The Commercialization of Cool

Consumer culture. The product of capitalist ideals, affluence, and materialism. People want things, so someone's going to give it to them--for a price.

But what happens when there are lots of different people who are trying to give the people what they want? What happens when there are lots of people who think they have something that people want?

One word.

Advertising.

Now another one.

Commericilization.

It seems that no matter where you go (unless it's the wilderness or something), there is something or someone who is trying to get you to buy their product. Much like a trademarket where merchants or tradespeople attempt to sell their wares, except that they're everywhere. A typical American may encounter a number of ads throughout their day. Turn on the TV--commercials. Radio--same thing. Driving down the road, one will see billboards, large signs for stores, a golden M upon a 20 foot pole. At work, there is probably a vending machine with either a large, illuminated red pattern for Coca-cola products or swirling blue for Pepsi drinks. Stop at a gas station, and there are signs posted for Marlboro, Camel, Virginia Slims. Walk into a Walmart and you are flooded with a thousand Smiley faces telling you that need to buy a pack of this or a carton of that because you won't be able to find it cheaper anywhere else. And just when you're about to sit down to a quiet commercial-free dinner, the telephone rings. Guess who? Yep. Telemarketer.

And the internet is no different.

We're all well acquainted with those annoying pop-up ads. If you're smart, you've downloaded pop-up ad blocking software or switched to a browser like Mozilla's Firefox. Sites may have ads as a part of their content. And SPAM is an ever-increasing headache. And I doubt that I'm the only one who has more than one e-mail address to deal with mass e-mails from corporations trying to sell one thing or another.

Companies know that the average American consumer has choices. Tons and tons of choices. The trick is how to get them to buy your product. How to get them to give you their money. What better than to use popular culture to lure people in? That's where "cool" comes in.

As Jeff Rice rightly points out, cool is word leftover from the late sixties' teenage rebellion movement. Cool was often associated with what was against the grain, what broke the rules, what pushed the envelope. Although words like groovy and psychadealic have all but fallen out of popular usage, cool still remains a significant word in both popular and teenage culture. It's meaning, however, has slightly evolved since the middle of the 20th century. Though it still can be associated with rebellion and non-conformity, it is now often associated (quite antonymically) with what is "in," what is trendy, what is stylish or fashoinable; and of course, it can simply mean what is good.

Because of its prominence in our culture, businesses and advertisers latch onto it. And they can hit two large market pools by using this word: the Baby Boomers, who still remain the largest and richest consumer group in America, and the Echo Boom, the kids of the Baby Boomers, the second largest generation, and has been quickly achieving the buying power of their parents.

The fact of the matter is that everyone wants to be cool. Everybody wants to be with it. We want to listen to hot music. We want to wear trendy clothes. We want people's heads to turn when we pull up in our nice cars. And we want it to seem natural, effortless. So business need to make their products cool; businesses need to convince the consumer that people who buy this product are cool, and that they can increase their "coolness" buy purchasing said product. Because this word carries such culture power, the business world is going to use it to its fullest potential. They will commercialize it to cash in on the goldmine that is the American public.

We're a culture obsessed with cool.

And the web, as an extension of culture, simply reflects this reality. Websites must get our attention. If anyone wants to get the attention of a potential visitor or consumer on the net, you have to draw them. You have to lure them. You have to cull your audience from the masses of internet users who zip through site after site with their own personal agenda in mind. People surf the web. Many of them teenagers. And you know what? They want to be cool.

If you can convince them that buying your product is one more way that they can be cool, you've got 'em.

And so the internet, like every other type of media, becomes inundated with ads and cool.