|
In 1997 Conceptafilm finished another
NFB documentary called All the Right Stuff.
It is 22 minutes long and was intended for an adolescent audience.
We still think it works.
This film can be ordered through http://www.nfb.ca/e/
"I always have a good time. Lots of teenagers
hang out at the mall. It's like walking around in a big TV set."
Brendan, 13.
All the Right Stuff is about kids, malls, media and
money. It puts the role of youth in today's corporate economy into
perspective.
Join Brendan on a tour through the local mall. With
two hundred dollars of birthday money in his pocket, he's ready
to do some serious spending on music, clothes, and video games.
Teenagers represent a huge and lucrative market for
advertisers. They may work in low-paying service sector jobs, but
as Brendan says "I pay no rent. My income is one hundred percent
disposable."
Intercut with Brendan's shopping trip are interviews
with shopkeepers, young people who talk about the pressure on them
to consume and to sport all the right logos, and members of the
bands Thrush Hermit and Hip Club Groove on how the music and clothing
industries target young people.
With poor job prospects and little access to the political
process, teens come to see themselves primarily as consumers. It's
a self-image marketers are only too happy to encourage and exploit.
© Conceptafilm 2003
|