Teenagers are the most studied group of people in America today. They are a huge mystery to many, due to the differences in the way they think, act, and operate compared to children and adults. Teenagers have the largest disposal income of any other age group in our society. This is due in big part to teenagers are impulsive and want to spend every last penny they have in their pocket on being cool. In the movie "The Merchants of Cool," they stated that teenagers spend 100 billion dollars a year, and persuade their parents to spend another 50 billion dollars a year on them. This makes teenagers the heart of our economy. Marketing research and advertising is revolved around teens, due to their large influence on our economy and the mystery behind how teenagers are thinking these days.
Teenagers have a realistic view on advertising these days. They understand that just because Grant Hill advertises Sprite, doesn't mean they have to drink it to be cool. Teenagers are known for being rebellious, and maybe they are not only rebelling against parents, schools, and authority, but also advertisements in the media. They see what is being advertised and have an urge to be different, so they purposely do not buy what is advertised because that is what "everyone else will have." .
Teenagers have a culture of their own. This culture seems to be very mysterious to advertisers, and the minute they figure out what the teenagers think is cool, that's when it changes. With trends for teens constantly changing, they are very hard to keep up with, which is why advertisers will pay company's large sums of money to specialized corporations to figure this out for them. These corporations are paid to figure out what catches the teenager's eyes. It seems these days that sex and violence are catching the eye of teenagers all over the United States. This could be in part to the fact that teenagers like to rebel.