Aetrex Worldwide Targets Baby Boomers

The Mature Market picked up this press release about Phil Simms being hired as corporate spokesperson for Aetrex.

Baby Boomers are wary of spokespeople - but I guess if you have to have one, Phil Simms isn't a bad choice for sports-related footwear and such. He's innocuous enough. Of course, if they are really targeting Baby Boomers 'worldwide' it's a good bet that few people outside of the United States will know (or care) who Phil Simms is…

Then I visited the Aetrex Web Site. What a pile of confusing, vacuous, over-hyped, over-branded nonsense. It's almost as overblown as the preceding sentence of mine. I wore out a pair of virtual sneakers just trying to get to an actual product of theirs, having to slog through all sorts of silliness.

They even have something called a Brand Statement - whatever that is.

Here's my favorite piece of self-defeating hogwash on their web site: "The word Aetrex is a derivation of ae-treks, meaning One Journey."

....... What??? I've never heard of the word/phrase 'ae-treks' - and neither has Google. The word 'ae' does mean 'one' (it's of Scottish origin) - and (juicy irony here) the word 'trek' means to make a slow or arduous journey.

Let's get real: the word aetrex is not a derivation of anything. It's a made-up word. Made up from scratch. Which is fine. I love made-up words. I make them up sometimes. And Aetrex is as good a name as any for a sports shoe company...

But please — don't give me a bunch of jive about etymological origins — because if you do, the only conclusion I will come to is that these shoes and orthopedic accessories are for slow, arduous walking — not for the active lifestyle Phil Simms is pushing.

And as I've said, it certainly was quite a lonesome, exhausting aetrek for me to track down anything relevant on their web site. I should've brought along someone to talk to.

But at least Aetrex is wise enough to target Baby Boomers. Good for them. And it will be good for them, even if they're not doing it as well as they could.

Kantar Group and AARP Services Form Joint Venture Company

This is interesting news. It might end up being big news.

Dick Stroud has put a positive spin on it, with a caveat.

I'll probably blog about this as it plays out. Actually, I'm peripherally involved in a related marketing/advertising project by AARP — so I'm not surprised by this joint venture. It makes sense.

For now, I'll simply say that pressure on ad agencies coming from marketing companies and clients is a good thing.

So let them ignore us. It's their loss.

What a silly, short-sighted recurring theme — dismissing such a dynamic demographic.

Kevin DeMarrais, business columnist for The North Jersey Record, writes about the stupidity of it. What prompted his article? The same foolishness that PR guru Peter Himler blogged about a month or so ago:

WCBS-FM has shuttered its programming in favor of "Jack S**t."

And the new ratings are out. And they're jacks**t:

The New York radio station that made national news by firing Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow and changing its oldies format is losing listeners.

Oh, well. It's probably better that we listen to only public radio anyway. Sometimes idiots do you favors.

The Three Ages of Advertising Slavery

I saw Hugh MacCleod's cartoon posted a few days ago and it cracked me up.

Then Steve Hall's AdRants take on it reminded me of a major theme in a book someone wrote recently...

AdRants: "There's no 50's or 60's cause, you know, after 49, all those ad people seem to disappear into other endeavors courtesy of ageism."

Gaping Void. Very funny, outrageous blog. But not for the faint-hearted.

Packaging That Sells Products to Boomers

Packaging Diva JoAnn Hines has put together 10 Tips for product packaging.

I could nit-pick a few of the tips, but I hate nit-pickers. So consider this an excellent guide when designing packaging for Boomers.

JoAnn will send you a PowerPoint Presentation if you email her. (See the 10 Tips link.)