12 December 2018

End Of Year Links

A random collection of links I didn’t use in any posts this year but were worth a bookmark or I thought so at the time. Not necessarily advertising-related:

imageOldyssey
Oldyssey showcases elderly all over the world and highlights initiatives that deepen the link between generations.

Old friend Bayard Presse is a partner.

HomesRenewed™ Coalition
imageOur MISSION is to join forces to significantly increase the number of American homes prepared for residents to live throughout the modern lifespan by promoting consumer incentives on Wall Street, Main Street and Capitol Hill.

 Louis Tenenbaum keeps going and going.

image

Sans Forgetica is the Typeface You Won’t Forget
…Janneke Blijlevens of RMIT’s Behavioral Business Lab adds foreign language learners and elderly people grappling with memory loss to the list of potential beneficiaries…

image

imageOld age shouldn’t just be about survival—it should be about fun
By Joseph F. Coughlin
“Old age” as we currently know it is just a fictional story we tell ourselves.

(No, that’s not a picture of Joe.)

Happy Holidays. Last link - a cute commercial from France:

03 December 2018

Where are old people going to live?

It used to be that old people lived wherever they lived – and that was that.

Foothill Acres Nursing Homes, Neshanic, New Jersey, circa 1965 - Advertising PostcardBeginning a century or so ago you could move into a retirement community for as long as you could stand it (or stand up), then would be whisked away to an old age home.

Now there are choices. So many choices you could have multiple strokes just thinking about them.

Image result for golden girlsThere’s staying put (aka aging in place) where you don’t go anywhere and you’re taken care of by people or robots. Or you can move to one of thousands of adult communities that are no different than old-fashioned retirement communities except they have internet and yoga mats. Or you can buy/rent a house/condo with a few friends and do a Golden Girls/Boys/Boys & Girls thing.  Or you can buy a motor home, drive it around for a few years until you get bored, then park it somewhere. Or you can purchase a ready-made tiny house and have a helicopter dump it in one of your children’s backyards.  

The possibilities are endless until the end.

Of course, there are social scientists galore wondering what old people are  gonna do, loads of business people trying to figure out what crazy products and services they can sell you, along with all sorts of thinkers and tinkerers hoping to convince you that you need to be digitally connected to something-or-other and be monitored 24/7 - or the rest of the world won’t know when you die.

You’ve heard the horror stories. You could be lying dead for fifteen minutes before anybody finds you.

If I get old enough to be really old, I’ll probably just want a bed, a chair on a porch, and a tree to look at.

16 November 2018

Hallmark Moment Syndrome

Whoops. Chuck got sucked into a sappy Christmas commercial. Let's hope it's not some new chronic condition (known in psychology journals as Hallmark Moment Syndrome).

I'm posting it because it's for a department store in the U.K. - so you won't be seeing it on this side of the pond.

06 November 2018

Knock The Vote

Today is voting day. I decided to wait until the whole mess was (almost) over before blogging this spot:


Many folks are upset about it. I get it. It’s ageist. It’s stupid. It’s inaccurate.

imageThe American Society on Aging has called on Nail Communications to suspend an ageist advertising campaign that began Sept. 24 as part of ACRONYM’s “Knock the Vote” initiative.

On another level it’s (I’m guessing) effective advertising. Some tongue-in-cheek variant of negative advertising.

I hope all late-teen to twenty-somethings will laugh, realize it’s silly, and vote.

Do the ends justify the means? That’s too deep a question for shallow me to answer.

Come to your own conclusions.

09 October 2018

AARP & NostraChuckus

crystalIt’s been a banner year for NostraChuckus, famed Soothsayer of The Mundane and The Obvious.  However, even he could not have predicted such a banner year for himself:

09 January 2018
2018: The Year of Big
… Advertisers will finally follow simple common sense, something a certain seer has been urging for years …

26 MARCH 2018
NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense has spot-on prognosticated what would come true in 2018

02 JULY 2018
The Year Of Big Gets Bigger
NostraChuckus, famed soothsayer of the obvious, continues to amaze with his humdrum prognostications…

19 SEPTEMBER 2018
NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense vs. Apple Watch
… While both offerings are worthy, we prefer The Crystal Ball because it can actually tell the future of the Apple Watch …

Now this:

AARP to Take On Ageism, Enlists Former Ad Executive Cindy Gallop
Image result for wall street journal logo… Madison Avenue has long been obsessed by youth and its workforce tends to be weighted toward the younger generation…

“The ad industry is an extremely ageist industry,” said Ms. Gallop, who added that she plans on pressuring agencies into hiring more older people…”

“When you have older people creating, producing and approving ads, the problem is easily solved,” Ms. Gallop added …

NostraChuckus in 2003 (via The Wayback Machine):

Advertising to Baby Boomers: Back into the Fold
The Giant Leap: There had better be a minor revolution in the creative end of the advertising industry. Talented men and women in their late forties and fifties need to be brought back into the fold if you want to reach us. This includes copywriters, graphic artists, producers, directors, and creative directors.

Truth is, you can analyze marketing fodder all day and night, read countless books about marketing to Baby Boomers, attend advertising and marketing conventions around the world, and soak up everything all the experts have to say. Much of what is out there is valuable and useful, some practically required reading, others instructive and illuminating. But if you plan on implementing a creative strategy, and turn it over to a different generation of advertising professionals - you'll forfeit the natural sensibilities required to generate vital campaigns.

The book of prophesy © 2005/2007:

Intro and First Chapter (PDF)

NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense is getting hazy now……

Image result for crystal ball gif

19 September 2018

NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense vs. Apple Watch

2018-09-19_133828
A quick comparison of NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense and the new Apple Watch:

crystal apple

Our Pick: NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense

While both offerings are worthy, we prefer The Crystal Ball because it can actually tell the future of the Apple Watch:

image_thumb1NostraChuckus in 2014:
Never Leave The Hospital! Health Tech Wearables, Implanted Chips
… Wired ‘n Monitored will create a whole new disorder for the mental health industry. Having devices wrapped around you or implanted that constantly flash and beep will cause over-the-top anxiety.

Image result for washington post logoWashington Post in 2018:
What cardiologists think about the Apple Watch’s heart-tracking feature
.. Some doctors said that including heart-monitoring tools in such a popular consumer product could trigger unnecessary anxiety and medical visits.

Modern (and ancient) tech gadgets can be helpful – but picking the right one for you is often a challenge. Do you want to know all about the present? Or the future?

It all comes down to personal preferences.

11 September 2018

From The Nothing New Dept : Retail’s New Niche

imageRetail's new niche: Aging baby boomers
The number of senior citizens in the United States is expected to nearly double by 2050, creating a fast-growing niche for retailers and manufacturers.

Odd sentence. What is an ‘aging’ baby boomer? I guess one who isn’t dead.

How about ‘fast-growing niche’? I guess in the grand scheme of things, thirty-odd years is a nanosecond. 

The Baby Boomer Market is a ‘niche’?  I guess the Pacific Ocean is a niche.

imageExecutives at Gillette have for decades defined shaving as a rite of passage … in recent years, executives have begun to see another milestone emerge in their customers’ lives: the moment when sons begin shaving their aging fathers.

Smart that Gillette understands the difference between 50-70 year-olds and an 80-100 year-olds. Few advertisers do.

A touching, sweet video:


… At Best Buy, the focus is increasingly on aging Americans who live at home …

Step one: Make it easier for adults to keep tabs on their aging parents. The company’s Assured Living program, introduced a year ago, uses a network of sensors to alert caretakers to changes in routine.

Best Buy’s acquisition of GreatCall … (has) two Jitterbug phones — one with a touch screen, the other a flip phone.

imageWill their youngish sales force be trained to differentiate between fifty-sixty somethings and eighty-ninety somethings?

I’m sixty-seven. If I walk into a Best Buy and say, “I’m looking for a smartphone,” and the salesperson steers me to a Jitterbug, I’d turn around and walk out. If I walk in and say, “I’m looking for a smartphone for my father” – I would be happy if he/she steers me to a Jitterbug.

We’ll see.


Yours Truly is participating in a project/startup:

image

08 August 2018

TV Spots I Remember

My previous post:

28 or 52 or 103 Things Only Baby Boomers Remember 

While banging it out I began thinking about commercials that have stuck with me through the years. They’re not necessarily the best or most famous – simply ones I loved, knocked me out.

Although the advertising revolution was well under way by 1965, I remember first seeing this commercial (I’m fourteen) and just going batty. I had no idea what I was watching. No commercial before had ever started and continued non-stop as a montage. Every image was memorable. Montages of any sort weren’t really used much on television – in commercials or programs:



Volkswagen Ads. There were so many. A great mini-doc:

The VW spot I went nutty over was for the Bus/Station Wagon. I swear I remember it being a minute long. An old couple is walking down a residential city street, looking for an address. They find it, walk up a few flights of stairs, then ...


Stone-faced absurdity. I’d never seen anything like it in a commercial. The actress playing the mother makes it all work.

Special effects. They’re all over the screen today. In the 1960s this was about as good as it got:

How about a spot whose sole purpose was not to use special effects? Talk about thrills and chills…

There is no ‘greatest commercial ever’ – except, of course, the Volkswagen Snow-Plow commercial:

My favorite greatest commercial ever:

Simple message: FedEx=Fast.

23 July 2018

28 or 52 or 103 Things Only Baby Boomers Remember

There are hundreds of lists of things only Baby Boomers will remember. I stumble upon a new one every month or so.

The latest one from Good Housekeeping:

image
28 Things Only Baby Boomers Will Remember


imageUsually, some Baby Boomer puts these lists together. This time, no. So there are anachronisms and cognitive dissonances every which way - telephones, gas stations, cars from the 1930s and 1940s, and so on. For example, the picture above is captioned:

 Whether it was The Beatles or the Beach Boys, people born in the '50s definitely remember buying their first vinyl record and listening to it over and over again.

Hmmm. That’s not quite the way I remember it. What pops up in my mind is one of these:

Related image

Here’s a better list:

image37 Things Every Baby Boomer Will Remember

22. Your doctor would lecture you about junk food while smoking a cigarette in your face.

23. You didn’t know who was calling you until you actually picked up the phone.

24. You know the anticipation of waiting for a polaroid picture to develop.

There are loads of better lists.

Now, think about a 25-year-old creative putting together an ad campaign targeting Baby Boomers.

The Human Resources/Brain Power Posts

From the vaults:

15 March 2010
Hire Baby Boomer Creatives
imageTruth is, you can analyze marketing fodder all day and night, read countless books about marketing to Baby Boomers, attend advertising and marketing conventions around the world, and soak up everything all the experts have to say. Much of what is out there is valuable and useful … But if you plan on implementing a creative strategy and turn it over to a different generation of advertising professionals — you'll forfeit the natural sensibilities required to generate vital campaigns.

Generations Make Better Decisions Together

02 July 2018

The Year Of Big Gets Bigger

imageNostraChuckus, famed soothsayer of the obvious, continues to amaze with his humdrum prognostications:

21 July 2017
The Interminable Death of Television
Nothing I can think of is as lively and chipper as television in its final throes. If we all began dying as happily, healthily, slowly, and painlessly as TV, we wouldn’t fear the process - but welcome it.

09 January 2018
2018: The Year of Big
That’s my prediction. Advertisers will finally follow simple common sense, something a certain seer has been urging for years…

26 March 2018
NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense has spot-on prognosticated what would come true in 2018

And now …

imageDirect-to-consumer brands see gains from traditional TV
For many direct-to-consumer companies trying to diversify their marketing away from Facebook and into traditional media, TV stands as a new opportunity…

Iconic brand advertising on TV isn't going anywhere

Traditional TV rolls with the times, remains a viable entertainment channel to both viewers and advertisers

Go90 promised to reinvent the TV ad model. Instead it's shutting down

Social media ads increasingly less popular among viewers

NostraChuckus often gets bored seeing the same thing over and over in his Crystal Ball of Common Sense. Instead, he’ll be staring at this for awhile:

Image result for television test pattern

22 June 2018

Reefer Madness

Image result for canadian marijuana flag

In some places it’s legal. In other places it’s sort of legal.

It’s now legal in Canada.

You can smoke it, eat it, spray it on body parts or someone else’s body parts.

https://thehipp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Reefer-Madness.jpegThere’s a suppository. 

Lots of suppositories.

You can get really ripped or simply become moderately pain-free. Or both.

If I listed all of marijuana’s claims – valid, maybe valid, yet-to-be-determined, complete poppycock – you’d go mad.

The reefer madness today is its marketing and advertising. What a mess.

I’m in a category: The Baby Boomers Who Smoked Lots Of Grass Way Back When, Stopped For The Most Part, Now Might Want to Get Back Into It Again For Medical Reasons And/Or Just For Fun.

But I have no idea where to start, what goes on in these places. I do know that I don’t want to walk into a cannabis shop like a hayseed right off the bus.

But I am a hayseed right off the bus. All I know I learned from watching one episode of a bad sitcom.

Leafly is fascinating, but I’m lost:
     image

I just want a nickel bag. Although I know today it’ll cost me $50.00.

If there is some sort of National Marijuana Association and it wants to promote their products to the 50+ market, the best advertising would be simple, direct information. The less creative the better.

After I’m stoned you can get goofy, silly, and confusing. I won’t care.

31 May 2018

Smart Bathrooms

imageNow everything is smart. Even bathrooms. Even everything in bathrooms.

There are smart showers, smart tubs, smart toilets, smart sinks, smart medicine cabinets, smart soap dispensers, smart floors, ceilings and walls, smart lights, towel racks, tooth brushes.

They’re all smarter than I am. They all make me feel dumb.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, I don’t believe that hanging out with smart things will make you smarter. All my life I’ve been hanging out with dumb things, had to figure them out myself, which probably made me smarter. I think.

Or I could be wrong. With all these smart things, you have to first figure out how to figure out how use them. Maybe smart things do make you smarter.

Aging In Place. Universal Design. Technology. 
Smart-whatevers have taken over.

My litmus test for smart-whatevers: Does it make something simpler (good) or more complicated (bad)?

Rising Wall Bathtub

image

While understanding the possible need for an easier method of stepping into a bathtub, for most people this design/technology complicates a simple activity – taking a bath. We are used to running a bath and getting in after it is full. During the video, I kept wondering if, with all the features and buttons and whatnot, you might accidentally lower the side and flood the bathroom. Probably an irrational fear, but I bet other people might have the same thoughts. This is a negative reaction and will turn people away. The regular ol’ step-in bath/shower/spa seems easier to use and safer.

Image result for step-in bathtub

Toilet Lift

SMSS-2T

This is a horror show. An accident ready to happen. And not to get too graphic – but what if you really have to go? A serious concern as you get older.

Touch-less Toilets

image

Watch Video

A perfect example of making something simpler, not more complicated. I don't even care about the hygienic attributes - it simply makes things simpler.

Smart Shower

image

Watch Video (if you’re that bored)

A perfect example of making something simple absurdly complicated. You want to take a shower – not have a showerhead with a mind of its own or play video/computer games. A dumb shower.

Self-Cleaning Toilet

image

Watch Video

Makes things easier and less complicated. The original ‘self-cleaning’ toilet is a flush toilet. This improves on the original concept with no added complexity for the user.

Horizontal Shower

image

Watch Video

I have no idea what the point of this is. If someone can’t stand up, there are plenty of chair/seat options available – along with hand-held showerheads. Sexy video, however. A humorous take on the product:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/house-and-homes-blog/2012/feb/02/horizontal-shower-worst-invention-ever

So do smart-whatevers make you smarter or dumber? 

I don’t know, but pretty soon you’ll need a technology degree to pee.
____

Thanks to Tony Berrio Gallego for collecting these links.

18 May 2018

The more things stay the same…

CVRCompA long time ago I wrote a book. When it was published, I read it.

I was shocked.

I had no idea that I’d written a book about Human Resources. It certainly wasn’t what I thought I’d written. It was as if you thought you’d written a science fiction novel and it ended up being a cookbook.

I was reminded of this yesterday while reading an article in Tech Republic:

3 reasons why hiring older tech pros is a smart decision
By Alison DeNisco Rayome
image… “The combination of a stereotype that older adults don't use technology, and the fact that younger people are doing the development, has implications," Mitzner said. Not only are older workers being overlooked, but products that could reach a large segment of the population are not designed to do so.”

‘….Wait … I wrote a book about this in 2005, even though I didn’t think I was writing it …. Same plot, same themes, different setting, different characters.  But it’s my book …

Should I sue for plagiarism???

A blog post (before there were blogs) from 2003:

Back into the Fold
The Giant Leap: There had better be a minor revolution in the creative end of the advertising industry. Talented men and women in their late forties and fifties need to be brought back into the fold if you want to reach us. This includes copywriters, graphic artists, producers, directors, and creative directors.

The first few chapters of that moldy, old book:

Intro-First Chapter (PDF)

And a collection of posts about Human Resources:

Human Resources/Brain Power

The more things stay the same, the more they stay the same.

04 May 2018

Banner Blindness

Image result for where's waldoIt’s a type of blindness you welcome.

Often after googling something, finding the info you’re looking for on a webpage can be as frustrating as trying to find Waldo.

Banner Blindness Revisited: Users Dodge Ads on Mobile and Desktop
by Kara Pernice
image… To complete their tasks efficiently, people have learned to pay attention to elements that typically are helpful (e.g., navigation bars, search boxes, headlines) and ignore those which are usually void of information. Ads are perhaps the most prominent member of this last category …

I’ve written about this recently…

26 March 2018
NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense has spot-on prognosticated what would come true in 2018

I’ve written about it for years…

06 March 2012
Digital Distractions
Digital interruptions are headache-inducing.

12 March 2012
Digital Distractions II
…The point is that Facebook is a social medium, not an advertising one … You interrupt social conversations with commercial messages at your peril…

And there’s this *WARNING: AUTOPLAY VIDEO!* (yes, I get the irony):

Four in 10 consumers scroll past and no longer trust social ads
Image result for ZDNetBy Eileen Brown
Consumers are constantly distracted by digital media and content and are losing trust in brands, according to a new study.

Maybe it’s time for advertisers to ‘get with it’ and stop relying on musty, outdated, tired media like the web and mobile:

Image result for transistor radioBrands Need to Join the 21st Century and Tap Into Radio Advertising
By Jateen Parekh
The audio market is booming…

25 April 2018

Women Redux

It’s been only a few months since I blogged about the power and influence of women:

21 February 2018
imageWomen
… Ten, twelve years ago there were older women. Now there are older women younger than I am. Weird. It’s some strange time/space warp I’m living in.

Mature women are just all over the place. Take a look:

imageMeet Fashion’s Next Generation: Over 60s
… Baby boomers have been largely absent from advertising, especially in high-fashion, despite driving 42 percent of spending in the US, versus 13 percent for millennial and Gen-Z consumers … Typically, companies gear their campaigns towards a younger demographic, assuming the ads will also appeal to their parents. Now, some companies are reversing that formula.

Here’s a brave campaign, certainly braver than one from a few years ago:

Ads for pee-proof underwear campaign redefine the customers who wear them
by Zoë Beery
image New York-based underwear company Icon’s strategy is to go all in with a cheeky, flippant message. Today, their "Piss Off" campaign takes over the Bryant Park subway station in Manhattan…

 CREDITS

  • Jasmine Zhang - Designer
  • Fenghe Luo - Designer
  • Supisara Burapachaisri - Designer
  • Meng Shui - Art Director
  • Kejal Macdonald - Marketing Director
  • Kelsey Duchesne - Copywriter
  • Anna Mackenzie - Photo Director
  • Molly Matalon - Photography 

Pee-Proof Underwear Brand Launches ‘Piss Off’ Campaign To End The Stigma Of Bladder Leaks
imagePeriod-proof underwear company Thinx is taking on the incontinence industry with its sister brand Icon, “patented pee-proof underwear that lets leaky ladies kick pantyliners (and the lame stigma of bladder leaks) to the curb.”

And GRAND Magazine features a cover photo and article about model Yazemeenah Rossi (note: my interest is purely professional):

imageYAZEMEENAH ROSSI: Secrets To …
by Wendy Packer
… Contrary to what some people may think about women in their 60s, Yazemeenah feels prettier today than ever before … She is also very popular on Instagram with women in their 20s and 30s seeking advice on how to stay well as we age …

From The Remember When Files:

21 February 2007
Dove Pro-Age Campaign
… There is a big difference between thinking you are younger than you are, and not thinking that you are old …