CultureSpy: Teens Out Marketing’s Tricks

We stumbled upon quite an interesting site the other day which goes a long way to out the various marketing and trends agencies. CultureSpy a highly opinionated site run by a crew of teenagers that looks at / damns the way brands try to follow trends. On a critique of teen trend agencies they say:

Here at Culture Spy we keep an eye on companies that claim to know all about teenagers. Most of these companies are marketing agencies and their job is to figure out how to sell things to us teens. They use a lot of sneaky methods to do this including hiring teens to spy on their best friends. By getting us to part with our hard earned cash, these companies make a lot of money for themselves and the companies that hire them.

Not only do they write but they culture jam by doing things like trying to infiltrate MTV shows. Intrigued, we dropped them some questions to find out more.

PSFK: Fascinating site. How are you? Do you know www.psfk.com? Here’s the thing. I was going to give you a mention but (a) wanted to know a little more about you and (b) wanted to ask this question: the theory is that companies need to understand their consumers to make products for them and make the right marketing messages? Are you against commercial activity like this or is the ‘spying’ you complain about something darker?

CS: Thanks for your interest in CultureSpy.com. The website itself is a critical exploration of the practice of marketers employing teen correspondents to gather cultural data on their peers. The site does not celebrate nor condemn the practice. Instead it seeks to examine the nuanced dynamic of cultural exchange that occurs between marketers and teenagers in  this relationship.

I am familiar with your site and I have visited it several times. It would be great if you gave us a mention, but I am curious as to how you intend to depict us.

PSFK: Well, I like the fact that teens notice what’s going on and I was going to celebrate the fact – but I wanted to make the following points in the piece: My theory would be that marketers have overstepped the boundary and taken it too far. They’ve used deception rather than be honest about their intentions. Look look is a perfect example of this smoke and mirrors approach. I feel that your generation understands the need for business and marketing – it just needs to be respectful and authentic rather than parasitic.

CS: In the course of doing our research for the website I would have to say that we came to feel that marketers indeed are taking things too far. Their surveillance tactics are becoming increasingly invasive and paradoxically may be suffocating the development of truly innovative cultural developments.

PSFK: Do you think there’s room for commerce to help drive those cultural developments too. Take iPod & iTunes for example – made a pretty big cultural impact?

Commerce always ensures that they have a cultural impact no matter what the circumstances. In many cases the impact they have is an outgrowth of a non-profit grass roots cultural movement. For instance, iTunes major impact would not have been possible without the development of Napster and the attendant explosion of peer to peer file sharing. Apple was just clever enough to capitalize on this development and commercially legitimize it.

PSFK: What’s next for Culture Spy?

CS: As for what’s next for Culture Spy? Not really sure yet, although we do intend to post some streaming video of an interview that we did with Tina Wells, the CEO of Buzz Marketing in the near future. And we are trying to recruit new culture spies from all over the world to contribute to the site.

Culturespy.com