Calcified Advertising Agencies

Rance Crain sums it up. It's as if he's reading from my book. Although I'm sure he hasn't read it. Obviously, he doesn't have to:

Boomer Boon: 'Crazy Aunts and Uncles' Spend $1.7 Trillion
The ad business is woefully out of touch with baby-boomer buying power. Young ad people think older people are stuck in their ways, so it's a waste of money to try to get them to change brands … a prime-time TV show with most of its viewers in the 34-to-49 range can get 30% more per ad minute than one that caters to people 55 and older. Yet consumers age 50 and up already spend more than $1.7 trillion on goods and services a year …

And the best part:

Agencies like to think of themselves as the last bastion of creativity, but they're in many ways the most calcified part of the process. Enlightened clients are beginning to realize this resistance to change is holding them back; the next step is to bypass their agencies' counsel.

It's my book/blog/consulting/speaking/creative strategy in a nutshell.

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May 9, 2007: A follow-up piece by Rance Crain, You Know Who's Boss -- Consumers

The Boomer Century on PBS

There’s a show on PBS tonight titled Boomer Century:

“The Boomer Century: 1946-2046” is a two-hour documentary that looks to the baby boomers’ past for clues to how this generation of 78 million Americans will shape the future.

Of the half dozen or so reviews I’ve read – well, they’re weird. They review Baby Boomers, not the show. Actually, that’s par for the course. The same thing happened with Lenny Steinhorn’s book. A strange phenomenon – reviewing the subject and only making passing references to the book.

Here’s an actual review of the program by Brian Lowry in Variety. I culled a quote that’s perfect for this blog (and, I wish, had been around earlier so I could've included it in my book):

On the down side, scant time is devoted to the manner in which the boomers are discounted and dismissed by Madison Avenue, which has too slowly come to recognize that boomers approach aging differently than any generation preceding them. Given how rarely this disconnect is vented publicly, it seems like a missed opportunity in the near-ad-free environs of PBS.

So enjoy the show. Or hate it. Or use it as a night light. I guess we’ll all find out which it’ll be if we tune in – because it's certainly difficult to tell beforehand by reading most of the reviews.

The Netherland's PLUS Magazine

Back from The Big Apple for a private consulting/speaking assignment. Bayard Presse and Roularta Media flew in 40+ advertisers of their 40+ magazine PLUS - a major player in The Netherlands.

Of course, I was a bit concerned that I'd have to tone down my presentation, speak slowly, that any humor might not translate. Was I ever wrong. These wonderful folk followed me from start to finish - laughing, leaning in, asking questions. In The Netherlands English is not a tossed-off second language, but a requirement in schools.

And the Dutch are friendly, involved, jovial, and (no surprise) keenly intelligent.

I presented first - and for the next few days had lots of rousing huddles and chats with almost all the organizers and attendees.

Actually, I was one of the unofficial organizers, recommending three of the seven speakers: Laurel Kennedy of Age Lessons, John McMenniman (former Nestle/Disney exec and former president of The Advertising Hall of Fame), and John Migliaccio. And I had a few special friends of mine drop by for lunches, dinners, and meetings: Susan Silver, Mary Duffy, and Peter Himler. Peter had some other meetings that came up unexpectedly, so he wasn't around for too long - but Susan and Mary spent lots of time floating around and were appreciated by all.

I also popped in to say hello to Marcia Soling of The Advertising Educational Foundation and hand her a copy of the updated edition of my book.



A very special treat for me: I finally met Dick Stroud - and as a bonus, his beautiful wife Stella. Too bad she's not on this huge billboard in Times Square. She should be.

Interview on Ronni Bennett's Time Goes By

Thanks to Ronni Bennett for interviewing me on her blog Time Goes By.

It’s no surprise that Ms. Bennett has the number one 50+ blog, what with her professional background in media and journalism. It usually takes someone like that to make a web site interesting and relevant. (I don't even want to tell you how influential Time Goes By is - I'm jealous.)

"...the dean of older bloggers"
- AARP Bulletin

"...the quintessential seniors' blog"
- Senior Bank of Internet

"...the best logo and header of any blog I've seen"
- Jay Rosen, PressThink

"...Ronni Bennett does a great job of demystifying the later years of life"
- Guardian UK

And the comments by Ronni's readers are as fun and vital as her posts. Time Goes By is a true virtual community.

INVASION OF THE BABY BOOMER POD PEOPLE RETURNS

No time to write about it until I get back from New York. Read this post for now. And after you do, add "Enhancing the lives of Active Baby Boomers!"

Be forewarned. It's scary. With very scary pod people in videos. AND THEY KNOW YOU'RE WATCHING. You get a different video the 2nd time around - then they repeat. (You can't see him - but embedded in this site is the real Cookie Monster.)

After clicking around a bit - I read a copy & paste job from Wikipedia about Louis Armstrong. Of all the phenomenal videos of Mr. Armstrong that they could've YouTubed, these BBPP picked the cheesiest and dumbest one.

The problem with sites like these is that you don't want to scare people our age. We're susceptible to sudden heart attacks.

Back next week.