The kids are alright.

The Generation Bashers are back. 

OK, they never left.  A bit of history:

Me vs. We 
11 February 2008
Baby Boomers were stigmatized when we were in and around our twenties, early thirties. Sure, we were ‘me’ back then. Barring tragedies like war and all sorts of catastrophes similarly horrifying, most young adults are me, me, me.

Me vs. We Redux
26 June 2009
I did read something about a bunch of pundits apologizing for the recession/depression or whatever we’re going through. Apparently, they think it’s all their fault because they’re Baby Boomers. (Did any generation apologize for The Great Depression? I’ll have to check the history books.  If not, it should.  Some of those evil bastards must still be alive.  Anybody over ninety-eight had better atone.)

Me vs. We Redux Redux
22 October 2009
Baby boomers may be popularly portrayed as whiners, complainers and narcissists, but a new study by University of Massachusetts Amherst psychology Professor Susan Krauss Whitbourne says the 50-somethings are getting a bad rap.

“It’s wrong to say baby boomers are selfish and only care about staying young,” said Whitbourne. “They have a feeling of connection to younger generations and a social conscience.”

But this is all getting old and boring.  Now the pundits have a new generation to bash.  One that’s even worse than Baby Boomers!

Young People Becoming More Focused on 'Me'
Today's young adults are more "Generation Me" than "Generation We," according to a new analysis…

Millennial Generation Money-Obsessed And Less Concerned With Giving Back, Study Finds
… Researchers have found the so-called Millennial generation to be less environmentally conscious, community-oriented and politically engaged than previous generations were at the same age…

Wow.  Real no news news.  From my book © 2005, 2007:

The kids are alright.

Cleaning Out Those Dusty Ethereal Drawers

It’s amazing what you find when you’re on a cleaning binge. 
I’ve moved. Not this blog, my business site:
ChuckNyren.com
Bunches of pages were virtually shredded, the (very simple) design tweaked, and now I have a new home. Not much different than my old one. I like it.
Should I have left this on the landing page?

Tossed. It’s vapid and annoying.  But not long or pointless.
There’s an in the news section.  I stumbled down memory lane.  As you might expect, there were some laughs, some gasps, some queasiness, some shocks, some I-told-you-so’s.  A few nooks were empty. I guess news sites likewise do spring cleaning.
I’d been interviewed bunches of times about Baby Boomers, but this was the first news story about advertising and Boomers:

Don't call them old (2003)
By Jean Starr "Not wanting to get/be/look older isn't anything new. However, baby boomers will do it a bit differently," he said. "Looking and being healthy will be more important than toupees and botox. While botox and the like are getting a lot of press, I'm guessing only a small percentage of people are using stuff like that. Being able to ride a bike, play tennis and garden will be more important than looking good and feeling (bad)."

My local newspaper ‘covered’ me:

Ads today often skip over baby boomers
By Julie Muhlstein (2005)
Chuck Nyren is feeling abandoned. It's not about friends or loved ones. He thinks he's being ignored by advertising.
"What's happening now, advertising agencies are pretty much run by kids in their 20s and early 30s," said Nyren, an ad industry consultant who lives in Snohomish.

So much has changed since then.  Like, my hairline.

Ads target empty nests, full wallets (2005)
by Bob Moos "Yes, I have my favorite toothpaste. But other than that, I'm wide open for suggestions," said Chuck Nyren, 55, the author of Advertising to Baby Boomers. "Why do ad execs believe boomers don't switch brands?"
Mr. Nyren said advertising agencies often ignore or misread boomers' preferences because most of their creative people are too young to understand that generation. "The agencies better hire more boomers if they want to reach them," he said.

So much has changed since then.  But not my toothpaste.

Active lives defy aging (2006)
By Bill Glauber
"There will have to be a revolution in the advertising world," says Chuck Nyren, author of Advertising to Baby Boomers. "Baby boomers do not want to be twenty again, or thirty again," Nyren writes. "They want to feel as good as they possibly can for the ages they are. They do not want to be marketed and advertised to as if they were young adults or thirty-somethings."

Don’t tell these people.

A Booming Opportunity (2006)
By Renee M. Covino
"In England, they've done a lot of studies about 'wrap rage,' and it goes much deeper than not being able to open a bottle of medicine, for instance. It's anything, any consumer goods packaging that people have trouble opening, and as Baby Boomers are starting to age, they are very sensitive to this," says Chuck Nyren, who just happens to be another Baby Boomer and also creative strategist and consultant, as well as author of "Advertising to Baby Boomers." According to him, "bad packaging can make Baby Boomers feel incompetent; as marketers, you don't want to remind this group of people that they don't have the physical skills they had when they were younger."

Of course, the above has nothing to do with me. I can rip open any dumb, stupid candy wrapper with my bare hands .... as long as one of my bare hands is holding a pair of pliers.

Boomers: A Web-Marketing Bonanza (2006)
By Olga Kharif
But many sites are still struggling with their identities and have not yet hit their stride, says boomer advertising consultant Chuck Nyron, author of Advertising for Baby Boomers  (Paramount Market Publishing, 2005) "Every site has happy, smiling faces of baby boomers and says: 'We want to inspire you'," he explains.

My name is misspelled.

Trying to catch the wave (2006)
By Bill King
He’s proud that an industry once monopolized by white males opened itself to women and other races and ethnicities under the watch of the boomers. But there was one way in which his generation of marketers threw up a wall.

“Our blind spot was age,” Nyren said. “We were the ones who started only marketing to ourselves. We created the demo. We taught people how to market to it. And now, we’re paying the price, because the agencies have all been brainwashed into thinking that to be worth anything [to marketers], you have to be young.”

Don’t trust anyone over thirty. Unless they’re over fifty.

'Elderbloggers' Shy Away From Money Talk (2008)
By Candice Novak
"Most older people hit that Google button, and in some ways it confuses them more than it enlightens them," Seattle marketing expert and blogger Chuck Nyren, 57, says, "because there's so much crap you have to wade through to get something that is truthful or helpful."

I was talking more about this – not Google Search.

Baby boomers become the forgotten consumer (2008)
By Jennifer Mann, McClatchy Newspapers
Nyren said he often hears from marketers that advertising isn't effective on those 50-plus consumers, that it's a waste of time and money.
No, he said, they're just not doing it correctly.
"Speaking to the 50-plus, it has to be different in terms of writing and graphics and presentation," Nyren said. "A 20-something is an easier sell - you have to work harder, work smarter to get that 50-plus customer, but the return on investment, if you do it right, can be tremendous."

So do it right.

Adult underwear no longer being given the silent treatment
By Bob Moos (2009)
Chuck Nyren, a Seattle advertising consultant and author of Advertising to Baby Boomers, says the TV spots are carefully crafted to appeal to boomers who, if they don't use Depends themselves, may be caregivers for parents who do.

"Morris got the right people and took the right approach," he said. "Now, if only other advertisers would hire boomers to pitch refrigerators, soap and other products."

No kidding.

Businesses Fighting For Baby Boomer Dollars (2009)
By Mary Motzko Aside from age issues, Nyren added that there are many different personality types included in the baby boomer generation, from former hippies to conservatives. "Evoking the '60s, it's not the smartest thing to do."

No kidding.
Others have vanished into the unity, take advantage of my linguistic illiteracy, are hidden behind virtual curtains.
But you can still hear me being drowned out by Led Zeppelin.

Purple Clover.

Not sure what this place is yet.  Let’s just say it’s germinating:

Purple Clover.

An Ad Age article doesn’t tell us much:

BermanBraun Aims New Site Aimed At Invisible Demo: Baby Boomers
Baby Boomers surf the web too, albeit perhaps while wearing bifocals and on a decade-old version of Internet Explorer.

Good start. We know we’re going nowhere with this piece.

Baby Boomers, Luddites? Not So Fast.
… As far as Boomers being tech/web Luddites - I’ve been dispelling that silly myth for years - in my book and blog (Advertising to Baby Boomers, first published in early 2005).

Technology & Baby Boomers

And there’s the brand loyalty silliness I’ve been screaming about for years. It came up in the post last week.

More stuff in the article is old hat, discussed ad nauseam by yours truly and others.

One interesting quote:

"We'll be launching a need-to-know, quick-hit video series that will be distributed not only on the property but via email and ultimately via text as well...with an eye toward ultimately Purple Clover living across all media platforms [including TV]," Mr. Berman said.

Sounds like my advice for another project:

27 September 2010
Next Avenue: Baby Boomers & PBS
…I wouldn’t get all agog over the concept of multiplatform content by making this project a truly interactive venture. Of course, have a web site (PBS usually produces good ones). Mobile apps? Fine. However, don’t be sidetracked.  Concentrate money and energy where the eyeballs are.

30 July 2012
Picking On The Big Boys & Girls, Part III: Next Avenue

The site says this on their about page:

Purple Clover is a new site for people who hate being called "baby boomers"…

…..Okay. Whatever that means. Maybe they’re still talking to themselves, trying to figure out positioning, while not quite realizing that most of us use the term Baby Boomers for news articles and B2B stuff – not when promoting products, services, media. 

From my book, © 2005:

An interview with Ronni Bennett on her blog Time Goes By:

Chuck Nyren on Advertising and Elders (2007)
…Using the term “Baby Boomers” in news articles doesn’t bother me much (except that I’m getting sick of so many news stories lately). But using it in advertising (“Hey, Baby Boomers! Here’s the product for you!”) is pretty dumb. You don’t want to talk at people by defining who they are. This is insulting.

…Again, it’s dumb to call baby boomers baby boomers in ads. The press calls them baby boomers, and when talking B2B (business-to-business), we use the term baby boomers. My book is titled Advertising to Baby Boomers but it’s a business book.

Purple Clover reminds me of a site across the pond:

high50
You’ve turned 50? Congratulations!

You’re now part of the most economically powerful, culturally significant, desired and desirable generation on earth.

Both target the high-end chunk of Boomers and older by being tongue-in-cheek, urbane, mildly irreverent.  There’s little if any talk about the negative aspects of aging. And that’s a smart move. It’s exactly what I suggested AARP Magazine might do for one issue:

02 April 2013
AARP Is All New Redux: Part III (The Magazine)
…Plan an issue with no age/malady related ads…Of course, I would leave editorial in the expert hands of Ms. Blyth and others – but might suggest this: For one issue, no articles about being old or sick…

Purple Clover’s advertising model seems stunted – until it wraps itself around a TV project.
___

Update 31 July:
Dick Stroud’s take on Purple Clover.

Television Still Shines

Interesting stats and a news story …

The Stats:

In a Nielsen survey … people of all ages said they spent vastly more time watching television than they did using the Internet … In a Multichannel News article, Starz Entertainment executive director of marketing, sales and corporate research Neil Massey said, “There is no evidence that people are abandoning television for other platforms.” He continued to note that “the universe of people who watch no television but watch long-form video online is about 1%.”

The News Story:

Why Television Still Shines in a World of Screens
by Randall Stross
… Television stands out as the one old-media business with surprising resilience. Though we are spending a record amount of time online, including a record amount of time watching video, we are also watching record amounts of very old-fashioned television …

As enamored as advertisers are with the interactive potential of digital advertising, they know that online is a complement to offline, not its replacement … the typical American watched 142 hours of television monthly, up about five hours from the same quarter the previous year. Internet use averaged more than 27 hours monthly, an increase of an hour and a half …

I talk about this in my presentations and consulting. The web is a boon for most traditional media, not competition. With Baby Boomers, advertising should push them to web sites:

89% typically visit a Web site after seeing a print ad, and 83% visit a site after seeing a television ad.

If you want to be confused, surf the web.

Sometimes I yearn for the olden days, when life was simple.  A morning newspaper, an evening newspaper.  Some radio stations.  A handful of news magazines.  Three TV networks – and if you wanted to watch the evening news you could only watch one because they were all on at the same time. 

Nowadays anybody can write, edit, and publish news.  You can consume as much as you want whenever you want.  However, this can get confusing.  I’ve decided that the easiest way to process all the noise is to believe it all.

If I can hear it.  Apparently, I hear lots of it:

Say what?
Overall, the baby boomers had 31% less hearing loss than their parents.

I knew Mom & Dad weren’t playing those Benny Goodman records loud enough.

And not much of it:

Rock music takes toll on boomer hearing
Richard Salvi, director of the University at Buffalo Center for Hearing and Deafness, says many baby boomers have already lost much of their hearing and developed tinnitus -- ringing in the ear -- due to many years of listening to loud rock music.  

As far as life in general, it’s going to be horrible:

Uh-oh. We’re in trouble…
You haven’t experienced cognitive dissonance until you receive a brochure encouraging you to spend thousands of dollars a year for long-term care insurance as you prepare to “defy” old age.

It Gets Worse
By Ted C. Fishman
Jacoby sees a new ageism that doesn’t just stigmatize old people for their years, but blames them for physical ills that no lifestyle adjustments or medicine can yet forestall.

And wonderful:

Boomers should avoid ageism in themselves
Dr. Robert S. Stall, a University at Buffalo clinical assistant professor in medicine and a specialist in geriatrics, says baby boomers should avoid self-prejudice … Aging boomers have a lot to expect in terms of health and well-being, Stall says.

I’ll leave you with some other studies that will confuse you even more – or not, if you believe everything as I do:

We’re all miserably happy, or …

–
Update 3/3/11: Interview with Susan Jacoby in AARP Bulletin

Alzheimer's: He won’t be needing them anymore.

This blog seems to be on a health kick lately. Usually the catalysts for posts are news pieces – so blame the media, not me. I’m as dilapidated and mentally frazzled as I ever was.

There was this recently:

Uh-oh. We’re in trouble…
The good news you know: many Baby Boomers will live longer, healthier lives – more so than in any previous generations. The bad news you also know: by 2046 a huge chunk Boomers will have passed on, and another huge chunk will be dealing with acute diseases and afflictions.

A powerful, poignant piece by Nancy Stearns Bercaw in the NYT:

When All Isn’t Enough to Foil Alzheimer’s
As my father approached middle age he began to experiment on himself, with diet supplements. By age 60 he was taking 78 tablets a day. He tracked down anything that offered the possibility of saving brain cells and killing free radicals: Omega 3s, 6s, 9s; vitamins E and C; ginkgo biloba, rosemary and sage; folic acid; flaxseed.

After retiring from his neurology practice in Naples, Fla., he spent hours a day doing math. Even when I was visiting, he’d sit silently on his leather recliner with a calculator to verify the accuracy of calculations he did by memory.

Very sad.  So be prepared.

Unfortunately, the advertising/marketing industry - along with much of the media - isn’t preparing you.  They are lying to you. From August 2010:

Alzheimer's: No Magic Bullet
It’s time to cease referencing Alzheimer’s when marketing products and services. There are plenty of valid reasons for eating healthy foods, exercising, or challenging yourself with new mind and body activities. Stop flashing the false hope of staving off a perplexing disease that frightens every Baby Boomer.

More from Nancy Stearns Bercaw:

While he watched a televised baseball game one afternoon, I walked into his den and eyed the wall of supplements he used to take — bookcase after bookcase of pills with names like Memoral and Sharp Mind. Won’t be needing them anymore.

JWT BOOM GOES BELLY-UP

JWT BOOM, an agency specializing in the 40+ Market, closed last month.

This is where I link to a news story – but that’s the story.  There is no story.  I can’t find a thing about it in the trades or any other news sources.  Find it for me.

Why did JWT BOOM go belly-up?  I have my own theories, some I’ll share and some I’ll keep to myself.

Snippets from an email received last week:

… I also meant to tell you that you apparently have really good sources. We finally heard from **** ******* that JWT Boom is closed as of today …  Apparently JWT is closing all of its specialty agencies … And I heard it from you first!

Key phrase above: “specialty agencies”

In 2004, JWT opened its ‘specialty agency’ JWTMMG (later known as JWT BOOM).  From my book published in early 2005:

 

Was JWT BOOM simply a victim the worldwide financial crisis? Maybe, maybe not.  I’ve talked about Baby Boomers and the economic collapse in a blog post last year and in an online presentation:

2008 Review: A PowerPoint

An interesting article last month in Ad Age:

General Mills Thrives on Increased Marketing Spending
"When I started here in 1983, we didn't do much advertising to baby boomers," he said, adding that boomers are eating more cereal as they age. "We're targeting them directly now."

Christopher Simpson brings us up to date on Ad Nauseam, citing a recent study by NeuroFocus:

Oh, so now they're turning to Boomers
If nothing else good comes from the recent economic crisis, at least we have the faint hope that advertising can become more adult.

And rumor has it that another Boomer-focused company underneath the WPP umbrella is about to kick the bucket.

More from the email:

…  Ad Age says today that the Chicago JWT office is closing. I have a feeling that JWT is not long for this world …

JWT GOES BELLY-UP.  Hmmm.  I bet that news would make the trades. 

Digital Advertising Natives and Immigrants

Follow-up to:

Foretellings 
Social Media/Word-of-mouth advertising/marketing on the web has been a washout.

Lots of talk over the last few years about computers and digital devices and whether you’re a native or an immigrant:

My Brain, Your Brain, iBrain
It’s mostly about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants – terms apparently coined by educational consultant Marc Prensky. In iBrain, Dr. Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan consider the psychological and neurological traits of these evolving archetypes …

How does this affect advertising creative? More fuel for the idea of a diverse workforce. Younger folks ingest and digest the world differently than older folks. So you’d better have the right guts around to trust.  If you don’t believe me, believe Rance Crain.

A parallel take on Digital Natives/Immigrants:

Baby Boomers have been inundated with technology all their lives. We were the first generation of television natives. I remember the thrill of first seeing an IBM Selectric in action – with that frenetic orb whirling and jabbing every which way like a cartoon character in a boxing ring.  My portable electric Smith-Corona became Stone Age overnight.

I first had an Apple II in the early 1980s.  A couple of bright Baby Boomers had put a typewriter and a television (monitor) together and called it a personal computer. Typewriters became Stone Age overnight. Then the-powers-that-be hooked up computers with telephone lines ringing up each other - and called it the internet.

We were there for all of it. 

Originally the internet was used for military purposes, then adopted by colleges and universities. When it became available for businesses and the public it was used for  research and communication.

We were there for (almost) all of it. 

In the middle 1990s commercialization was introduced. Not everybody loved this.   

I remember when hyperlinks and animated GIFs were eye-popping, cutting-edge marvels. Before long video, music, and games were everywhere. That ended up as lots of fun.

But technological marvels come and go.  Human nature persists. The importance of being connected, communicating, and seeking out information has been around since the beginning of civilization. 

Being connected but untethered seems to be the next phase, possibly the final one for awhile. It started with cell phones and laptops and Wi-Fi.  Now we have smartphones and portable iPads, Kindles, and who knows what’s next.

Back to advertising/marketing:

Baby Boomers are Commercialization Immigrants.  Television, radio, print, billboards – we grew up with these as advertising entities. Computers were for work, communication, research – not for commercial messages.

Researching products/services?  Oh, yes. Which is why I’ve always said:

The Most Effective Marketing/Advertising Model For Reaching Baby Boomers: What is now called (silly retronym ahead) traditional advertising pushing you to an age-friendly, informative product/services web site.

Social Networking sites are popular – but are Baby Boomers making friends with advertisers? 

Anecdotal: A few recent posts on my Facebook News Feed:

“FB has too many ads … FB is becoming less interesting to visit. Hearing news from friends, finding new friends and seeing their pictures is what FB was all about. Can we get back to that, hmmmm?”

“Hide all the group posts or drop them from your news feed! That's what I do.”

“I think FaceBook should change its name to ClutterBook or CauseBook.”

“Thank you Lord Jesus Christ for answering my prayer and showing me how to rid my wall of Farmville, Garden World, Fish Life and all similar pieces of life-wasting crap. You have made my home page a heaven.”

So how can these social networks turn a buck?  I don’t know. Here’s how they’re doing it now:

The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets

Facebook Scandal Version 2.0

Doesn’t that make you all warm and gooey inside?

Which brings me back to:

Foretellings
The visual power of the web will fade as more people use handheld devices.  Goodbye, fancy-schmancy web sites. People will get bored sifting through it all when they can find what they need with their smartphones.

And/or their iPads.  Or whatever gizmos end up as standard issue. 

Anecdotal: I’ve asked a handful of folks around my age about their smartphones/iPads. Some aggregated responses:

Do you see any advertising on your smartphone?

No. Whatever it is is too small.  And they’re always on top, which makes no sense because if I’m searching for something that’s what I look at first. If there were any marketing messages afterwards, on the bottom, my eyes might continue down and I might read them because I’ve already found what I was searching for. But they’re never there.

Do you rush home and turn on your computer?

Not much anymore. I find almost everything I need on my smartphone or iPad. And if I’m home, it’s just easier to use one of the portable devices.

This all sounds about right to me. The new pocket-sized web will be friendly to marketing, not advertising.  The desktop or laptop, when not for work, will be used for deep research, visual delights, playing games.

So where will advertising be effective?  Where it’s always been effective:

Magazine Audiences Increase 8%

Busting the Cord-Cutting Myth

Spending goes where the eyeballs are.

And with those huge screens, surround-sound systems at home and in cars, HD radio, and gloriously glossy layouts - advertising may be more effective than it’s ever been.
_____

Foretellings Redux

Consumers Hesitant To Embrace E-Reader Advertising

Could the Droid X Replace Your Laptop?

Ipad sees success with seniors

Are Smartphones Getting Too Smart?

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