculum.
 Please enter a title for your review February 15, 2008
pancake_repairman (gfjdhgfjhgj)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
the part about the underground marketing to make Sprite hiphop was interesting but didn't cover the campaign beyond one promotional event so i didn't really learn anything about how successful it was. this film is mostly propaganda for people with no style who think anyone who likes something they don't must be braindead and feel clever telling others "you only like that because it was marketed to you". if you're willing to accept the equation that if 1> a product is marketed, and 2> someone buys that product, then 3> that person bought the product because the marketing is so successfully insidious, then you'll enjoy this film. if you require the question of whether marketing makes a product cool (i.e. brainwashes people into liking it) or merely makes people aware of a product which they then make up their own mind about to be addressed you might find a lot of the conclusions the narrator reaches prejudiced.
Amazing commentary on popular culture January 20, 2008
S. Zedler
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I teach a popular culture class at the high school level, and usually begin the class with this documentary. It gets students thinking about important questions, specifically: "Why do I do what I do and make the decisions I make?" To reduce the answer to this question to something as easy as, "Because corporations and advertisers tell me to" is obviously an oversimplification, but that can be part of the answer, and this documentary provides a very watchable way of presenting that side.
 So what does Frontline know about teenagers,.... October 9, 2007
Joe Mac Guy (USA)
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is a one sided talk down approach to teenagers and anyone who does not agree with conservative parents groups. So much for open minded reporting at Frontline.
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