Every so often, a company hoping to tap into the minds — and wallets — of fickle trendsetters sets out to determine what’s cool.
Witness the “Cool/Not Cool” survey of some 600 U.S. 18- to 34-year-olds, released last month by market research firm Harris Interactive.
The findings: It’s coolest to dress casually, like Jennifer Aniston and Matt Damon. The coolest nights out are actually those spent hanging out at home or at a friend’s house (as opposed to hitting the town). Talking face-to-face is the coolest form of communication. And the coolest character on “Entourage” is Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven).
But some say the results, commissioned by eyedrop manufacturer ROHTO, are a little … uncool.
“These people are living under rocks,” said West Town resident Monica Dimperio, 27, upon hearing the survey results.
Dimperio runs The Midwasteland, a fashion and culture blog that focuses on style in the Midwest. She’s always on the lookout for what’s cool, and Aniston-style casual threads ain’t it, she said.
“I think that right now people are trying to be unique with their clothing,” Dimperio said. “Guys you’d normally see wearing jerseys before are now wearing T-shirts with vests.”
Jeremy Gutsche, founder of trendhunter.com, said the ROHTO survey “confused ‘mainstream popularity’ with ‘cool.’ “
“Basically, if you ask everyone their favorite ice cream, you will end up with vanilla being the most popular every time,” said Gutsche, whose new book, “Exploiting Chaos,” launches in September. “But that doesn’t mean vanilla is cool.”
Not that the survey should be taken so seriously. It was a PR stunt to market the “cooling kick” of ROHTO eyedrops, which are supposed to feel like “a breath mint for your eyes,” said Christina Occhipinti, account executive with Robin Leedy & Associates, which does public relations for ROHTO.
“It’s probably more about what is popular, but in order to tie it into the brand we called it the “cool/uncool” survey,” Occhipinti said.
The quest to nail down what’s cool may seem a futile task, as it’s a matter of personal taste and everyone has a different definition of what cool even means.
But some make a living spotting what’s hot.
To Gutsche, something is cool when it’s unique, with the potential to go viral — though then, of course, it risks becoming so popular that it’s no longer cool (see Uggs, Hush Puppies and Crocs, he said).
Dimperio said she observed that unfortunate fate befall the once-cool fedora at Lollapalooza.
“One person wearing a fedora is cool,” Dimperio said. “But about 7,000 people wearing fedoras — it’s just not cool anymore.”
To Irma Zandl, founder and president of the Zandl Group, a Brooklyn-based trend researcher, “cool” means being progressive and trend-forward. According to Zandl, these days Apple products are cool; biking to work is cool; being “green” is cool; and being financially grounded and frugal, as opposed to a flashy big spender, is cool.
“It used to be that what’s cool is who got something first,” Zandl said. “Now it’s more about your personal interests.”
It also depends on how you define “cool.” Take the exercise of declaring the coolest “Entourage” character (assuming, for the sake of argument, that “Entourage” is cool).
Chris Quander, 44, a financier who lives in Logan Square, agrees with the Harris survey respondents that it’s super-agent Ari Gold.
“He’s a ball buster,” Quander said. “Most people in their jobs wish they could say what they want to say.”
Consultant Andrew Kritzer, 23, meanwhile, thinks slacker friend Turtle is coolest because “he doesn’t really care.”
And the coolest for Sean McDonald, a 24-year-old masseuse living in Lincoln Park?
“Sloan,” he said, referring to manager Eric’s ex-girlfriend. “Because she’s hot.”
Where many Chicagoans agree is that texting, and not face-to-face contact as the Harris survey found, is the coolest communication method of all, mostly because it’s easy.
“It’s direct, it’s to the point,” Kritzer said. “No one’s ignoring a text message.”
Admittedly, there’s something inherently uncool about the quest for cool. Is the word “cool” even cool?
“The word is so lame,” said Zandl, the trend researcher. “It feels very desperate to me.”
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aelejalderuiz@tribune.com
