FoolHunter

Why Cool-Hunting Sucks in '06 (part 2)

2006-04-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

Cool-hunters are out of touch with the real world.
Example: Josh Spear. Dude, you're, what, 21 and making more than most people's parents combined? You are not in-touch with the average young adult by a long-shot. You cannot observe "cool" when you're so far-gone participating in only the most elitist forms of "cool". You are a "brand evangelist", not a "brand consultant". You prey on the naivete of the lazy and desperate, and that is low-hanging fruit, my friend. You should really get your head out of your ass, because your shit totally stinks.

Cool-hunters don't practice what they preach.
Example: Cool Hunting. Pretension is so not cool, guys. Are you cool enough to tell me what's hot and what's not? Then you're cool enough to allow comments on your site and discuss with your readers the sycophantic and shameless plugging you do on a regular basis. You're also cool enough to site your sources, instead of pretending you've discovered something a week after it's been on one of the sites you routinely pilfer for content. You're cool enough to cut the bullshit. Or you're just not that cool after all.

Cool-hunters are little more than list-makers.
Example: The Cool Hunter. This site is a freaking grocery list, of every fad and gadget you can't afford to buy. You can't tell the ads from the editorial. That's not cool, and there's no hunting involved. WTF is up with your inflated sense of importance? Dumpster diving is as cool as what you do, but far less greedy.

Previously on FoolHunter:
Why Cool-Hunting Sucks in '06 (part 1)

Why Cool-Hunting Sucks in '06 (part 1)

2006-04-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

Cool-hunting always has an agenda.
That is, to identify new means by which to pry the disposable and indisposable income from (psychographically) young adults' debit and credit cards. Cool-hunters conduct research with the intention of finding new ways to make you believe that you're irrelevant -- unless you buy certain products, and buy them first or most frequently. Cool-hunters operate under the assumption that you will pay dearly to allay your fear of not belonging. They make a shit-load of money selling what they know about your behavior to corporations and their marketing / advertising agencies, whomever's willing to pay for an alleged glimpse into the minds of their target markets.

They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the "next big thing" that will snare the attention of their prey--a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year.
- Douglas Rushkoff's Frontline documentary, "The Merchants of Cool".

The merchants of cool are more clinical than the hunters of cool, apparently. Most cool-hunting sites, blogs and newsletters are not observing trends, but whole-heartedly participating in and endorsing them. These self-proclaimed experts are merely absorbed in passing fads, and frequently plagued with an inflated sense of self importance - possibly a product of the general arrogance of the blogosphere. (Being able to publish your every whim in a world-wide medium does not make you an expert.)

Anyone can say what's cool and what isn't, and, really, there's much less genuine value in something anyone can do.

FoolHunter begins now.

2006-04-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

FoolHunter is dedicated to exposing the snake-oil salesmen commonly referred to as "cool hunters" or "trend watchers". Quite the trend itself, cool-hunting is the highly subjective, awfully elitist practice of mastering the obvious - usually compunded by a barnacle-like attachment to the subject matter (a deep participation in the "cool", if you will). FoolHunter aims to debunk this farce and others like it.