Can the media sell us anything

I was watching the discovery channel today and orange county choppers was on. Watching these guys beat and pry parts into place with mallets and prybars made me wonder why these bikes are so desirable. Not to take away from the builders, these bikes are moving works of art. But quality they are not. I promise you if you went to a honda factory you would never see the type of "work" that you see with these custom bikes. Which brings me to my question. Can the media sell us anything? prior to all the publicity on the discovery channel custom bikes were a niche market with a few very loyal builders and fans. Now everyone has a West Coast Chopper shirt on and people who can afford to do so spend as much as $200,000 on these bikes. The media has made custom bike building trendy and cool for now and as soon as they find the next big thing they will dump the bikes and move on. Why are we so easily brainwashed into buying merchandice and products we see on television. What happened to people doing thier own thing, and not jumping on the band wagon of every trend? Why am I wearing Abercrombie underwear?

What factors do think influence the American public's willingness to let the media tell them what is and what isn't cool?