iPhone fanbois run off road in CoolBrand race Fanbois will be crying tears of frustration over their iPhones today at the revelation they no longer possess the UK's most coveted product. The CoolBrands survey, which delineates the most desirable consumer brands, has declared Aston Martin is this year's coolest brand, driving the iPhone off the number one spot. Apple fans …
... means trying too hard and, normally, failing. Think of any over-plastic celebriclone and how much many of them actually look like Pete Burns as opposed to the girl in the office who somehow manages to look great despite just seemingly having thrown her clothes on in the morning and whipped her hair up (my guess is that it actually takes a lot of effort to manage that look of effortless beauty ;) ).
Understated means subtle. Something looks really good but doesn't jump off the shelf and hit you between the eyes. It's designed to look good in a subtle way by not attracting attention to one feature of itself.
overstated' beauty means that something is garish. It looks OK, but makes too much effort to be noticed.
And why, exactly should I care what they think is cool?
It was Yves St Laurent who said, 'Fashion goes out, but style remains'. There's nothing stylish about being a corporate whore, be it for Apple, or for Aston Martin. Equally, the best way to make something 'uncool', is for a panel of slebs to declare it as 'cool'.
And, seriously, Harley Davidson? Try claiming that one of those is 'cool' to any real biker, and see how quickly you get laughed out of the pub.
I live ~100 yards from an Angels pub and almost all of them ride Harleys.
I don't know about cool, but I wouldn't tell them that they weren't real bikers.
OTOH I know plenty of bikers who would agree with you, so I think this is more of a horses for courses argument.
I know that Kelly Hoppen mostly does designs for interior furnishings, so I expect the others are in similar fields, which makes this a list for the shallow nouveau riche (e.g. footballers) and Heat Magazine reading wannabes so they know what stuff to buy in order to avoid being bullied in the playground by others in their social group.
Of course that means that if you buy one of these brands for genuine reasons there will be a section of society who automatically assume that you're actually trying to be cool and are, by extension, shallow and probably stupid.
OK, just visited the actual page.
Just what were the questions asked to generate these answers, and just how were the 2,100 people picked?
Category Winner Best Restaurant or Cafe - The Fat Duck
Now I'm not saying The Fat Duck isn't a cool brand. I'm just sceptical that a reasonable cross section of British society know what, where and who it is. Little Chef, maybe, but The Fat Duck ?
" "cool" in this sense seems to mean superficial, fickle and dull."
You mean, like the sort of superficial, fickle and dull person who woudl base their purchasing decisions upon what other people considered to be cool?
Whether you buy because the thing is "cool", or DON'T buy because the thing is "cool", you are both two sides of the same dull brainless coin.
So owning things that are "cool" in the fashionable voted-for-by-celebs sense attracts the kind of people I have no time for.
If you pretend, for a minute, that life is like a pub -- I'd, generally, rather be approached by someone dressed in overalls or a corduroy than someone in <insert fashion brand here>. OK, it's not always true, but I'd still rather not look "cool".
Oh, and looking "cool" is probably more likely to attract thieves (in the case of an iPhone etc.).
Personally, I'd rather look nondescript or dull -- makes life easier.
"If you pretend, for a minute, that life is like a pub -- I'd, generally, rather be approached by someone dressed in overalls or a corduroy than someone in <insert fashion brand here>. OK, it's not always true, but I'd still rather not look "cool"."
So you ARE just as dull, shallow and trend-obsessed as those you seek to slag off.
All terribly sad, really.
Me? Personally I couldn't care whether they are in corduroy, denim, designer suit, swimming trunks, monkey costume or whatever. It's the person that I'd be interested in chatting with, not their clothes.
Same with buying things.
I couldn't care less whether all the "cool kidz" like it or not, all that matters to me is whether the item does what I need and fits my requirements. anyone else's perception of the product is irrelevant to my decision-making process.
Makes life SO much easier.
I often wonder how much credibility any of these "cool" surveys actually have. Or how in touch with the real world the people who do the judging are.
Some of the stuff that appears in surveys like this often falls into the "fantasy" category. They're nice, but are so unobtainable that they don't occupy people's thoughts very often.
For example, Austin Martin is right at the top, but your average man on the street won't think about them for more than a couple of minutes before getting on with their lives. Yet there are 10s of thousands of school girls out there who will insesantly nag thier parents for an iPhone for months "because all of their friends have one", and a fair few boys who'd rip their own scrotums off if they thought there was an iPad inside.
If you were to go out on to the street and ask the average person what they thought was cool, things like the Aston Martin probably wouldn't feature in the top 50, and you'd probably have the iPad, iPhone and iTouch all in the top 10.
I'm not an Apple fan (don't own ANYTHING Apple), but they generate such a frenzy that you cannot ignore them.
To shamelessly rip off Harry Enfield...
Owning an iPhone says that 'I am a corporate fanboi whore'
Owning an Aston says "I am considerably richer than yaouwww"
And since when was an Aston understated.... it screams Loadsamoney...
Not that I would say no to one if someone wanted to buy me one... An Aston that is, not the other piece of tat
So Apple products feature "powerful breaking technology", eh? Would that be the Apple iJackhammer?
I suppose that a Walt Kelly character might say that Apple products are "powerful broken".
Ah, well. I suppose it's a bit much to expect an articulate, meaningful explanation from something like the Cool Brands report.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
