Why is advertising so unpopular?

Bob Hoffman tipped me off in a tweet:

Here's something rare: Intelligent people talking about advertising. (@AdContrarian) March 4, 2021

Why is advertising so unpopular?
by Paul Feldwick
It has been widely accepted over the last few years that consumers feel advertising is a nuisance. It insists upon an unpleasant and increasingly intrusive presence in their lives and is something to be avoided if possible…

No kidding. Not that advertising in the past has always been  welcomed.  Culled from some surveys:

Oh! I forgot to add the dates of these surveys:

More from Why is advertising so unpopular?:

…Online advertising has contributed to this enormously, with the interruptions to people’s browsing experience by pop-ups, the creepiness of much retargeting and the sheer annoyance of autoplay videos often listed as the main offenders. There seems to be no escaping the persistent noise of advertising…

All this sounds eerily familiar. A post from 2010:

Foretellings
…The more people use smartphones, the less they’ll tolerate silly graphical doodads mucking up their small  screens … Advertising on smartphones will be considered an annoyance, invasive, and rather dinky…

And 2012:

Digital Distractions
Advertisers are getting wise to the drawbacks of marketing in the digital nest … Digital interruptions are headache-inducing…

Bouncing back to Mr. Feldwick’s piece:

… Advertising as an industry regards itself as ‘of the moment’ yet, as with anything else, there is much to learn from the past. As Paul says, ‘If we don’t understand the past, we have no hope of making sense of the future.’ There is a great deal to learn from the history of advertising that has a tremendous relevance today…

Sounds about right to me. I’ve been ‘teaching’ a course on Udemy about creative advertising – dipping into the past for inspiration. The course is also on YouTube:

So kudos to Paul Feldwick. We're similar-minded fellows floating in the ether.

Walk On By

It’s difficult to get a grip on the real world, just as difficult getting a grip on the advertising/marketing world. Everything is slippery.

Reach out and try to grab these disparate articles and sites …

Or tuck your hands in your pockets and walk on by:

Older Shoppers Are the Hot New Thing for Consumer Brands
… Demographic changes and the pandemic are propelling consumer-goods companies to take a fresh look at a group of shoppers who are often ignored: the elderly.

… The elderly. Yeah. An article written by a little girl.

It’s behind a paywall. I read it. If you can’t get to it you’re not missing much.

Boomers Are Going to Drive a Silver Surge
Companies tend to neglect older generations, focusing instead on millennials and Gen Z. Such a strategy will be costly this year.

It’s costly every year.

Supermodel Paulina Porizkova, 55, Wears Nothing In Sexy New Pic As She Claps Back At Age-Shamers

If interested, click around for the naked pic. I don’t know who she is but I like her.

And if  you’re wondering what’s happening in Poland…

Urban Mobility and Smart Ageing Conference
UMSA 2021 will discuss the most contemporary topics connecting mobility and smart ageing issues. It is an independent, multinational networking conference, where urban mobility and all related ageing issues are in the spotlight. Fact Sheet (PDF)

Until next time – when I hope there’s something to grab on to.

What’s happening and what’ll probably happen.

How do you write about advertising with all the nuttiness going on in the real world? At the moment, I’m trying to find a place to get a shot while not getting shot.

I still stumble upon articles about advertising and marketing to Boomers:

Don’t forget about us: How brands can reach Baby Boomers

It’s the same old same old drenched in dollops of bad advice. I could parse it, but after so many years of doing that I’m bored doing that:

19 NOVEMBER 2012
There’s a lot of bad advice out there. And old advice. And old bad advice.

What’s happening and what’ll probably happen:

We’re watching a lot more TV. As always, television is the best place for advertising.

17 MAY 2019
We’ve done that already.
Nothing I can think of is as lively and chipper as television in its final throes.

Magazines have been making a sort-of comeback. People are getting exhausted staring at their phones/computers. To break the monotony they’re picking up, getting sucked into magazines they might normally only flip through: Costco Connection, AARP publications, all special interest magazines. This more than likely also includes general interest magazines (although I have to admit that I don’t recognize any of the people in People Magazine anymore).

Like everybody, we’re rarin’ to go just about anywhere as soon as it’s safe. Plans are being hatched:

Over-50s rush to book holidays as vaccine boosts confidence
By Simon Browning
National Express's coach holiday businesses say bookings made by those 65 and over have increased by 185% in the last fortnight compared to last year.

That’s also happening and will be happening in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Advertising. It’ll continue to be a slow, arduous, bumpy ride with stops and starts for the first half of 2021 – then …

A Slightly Too Soon Look Back On 2020

It’s a bit premature, taking a backwards look at 2020 – but everybody wants it over NOW. I’m just like everybody.

In January yours truly predicted it would be …

The Year of Tech
… As always, any ‘tech’ for Baby Boomers is medical tech. I’ve written about the silliness and shortsightedness of this ad nauseum…

It was sort of the year of tech – but not for the reasons I’d anticipated. Millions of older folks, ones that hadn’t been technologically savvy, became technologically savvy – simply to survive. The virtual world became the real world out of necessity.

This post was very popular:

04 February 2020
Communities for Boomers
The elder-centric housing industry is about to explode every which way …

That didn’t happen. Everybody (I hope) is staying put. But it will explode eventually.

This post was runner-up in popularity:

23 September 2020
Do you want to feel old?
Golly, gee … he’s only a baby!

Finally, my favorite post of the year:

30 October 2020
Those Irrepressible Boomers
I just can’t get all hot ’n bothered by all this pro/anti Boomer stuff.

Not a productive year for me or for most folks. 

The good news: It’s almost done with.

The bad news: It’ll be more of the same or worse for the first six months (or more) of 2021.

The craziness will be over and we’ll be able to go back to being our crazy selves.

Those Irrepressible Boomers

Disclaimer: Nothing much about advertising.

I just can’t get all hot ’n bothered by all this pro/anti Boomer stuff.

I remember not caring about it and making fun of it almost twenty-five years ago:

The Anti Boomer Page
Published April 8, 1997
… Here's a kid sick of hearing about Boomers -- and I don't blame him … When I was his age all I ever heard about was the Depression and WWII. What a bore.

Sixteen years ago this was published:

The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy
by Leonard Steinhorn
It's fashionable to mock Boomers as self-involved and materialistic. But what really is the true legacy of the Boomers?

Good book. Read Brent Green’s take on it: Redefining Generational Greatness.

Professor Steinhorn was featured in a Washington Post Magazine piece in January:

He wrote the book on boomers, and he thinks the Gen Z rap against them isn’t quite OK
By Graham Vyse
… As a millennial raised by a pair of liberal boomers, I’m instinctively sympathetic to Steinhorn’s case. I’m close to my parents, and I share their values, so it made sense when Steinhorn told me there’s much less of a cultural “generation gap” between boomers and younger cohorts than between boomers and their parents.

Now David Cravit is tossing up videos about it all. He does a fine job walking us through the history of Boomers, demolishing dumb myths:

The Unapologetic Boomer
... If you're a Baby Boomer tired of being blamed for everything, this is your place. I offer a blunt, but evidence-based, argument for why the Boomers have nothing to apologize for.

And Ashton Applewhite is pulverizing parallel myths about Ageism:

This Chair Rocks
… From childhood on, we’re barraged by messages that it’s sad to be old. That wrinkles are embarrassing, and old people useless …

May I mention that yours truly is mentioned in Ms. Applewhite’s book?

The Chuck is Very Cool and Cutting-Edge and a Very Important Person Post
… Ashton Applewhite, a leading activist and shaker-upper in the You’re-An-Asshole-If-You’re-Ageist world, quoted me in her book This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism …

My takes on these subjects are usually tongue-in-cheek. A few years ago a silly book came out and I had fun goofing on it:

76 Million Sociopaths Outed
… Being a narcissistic boomer, I loved reading the article - although it was rather vague, didn’t have any substance or facts. But that’s fine. It’s a teaser. No doubt the author has impressive degrees in history and sociology, maybe even psychology. So the book should be fantastic, and not written by some dildo blowhard with nothing much to say …

And there are other underlying reasons why my generation is the tops:

People are always coming up to me and asking, “Chuck, why are Baby Boomers so wonderful?”
How rare it is to have an infinite number of correct answers to a single question! One of my standard replies: It has to do with our alimentary intake during adolescence …

Blaming Boomers. It’s just simple-minded people looking for simple-minded answers.