Stainmaster Empty Nester Spot A Good One

The son moves out of the house. The empty-nester parents go through three or four different uses for his former bedroom - goofy scenarios (and a few messy ones) - until finally putting it back the way it was - just in case he decides to visit.

The humor is gentle, silly, touching. A ham-fisted creative might have come up with derogatory, insulting personas and scenarios - like the preposterous notion of Baby Boomers wanting to become narcissistic teenagers again. These folks are loving, a bit lost (who wouldn't be) — and the fun-poking has to do with human nature, not generation-specific stereotypes.

And the spot is well-researched.

The Richards Group is the agency of record, but I don't know if they produced the spot. Stainmaster Carpet has a few of their commercials on the web - but not this one. I hope they put it up (if only so I can download it and use it in presentations).

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Addendum, December 19th 2005: They put the spot on the web. Watch it.

Upcoming Baby Boomers Marketing/Advertising Conferences

This week (Sept 28-29) is the Baby Boomer and Senior Marketing Conference in Sydney, Australia:

Understanding An Ageing Generation With Youthful Attitudes To Create Intelligent And Non-Patronising Communication Strategies

Kevin Lavery and Gill Walker will be presenting.

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Swinging 60s & Baby Boomers Series (Nov 3-4) in London, England:

A two day, separately bookable extravaganza illustrating the latest trends in the 50+ market.

The Segmentation Forum will address the debates around the latest innovations in strategic 50+ Segmentation & The Media Consumption Forum will provide the answers to your most pressing concerns regarding the behaviour forming 50+ media habits.

Among the presenters will be Dick Stroud.

Younger audience near its use-by date.

Simply put, they are ahead of us. Us meaning the U.S., they meaning the U.K., Australia, France, Canada.

Here's a piece by Paul McIntyre in The Sydney Morning Herald. Excerpt:

It's a funny game, advertising. Few want to get serious about targeting those with the money - the older age brackets - which gives the network with the young guns a handy position.

But it will change when the advertising herd does start a meaningful migration to older folks.

They used to follow our leads in marketing, ape our advertising. Now, we'd be in better shape economically if we started following and aping them.

"Follow the boomers, follow the bucks."

How refreshing to read about a fellow who (in contemporary parlance) gets it.

Bob Hastings is the CEO of the Rockland-Thomaston Area Chamber of Commerce in Maine — and he's not thrilled with his state's advertising campaign for tourism. Read Tom Groening's piece in the Bangor Daily News:

Using a photograph of a twentysomething Lycra-clad man climbing the rock face of a mountain to sell a Maine vacation is just wrong, Bob Hastings believes.
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The "real Maine," Hastings argues, is a place where couples in their 50s might have breakfast in a downtown diner and hear lobstermen gripe about the fishing in the next booth.

Mr. Hastings also grasps the importance of the internet and how Baby Boomers use it.

What impresses me the most is that Bob doesn't need to read my book — or any other books about marketing/advertising to Baby Boomers. Fortunately (for Yours Truly and my publisher), not too many people are as on top of things as Mr. Hastings. And even if they happen to be as smart, they're often intimidated by ad agencies' youth-only agendas.

After reading this profile in The Angelis Press by William Lannon, I'm guessing that not much intimidates Mr. Hastings.

Sir Paul as Spokesperson

Flack Ace Peter Himler's take on Fidelity Investment's investment in Sir Paul as spokesperson for their company is a must read.

Also, Mr. Himler has recently tossed some video into his blog. Click the clips on the left ("Why I Blog" and "Getting Behind the Headlines").

As I've said before, there's no better spokesperson for PR than PH.