30 January 2009

Cookie-Cutter Cavalcades

Lots of ethereal ink lately about nuts ‘n bolts travel:
Retired? Hit the road, help your brain
by Rick Spratling
ap So you've escaped middle age and are ready for the long calm of retirement. What next? If you spend too much time rocking on the front porch, will your brain droop into autopilot? One antidote for this is educational travel …
Elderhostel holds Baby Boomer travel appeal
by Paul Briand
ex "The study said travel programs should be shorter in order to fit busy schedules and keep prices affordable. It said Boomers will want to travel in small groups, with a mix of free time, hands-on learning and behind-the-scenes activities rather than ordinary tourist fare …”
Sounds a bit like my book, first published in early 2005 (now in an updated paperback). An excerpt:
book1 book2

Old Jews Telling Jokes

Eric Spiegelman emailed a few months ago to tell me about Old Jews Telling Jokes, an upcoming collection of videos starring non-stars – which, of course, is the perfect zeitgeist for the web.  Now it’s up.

ojtj2 OJTJ is a bunch of folks in their  sixties and seventies who vacationed in the Catskills when they were kids and young adults – and fondly remember the great Borscht Belt comedians and their brilliant jokes.

What’s special about it all: After they tell a joke, these non-professionals are rather shocked and embarrassed by the huge roars from the off-screen audience.  The concept is even funnier because the jokes are usually off-color.  It’s a touching combination of raunch and innocence.  Very human:

There are a few more on the site – and new ones should show up twice a week.

I’m hooked.

29 January 2009

The New Old

Culled from a colleague’s email:

BTW, have you read "The New Old"? The author loves your writing and cites you generously.

Haven’t read it.  I bet he also cites my colleague.  I’ll have to order it:

newold The New Old: How the Boomers Are Changing Everything ... Again
by David Cravit
The New Old shows how the Boomers’ simple act of refusing to age is creating a revolution – in everything from education to employment to housing to health and beauty and, of course, to sex.

Mr. Cravit has dazzling credentials.  An article about the book and author:

50Plus BoomerAging: It’ll change everything
The final chapters of The New Old point business owners and organizational leaders in the right direction when it comes to including Boomers in their long term plans.

david cravitBut what's the take home message for Boomers themselves? Information is key. “It's important to stay on top of things,” Cravit advises.

I’ve blogged about Zoomers.  Moses Znaimer and others have put together an impressive network of media outlets in Canada.

27 January 2009

Generation B

The New York Times’ Michael Winerip now has a column focusing on Baby Boomers:

wineripThey Warned You About Us
Since the 1960s, when many of us were teenagers, Madison Avenue along with the news media have been polling, interviewing, analyzing, poking and sniffing us, and that continues to this moment, even as nearly 10,000 boomers turn 60 every day.

I used to write general interest columns about Baby Boomers way back in 1996-2002.  In fact, you need The Way Back Machine to find any of them:

                Baby Boomers Splash Pagepeace

Mr. Winerip is geared up for getting slammed – and he will:

But somehow — mistakenly I would argue — the term has become synonymous with greedy, spoiled, divorced, remarried mega-shopper.

I’m looking forward to Michael’s Generation B pieces.  We need more intelligent commentary to counter all the nonsense you read in the press and elsewhere.  Brent Green is doing a good job.  Now he has a kindred spirit.

I took a more humorous approach way back when:

tootsie1xBaby Boomer Nutrition (1998)
People are always coming up to me and asking, "Chuck, why are Baby Boomers so wonderful?"

How rare it is to have an infinite number of correct answers to a single question! One of my standard replies: It has to do with our alimentary intake during adolescence.

The Anti-Boomer Page (1997)
Oh, to be young and flippant again instead of old and flatulent.

And "... in the way" according to Tim McMahon (aka 'azel') and his very humorous Anti-Boomer Page. Here's a kid sick of hearing about Boomers -- and I don't blame him. Why, when I was his age all I ever heard about were the Depression and WWII. What a bore.

Good luck, Michael!

25 January 2009

Internet Hero of the Week

Couldn’t pass up blogging this word-of-mouth marketing story:

ect An uproar hit the Web over the weekend when it was discovered an employee at consumer electronics company Belkin had offered to pay people to write positive reviews for his company's products, even if they hadn't tried them … "Write as if you own the product and are using it," Bayard suggested. "Thank the website for making you such a great deal. Mark any other negative reviews as 'not helpful' once you post yours."

A handful of posts about WOMM:

Advertising/Marketing Article of The Month

The Brouhaha Over WOMM

The Brouhaha Over WOMM Returns

What's Plaguing Viral Marketing

My Blog Was WOMMed!

The juiciest tidbit:

efluxmedia The employee claims that Belkin writes bad reviews for other companies’ products so these can be put at a disadvantage in the eyes of the common consumer.

Amazon.com only?  I think not.  For every duplicitous WOMM post exposed, thousands go undetected. Even a lowly blog like this one has been infected by such sleazy business tactics. Twice. Follow the links:

I have a Jitterbug and looked into the breeze when it went on the market about 2 weeks ago. The breeze does have some additional features, but it is confusing for people like me to use …

I could be the poster child for the sandwich generation and loved this commercial …

Read about the Internet Hero of the Week.