‘Merchants of Cool’ Hunt Next Big Thing

Being cool is very important. Just ask any 13-year-old. Who knew it could be a vital socioeconomic barometer? According to Douglas Rushkoff, host of tonight’s “The Merchants of Cool,” an hourlong “Frontline” on PBS, coolness is very big business.

“Merchants” begins with the startling fact that there are now more American teens than at any previous time. They constitute a bigger gaggle of youth-quakers than even their baby-boomer parents. A whole new breed of market researchers called “cool hunters” scours the malls of America to spot the next big thing.

To cool hunter Dee Dee Gordon, the idea is simple: “We look for the kids who are ahead of the pack, because they’re going to influence what all the other kids do.” Then they sell these notions to big corporations.

Of course, once big companies actually put these cool ideas to work, it’s only a short time before what’s cool becomes “uncool,” and the whole process begins again. Sprite soda is cited here as a product that moved from cold to very hot after marketers identified what kids liked and didn’t like about soda ads.

As the title implies, “The Merchants of Cool” takes a slightly conspiratorial view of all this marketing. And to Rushkoff, at least, no tentacle of the entertainment octopus is more omnipotent and ominous than that of MTV.

Twenty years after its inception, MTV continues to strongly identify with its second- and third-generation of viewers by conducting endless market research and shameless merchandising and repackaging. If Sprite hires out a ballroom for a hip-hop party, the affair is taped and then aired as programming and advertising for MTV’s “Direct Effects” show. A commercial within a commercial within a commercial.

While it’s one thing to sell Sprite, it’s another to co-opt and package anti-corporate rebellion. Yet, Rushkoff argues, that’s exactly what MTV did when it took the angry, cult-like appeal of the band Insane Clown Posse and spoon-fed it to kids with a heavy promotion of Limp Bizkit on “Total Request Live,” as well as with endless coverage of Woodstock ’99 and other venues.

When not marketing cool, corporations sell gender stereotypes. Rushkoff theorizes that corporate imagery has reduced youth culture to two prevailing stereotypes. Guys are “mooks,” a combination of ultra-slob and comedy daredevil. Think Tom Green, “Jackass” and every working member of the World Wrestling Federation. Girls are packaged as “midriffs” (see Britney Spears), sexually confident Lolitas.

Are these corporations mirroring teen behavior and desires? Rushkoff thinks not, and points to examples of kids from this media-saturated generation merely aping what they’ve seen on MTV’s “Spring Break” specials and “The Real World.”

While provocative, “Merchants” lacks both humor and historical perspective. Can anyone look at Carson Daly’s “Total Request Live” and not recall Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand”? Yes, MTV packaged Limp Bizkit’s rebelliousness. What else is new? Didn’t Nirvana benefit from MTV saturation? And for that matter, didn’t Billy Idol? Was John Belushi the first mook? Or did the Three Stooges fit that bill? And how about a former Mouseketeer showing some skin and dating a manufactured teen idol? Are we talking about Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake or Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon?

Rushkoff needs to get his head out of his marketing research and start watching reruns. He just might learn something.

* “The Merchants of Cool” can be seen on “Frontline” at 9 tonight on KCET-TV.