26 Aug 2011
Clever marketing has redefined the notion of cool
The author Lauren Gurrieri has just graduated from Melbourne University’s business and economics faculty after penning a doctoral thesis on how the advertising industry constructs the notion of cool.
She found that marketing trends had stereotyped cool identities as male, wealthy, heterosexual, white, sexualised, attractive, and able-bodied.
Dr Gurrieri said these consumer stereotypes were exploited by marketers, who fed on the need for fantasy, pleasure, novelty and escape.