The Perfection of Anti-Cool

The article titled “Brand Cool” by Peter Belmonte illustrates how today’s youth are reacting to advertising campaigns, and how marketers find ways to relate to today’s youth in regards to fashion. The Author claims that “rejecting fashion is now considered an attempt at preempt fashion and being cool is a timeless emotional need that we all strive for”. Throughout this article the reader will begin to understand how today’s youth relate and react to this and how today’s advertisers are using this to market to Generation X.

This article states that "cool is something we learn as children in grade school" and that the "inspirational age is 17 years old and is considered to be the perfect cool". According to this article cool is a timeless emotional need that a person may claim is discounted, yet time and time again prove that people strive and survive for it. Cool is considered to be indefinable and teens included in Generation X are extremely resistant to marketers. Marketers had to find new methods to approach this group of potential consumers. They accomplished this through advertising campaigns that were diverse and multicultural and they found ways to relate to teenagers anti cool attitudes. Today's youth are diverse and they are intermingled in multiculture and ethnicity. Peter Belmonte claims that " rejecting fashion is now considered an attempt at preempt fashion, the newest trend will be referencing the unsavory parts of the world and asserting independence and individuality". Belmonte’s view throughout the article seems to be that "cool" almost revolves in various cycles and is always changing and in order to be "cool" a person must be "anti anti cool".

This article is easy for the reader to relate to especially when Belmonte says that “some people chase cool throughout their lives and for some people its a way of life". This is very true many young people usually pretend not to care if they are cool in order to become cool. This article is very effective in showing how today's youth are diverse and intermingled throughout various peer groups. Belmonte made it very clear how marketers were using this in advertising and promotional efforts to gain these consumer bases. All of the information on how the advertisers related to Generation X was very convincing, and the descriptions about how they did so through various icons helped the reader to connect with this article. There was not enough documented factual information to prove and backup the author’s points. Peter Belmonte seemed to be expressing this from his personal opinions and views, rather than the experience or first hand observations of others. However, the article was very well written and effective in getting his purpose and points across. This article demonstrates how many young people that are going through an anti-cool phase actually want to be the cool kid. This article is easy to relate with and it makes the reader believe the information being delivered throughout it.

After reading Peter Belmonte’s article the reader should now have an understanding of why cool is a timeless emotional need. The reader should now know that rejecting fashion is a way today’s youth become the “most fashionable” and by doing so they can become the “perfect cool”. Peter Belmonte evoked the understanding in his readers that the “perfect cool” in actuality is becoming anti-anti-cool.

Peter Belmonte "Brand Cool"What Matters in America;
Gary Goshgarian 2007 Pearson Education