The Coolness of Everything, as Ranked by Teens

Sorry, Sunglass Hut, the teens have spoken on what's cool, and it ain't you. The Washington Post reports Google recently released a report called It's Lit: A Guide to What Teens Think Is Cool after surveying around 1,100 youths between the ages of 13 and 17. “Teens feel something is cool if it’s unique, impressive, interesting, amazing, or awesome," the Verge quotes from It's Lit. YouTube (the coolest brand, according to teens), Netflix, Google, Oreos, Doritos, and Nike apparently all fit the bill. The Wall Street Journal was found to be the least cool brand with teens. "Well kids, the bond market doesn't think you're cool either," WSJ reporter Mike Bird responded on Twitter (also not very cool with teens).

While some of the coolness rankings were expected—Coke is cooler than Pepsi, obviously—others were fairly shocking. Who would have thought teens found JC Penney cooler than Red Bull? Perhaps more suspicious than shocking: A survey conducted by Google found two of the three coolest brands are Google and Google-owned YouTube. Observer reports It's Lit basically turns into "native advertising for Google." For example, the report quotes one 17-year-old girl: "Google is ... great at everything it does, from email to documents. Google products are easy to use and work well." Possibly goosing your own survey results? Even teens must think that's uncool. (More teens stories.)