Vice’s audience is like 20-30s white men which is an uncool demographic to any teen not directly outside of a liquor store.
21 Likes
McInnes was the face and guiding light of Vice for a long, long time. He’s woven deeper into their culture than you would think. Check out this blast from the past:
4 Likes
Why wouldn’t Chrome, et al be cool? Although many people hate brands and “khaki-shortsed” companies, I would guess most people just see Chrome as the browser they use to access oh, say, THE ENTIRE INTERNET which is pretty damn cool.
Maybe Google somehow skewed the results by being involved, but would they have to? I’d say YouTube is pretty awesome, and I definitely would have thought so as a teenager. In what world would teens say YouTube-- a place where you can listen to nearly any music you want and then watch cat videos–is lame?
3 Likes
When I was in my mid teens I decided that anything trying to be cool was uncool. This meant most, if not all, businesses were uncool.
It was also the first time period when I had anarcho-syndicalist/communist sympathies, although I think that came a few weeks or months later.
10 Likes
No, you gotta find an older, 40-something guy, who isn’t necessarily white and looks like life has kicked his ass up and down the street. Someone who looks like they just don’t care anymore. That’s the kind of person who would buy a kid alcohol.
Other than that, you have a point. The only people who think 20- and 30-something white men are cool, are other 20- and 30-something white guys.
4 Likes
When I mentioned that he left nearly ten years ago, I’m not sure how seeing an article from fourteen years ago changes much about that.
Regardless, I’m not saying it’s hip. Merely (1) that its content nowadays seems pretty mainstream liberal, not crazy white libertarian (I don’t know whether it’s “real” liberal, but its articles on race, sexuality, non-binary gender identity, climate change, etc etc, seem to be standard party line), and (2) I still don’t know where you find teens who all think that Cosco and Verizon are significantly “cooler.”
3 Likes
This is the strange part to me, Vice is a pretty big brand these days and their video game journalism is led (and partially staffed) by the people on here:
I think they are actively trying to dump the Vice name though (they launched Waypoint last year), which probably matches the perception of the brand being sunk by McInnes types.
6 Likes
I can understand Youtube. Imagine you’re a kid with no money and no power and the world thinks you’re inconsequential. Now imagine you made some dumbass video… for free… and thousands of other teens are giving you “likes.” That’s cool.
The one I don’t get is Google. It’s a goddam search engine. It’s like saying college-ruled filler paper is cool.
5 Likes
I think it’s the art, self-driving cars, etc. that is what gets them cool points and not the invasive targeting advertising dollars.
2 Likes
All teens and millennials surveyed agreed that nothing could be less cool than a report trying to explain what’s cool to a bunch of old people.
13 Likes
My dad once told me, when I was a teenager, “Kids are dumb.”
Deep down, I knew he was right!
11 Likes
Exactly. The truly cool never worry about whether or not they’re cool, they just are.
And if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him. Or don’t. Whatever, man, it’s cool.
4 Likes
Was vice ever cool? I mean they launched and came to prominence around when I was in prime young cool kid age block. And our reaction was mostly mocking, it was considered Rolling Stone for hipster douche bags. And the Rolling Stone part wasn’t meant as a compliment (it was the magazine for dads with pony tails). Now that I am an old I can acknowledge that they do good and interesting work sometimes. But I still consider them to be faintly ridiculous try hards impeding themselves by trying to be edgy.
6 Likes
That’s where mom and dad go to buy bathtub sized containers of food that tweens and teens shovel into their coal furnace like faces non-stop. What’s not to love?
4 Likes
I was flabbergasted that teens thought People magazine is cool until I realized I simply misunderstood the headline.
5 Likes
licks tip of pencil, jots something down on large scroll titled “Regrets”
5 Likes
I’m deeply shocked by how uncool Nest is ranked. I mean aren’t teenagers just fascinated by thermostats?
12 Likes
