All That Vapid, Mindless Imagery

Dick Stroud, blogger extraordinaire and author of The 50 Plus Market, has pointed us to a company offering interesting images of Baby Boomers and older for web sites and print ads. I railed about the lack of this a few months ago in my post INVASION OF THE BABY BOOMER POD PEOPLE.

Follow the link on Dick's post to Veer. Their images will give you better ideas about how to portray Boomers. Trust me - we're more diverse, multidimensional, intelligent, involved, and interesting than we're being portrayed.


... Okay, so we're not always that interesting.

Boom Time

I was interviewed recently by Matt Histand, Senior Editor of The Advertising Specialty Institute's Counselor Magazine:

ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute®) is the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, with a membership of 22,000 distributor firms (sellers) and 3,300 supplier firms (manufacturers).

For fifty years, Counselor™ has been the leading source of news in the promotional products industry. The unique position of ASI in the marketplace gives our editors and reporters an unmatched perspective, and that translates into the most insightful and readable magazine in the industry.

Matt put together a very good piece about (you guessed it) advertising - along with a list of what Baby Boomers might like when it comes to promotional items:

Boom Time

Baby Boomers start turning 60 this year, but they show no sign of slowing down. As a group they control an estimated $2.3 trillion in annual spending power and the next chapter in their lives will bring about tremendous change and opportunities for advertisers.

Other good pieces include an interview with Colin Powell and one about the value of older employees.

Last year I was interviewed by Counselor's sister publication Advantages Magazine for its feature article, Boomers Beyond:Marketing to a 50-Plus Audience:

Advantages is written to inspire and motivate promotional products sales professionals. Each monthly issue is packed with sales-friendly product showcases, dependable ideas, proven sales tips, and helpful case histories.

Study: TV's youth obsession backfiring

Here's a piece by AP's television and entertainment writer David Bauder:

Study: TV's youth obsession backfiring

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they believe that most TV programming and advertising is targeted toward people under 40, the survey said. More than 80 percent of adults over 40 say they have a hard time finding TV shows that reflect their lives.

Mr. Bauder does an excellent job of reporting all sides of the issue. (It's not surprising, because I read him regularly and he always does top-notch reporting by highlighting various viewpoints.) However, for me there's not much new here. That's because I'm knee-deep in this mess. What is said can be found in my book, this blog, and other books and blogs about advertising, media, and Baby Boomers.

If you're new to all this, the article will be illuminating. And there are fresh numbers to crunch:

Advertisers will pay a premium for young viewers: $335 for every thousand people in the 18-to-24 age range that a network delivers, for example. Viewers aged 55-to-64 are worth only $119 for every thousand, according to Nielsen Media Research.

What I do find fascinating has less to do with the article and more to do with its syndication. When a news outlet picks up an AP story it can change the headline, the lede, and has the right to edit the piece for space consideration. Most editors simply leave it alone - but often they feel as if they have to justify their existence - and play around with the headlines.

From "TV's youth obsession backfiring" we get these anti-boomer, ageist variations:

Television's new obsession with youth irritates boomers

TV industry's irritating baby boomers

Baby boomers piqued at TV's youth obsession

Boomers disdain TV's youth mania

And the winner is … MSNBC:

Baby boomers upset TV isn't all about them

In the spirit of fun and games with the news, I've come up with a few of my own reasonable, moderate, neutral headlines for Mr. Bauder's article:

Youthful TV Execs Live in Bubble, Will Bring Down Network Television

Message to Television Advertisers: Don't Trust Anyone Under Thirty

Really Dumb Twenty-Something Media Planners Clueless, Should Be Fired

Young, Myopic TV Execs Think It's All About Them

Oh, how I love to be 'fair and balanced'…

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For another take on David Bauder's article, read Brent Green's Boomers Do Not Need Their Own TV Network.

Haggar Redux

Haggar's 'Making Things Right' campaign has the ad bloggers and others buzzing. People love it, hate it. It's hilarious, it's unfunny, it's original, it's trite, it's homophobic (even homoerotic), it's finally acknowledging middle-age men as men and not wimps, it's socially irresponsible, it's about time someone stood up to lazy kids and faggy neighbors.

Here is a fair mix of reactions. One self-proclaimed 'Dork' actually thinks one spot is a spoof of Haggar ads.

I blogged about these ads a few days ago. Since then, a bunch of people have emailed me. They think I've condoned the ads. I don't condone ads. I comment on them - and my comments are usually confined to whether or not they will resonate with Baby Boomers. Read my original post about this campaign.

One person emailing was a gentleman I met at a business conference last March. He is the former CMO of a major international company, and has served as president of a very prestigious, non-profit organization. Originally, he sent me a link to the Wall Street Journal article. After seeing one spot in the campaign, he wrote:

Have you seen the version where the middle aged guys are throwing their daughter's boyfriends out the window? This one is right on target.

But later in the day he emailed me again:

…Seeing the campaign in its entirety causes me a great deal of concern. Anyone who has dealt with the problems of adolescence can sympathize with some of the emotions. However, much of this is over the top (like the car wash scene) … We must avoid the intergenerational conflict that is on the horizon. If campaigns like this go too far, that will be difficult to avoid.

My personal reaction to the campaign is that it's simply about a couple of frustrated, middle-class white guys being bullies. They've watched one too many episodes of The Sopranos (or the creatives have). The two actors playing Tony Soprano and Tony Soprano are well-cast. Overall, there are a some funny bits and some not so funny bits. I don't find the spots that outrageous, just tongue-in-cheek.

As far as intergenerational conflict, I'm not in disagreement with my friend - but again, I try not to comment on that stuff.

My point in the original post was this: Want to target middle-class, suburban, angry white guys with a wild, controversial, 'talk about' campaign? Fine. This'll probably do it. But if you want to make outlandish, trouble-making, irresponsible commercials that will resonate with Baby Boomers, do a bit of research.

The Haggar campaign has nothing to do with Baby Boomers. It's targeting guys in their thirties and early forties. An overlap, true - but not much. If they think they're targeting men in their fifties and sixties, they're way off the mark. If they seriously want to reach this market, they had better start 'making things right' - like having the grandfather throw the parents out the window. Having the grandfather scrunched up in the trunk of his grandkid's car helping him install a loud sound system - to the horror of the parents. Having the grandfather throw sponges at his adult son.

Here is a successful, troublemaking, tongue-in-cheek spot from Australia. It has the sensibility that I'm talking about. This agency did its homework. Baby Boomers are all over the youngest generation. The last thing they want to do is alienate or bully them. They want to nurture them. For better or worse, they think of millennials/grandchildren as their legacy. And they want to 'stir things up.'

Enough pontificating. I'm off to JC Penny to check out these Haggar pants and buy a big baseball bat to carry around the neighborhood so I can intimidate everybody. The campaign says the slacks have a lifetime guarantee - but nowhere does it say if they are stain-resistant to dog crap, or will protect me from getting AIDS from the gay guy down the street.

Maybe that info will be on the labels.

Marketing to Boomers

Ruth Solomon of The Sun-Times News Group covered The Boomers and Beyond Business Conference in Chicago that I spoke at last month. Ms. Solomon does a wonderful job summing up what happened there. Read her piece about it:

Marketing to Boomers

People 45 and older make up 77 percent of the drug market ($43 billion) and 53 percent of the new-car market ($107 billion), said Linda Fisher, director of national member research for the AARP, the advocacy organization for older and retired Americans. And the 50 million Americans in the 60-plus market spend more than $1 trillion a year, she said.