Oh they are “cooler” 😉 Being smart, or at least obviously smarter than most ofthe people around you has never been “cool”. It isn’t as uncool as being obviously a moron, but it’s never been in the “cool” category. People like people that are just about as smart as they are, because no one wants to feel stupid. Making people feel stupid ( or at least lots of people, rather than just a few singled out for group ridicule ) isn’t “cool”. The fact that it i s unintentional and ones own inate brilliance ( ahem! ) makes others feel stupid in comparison isn’t any help… as far as the masses are concerned you make them feel stupid so you can’t be cool.

Teen age pop stars with way too much money that show people places to shop for overpriced handbags… now they are “cool” 😀

BTW: To the original point, marketers are salesmen. They pride themselves on getting people to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do ( like by cinnamon flavoured toothpaste, or buy a lip synched CD from a teen age pop star. ) Even if they don’t start out thinking they are outsmarting everyone, after successs at getting people to spend money on stupid things it would be pretty hard not to start thinking you were smarter than everyone else.

Of course marketers live in a world where they eat, live and breathe marketing… and like the cross dressing neo nazi succumb to the illusion that that is all there is in the world. Thus they focus on market share, while the actual size of the market dwindles away… because those people that don’t succumb to marketing son’t register in their world view. Ironically, marketting may therefore be most successful on the marketers themselves.