How cool is cool?

Is "coolness" is still a valid barometer of success in the 21st century?

Last week Aston Martin, the iconic British sports car manufacturer, was named the coolest brand in the UK for the second year running in the annual CoolBrands list. 
 
I quite enjoyed Mark Lowe, co-founder at Third City's view: 

A friend of mine – let’s call him Dave – is a very successful city type. Dave prides himself on having it all and there is no "cool" brand he would do without. So, imagine Dave’s annoyance earlier this year when a very "cool" private members' club kicked him out. You can understand why Dave was irritated. He'd been a member for years and spent thousands in the place. But they decided he wasn’t cool enough for them.

Of course, a hundred other private members clubs in London would welcome Dave with open arms. But why would he go there? Dave might be rich, but like most of us he wants the things he can’t afford, not the things he can. Dave’s story tells us a few things about "coolness".

Firstly, you can’t buy it. Secondly (and this is where the private members' club went very wrong) it’s subjective. Nobody gets to decide who is cool and who isn’t. The "arbiter of cool", is, as a concept, fundamentally uncool. And thirdly, coolness is mutable. You don’t get to keep it for a set period of time, like a golf club subscription.

CoolBrands breaks all three of these rules. Oddly, they admit as much in their own press release: "Cool is subjective and personal, but being identified as a CoolBrand by the British public and a panel of influential opinion-formers implies it is a brand that most Brits wish to own."

So what Coolbrands really is, is a list of stuff people want to own, which explains why there are so many luxury brands on the list. That’s very different from a list of stuff that’s cool.

Take a look at the Top 20 list and see what you think...

1.            Aston Martin
2.            Apple
3.            Harley-Davidson
4.            Rolex
5.            Bang & Olufsen
6.            BlackBerry
7.            Google
8.            Ferrari
9.            Nike
10.          YouTube
11.          Alexander McQueen
12.          Dom Pérignon
13.          PlayStation
14.          Ray-Ban
15.          Chanel
16.          Nintendo
17.          Vivienne Westwood
18.          Agent Provocateur
19.          Tate Modern
20.          Maserati 

HOT OR NOT?

On the subject of cool, does anyone remember the online site 'Hot or Not' where people uploaded their photo's and you could rate them between 0 - 10, basically encouraging complete strangers from across the globe to give your self esteem a good kicking? Don't all go searching for your ex's now...

 

Upon searching for 'Hot or Not' it I've found that the below is currently their home page - apparently now you can rate dead people too. Weird. Times have changed.