The Grinch that stole Culture...

So we occasionally roam around universities quietly observing the patterns of the youth, searching for those people who truly do indeed influence majority opinion through adopting the cool rarities of life. The “Cool Counterculture Cat” (CCC) is the guy who first put on a pair of Asics Tigers, or the girl that throws on her ‘sheila’ a little differently, the guy who dared divert from the white earphones and listens to ‘true underground New York Hip Hop’ as opposed to 50 cent on his Ipod or even the girl that decides to drink Oasis water with a colorful straw.
These CCC’s are the people who the planners at TBWA clearly didn’t brush shoulders with when creating the epitome of un-cool TIDA campaign…if the people portrayed in that ad are an even close portrayal of the writers of the ad during their youthful years , then someone needs to give them a hug… I can just see the planner staring at a copy writer he spotted wearing a Von Dutch Tshirt and uttering the words ‘What makth you tho cool?’
Ok I drifted a little, back to the point. ..
These CCC are the people that have been addressed by the likes of Malcolm Gladwell and the innumerable researchers contributing to the ever expanding body of literature dubbed “Cool Hunting’.

As amazing a discipline cool hunting sounds and is, I can’t help but hear that little voice in the back of my head telling me that by finding that precious rarity and exploiting I will eventually destroy it…Imagine taking someone’s favorite artist who through rarity developed a personal connection with i.e. ‘I don’t share Artist X with every TDH listening to the radio’ and playing it on the radio over and over.
The ravages of fad culture will crave, chew, swallow and then sh*t out what was once an artist…

Yes that thing we call a ‘conscience’ would really tear us apart if it wasn’t for that other thing we call ‘evasion’.