Merchants of Cool

   "Merchants of Cool" is a documentary that describtes the business approach of finding cool and attempting to exploit the term "cool" and "hip" in order for it to sell to the teenage consumers. However, this is a disgusting approach to achieve success, as it not only belittles and overgeneralizes the generation of teenagers and their desires, bit also distorts the perception of the adolescent mind. Rather than being a contributive figure to teenagers, it invokes more stereotypes to perpetuate amongst society and their consumeristic addictions. I find the notion of "cool hunting" as more of a destructive tool for marketing, since it only looks at the aspect of what kids find interesting rather than what is the representation and significance behind the style. For example, if a teenager happens to wear a hijab and the marketer believes that to be a fashion trend amongst kids, they will attempt to exploit the product and when it doesn't become popular or cool amongst the consumer anymore, they will cast it away and move on. The problem with this approach is that it neglects the cultural practices and significance of the style or the tradition. Another problem with this approach of "cool hunting" is that the only consumers who have the privaledge to afford these products (in particular, upper and middle class white people and other people who have integrated into their culture). This assumption that upper and middle class teens neglects the narrative of other indididuals such as lower class people and other minorities. It also belittles the other struggles and adversaries that people have to face and deal with on a daily basis. Although MTV has changed to address real life issues and struggles of society (such as Decoded), its past repuatation of "cool hunting" and "overcomercialization" for the teens still placese the coorporation in a negative light. This struggle relates to Asian American experience because Asian Americans have not really been given the opportunity to express themselves and their interests. Their voices have most of the time been overshadowed my racist charicatures such as the kung-fu master, the chef, the nerd, and the foreigner. Recently, Fox network has publicly televised a skit where Jesse Watters went to Chinatown and interviewed Chinese people in order to understand how China reacts to the 2016 election. These interviews, as well as other stunts targetting and replacing the Asian American identity, has recieved numerous backlashes in the community due to its misrepresentation of the Asian American identity, the belittlement of the Asian American accomplishment, and the ignorance and unwillingness to accept the Asian American narrative or experience. This is also the reason why there are numerous backlashes and hesitation behind Holywood exploiting and making adaptations to Anime and Manga.