For our cover story this month, we commissioned a survey that asked 500 young residents of the Gulf region – half male, half female, the majority of them Arab nationals – to name the two coolest and two uncoolest celebrities they could think of. No parameters were included. The respondents, aged 15 to 24, could name anyone they wanted.
The results are, well, interesting. Many of the names that cropped up are fairly predictable: Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie and Jude Law, for example, are all presumably listed as cool because they’re charismatic, successful and annoyingly good-looking – the accepted ingredients for being “cool” the world over. There are a few regional names that fall into that category as well.
Britney Spears, David Hasselhoff and Victoria Beckham, meanwhile, are seen as uncool because they’re – how to say this politely? – pointless wastes of precious natural resources. Actually, it would have been far more surprising if Spears hadn’t topped the “uncoolest” poll. (The young lady from Louisiana actually polled three times as many minus points as Mrs. Beckham.)
But there were a few we really didn’t see coming. Among male voters, for instance, respondents named Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and prime minsiter of the UAE, as the coolest celebrity.
Marketers should take note. Though it’s highly unlikely Sheikh Mohammed will be offering celebrity endorsements any time soon, his appearance on this list says a lot about the attitudes of Arab youth.
The inclusion of the Pitts, Clooneys and Jolies of the world shows that young Middle Easterners, like youth around the world, are heavily influenced by Western entertainment.
And names like Nancy Ajram, Elissa, Youssef Al Jarrah and Fadel Shaker show that here, like most places in the world, young people think highly of locals who make it big. (Of the 20 coolest, nine are Arabs and the rest Westerners. Of the 20 least cool, all are Westerners.)
But the inclusion of Sheikh Mohammed and other public figures illustrates just how different young Middle Easterners are from their Western counterparts.
It’s hard to imagine teenagers in London, for instance, hanging out on a street corner going, “Gordon Brown is book.” “Nah, that Cameron’s wikkid.” In fact, it’s hard to imagine they’d even know that David Cameron is the leader of Britain’s opposition.
In the Middle East, however, there is clearly more awareness among youths of who their leaders are and what they’re doing. It’s likely, then, that Sheikh Mohammed received so many votes because of another aspect of what being “cool” generally means: People would like to emulate your achievements.
Whereas kids in the West look at, say, footballers and think, “Wow. I wish I could do that,” it seems that a lot of kids in the Middle East are reading newspaper reports of Sheikh Mohammed’s latest initiative and thinking, “Wow. I wish I could do that.”
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