Jason Tanz in his essay “Selling Down: The Marketing of the Hip-Hop Nation” expresses the idea of ​​how companies view teenagers as their main source of profit . They're aimed at teenagers because they like hip-hop. According to Tanz, hip-hop “from its beginnings, hip-hop galvanized its audience around certain types of values” (Tanz 93). Now, hip-hop encourages its audience to buy merchandise. The company uses hip-hop to promote its products and make money from teenagers, who are heavy consumers. Companies operate based on consumer tastes to profit from their products, which raises the issue of companies using teenagers to make profit. Although the main target is primarily teenagers, Tanz focuses primarily on "white kids", as he calls it. Corporations take advantage of the weaknesses of “white kids,” as Tanz puts it, such as lack of honesty, confidence, style, and arrogance. Teenagers want to hide their weaknesses behind the coolness of hip-hop. They can achieve this because “hip-hop has always released rapper-endorsed signifiers, products that promised to confer lower status on anyone who consumed them” (Tanz 89). By getting down status, white kids can hide their weaknesses behind it, because they will “gain” all those things they were lacking. For example, if they are insecure, the hip-hop down status will help them feel safer because they feel like they belong to the black community. Belonging to the black community means you're going to be cool and tough and that's exactly what teenagers want to feel more secure about. Since companies know that their products will be sold if the consumer feels attached to the product, that's why they sell pro...... middle of paper ...... think they are going to be cool and depressed. They use a hip-hop artist to get our attention and use persuasive language to get us to buy the product. These two elements constitute a deadly and successful advertisement that is impossible to escape. Teenagers are most susceptible to this problem because they do not have the security that older people have; they want to belong and fit in, so they buy such products to belong to hip-hop's "disadvantaged status" and be popular. Companies know that teenagers are an easy target when it comes to security and that is why they use psychological techniques based on consumer tastes to profit from their products. Works Cited Tanz, Jason. “Selling: Marketing the Hip-Hop Nation.” » Reading pop culture: a portable anthology. Ed. Jeff Ousborne. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2013. 87-96. Print.