Rachel Dretzin

FRONTLINE takes an in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar "persuasion industries" of advertising and public relations. To cut through mass-media clutter and to overcome consumers' grwoing resistance to their pitches, marketers have developed new ways of integrating their messages deeper in the fabric of our lives. Through sophisticated market research methods to better undertand consumers and by turning to the little-understood techniques of public relations to make sure their message comes from sources we trust, marketers are crafting messages that resonate with an increasingly cynical public.… (meer)

Teenagers today have more money and independence than ever before. Their lives have become the object of obsessive focus by corporate America. Their tastes, attitudes and aspirations are sampled and resampled by marketeres wiedling the latest scientific tools to determine exactl who they are and what they want. And from this surging stream of data, the dreamweavers of Hollywood and Madison Avernue tell a version of teenage life in movies, television, music and advertising that is meant to applea to their deepest sensibilities. FRONTLINE explores the culture in which today's American teenager is growing up and how they've come to view themselves and their parents.… (meer)