Memed again.

The whole point of this blog, the book, my consulting, my speaking over the last six years: To kick-start the revolution. 

So, it’s working (or at least word is getting out):

Media X: Wasted on the Young
by Jack Feuer 
Which is why, brothers and sisters, we need a communications Strawberry Statement. We need a new revolution. A corporate rebellion, not a cultural one.

Boomers are going to have to go back to the barricades and do what we do best: Force the issue. If there aren't bodies in the streets, there's no truth in the communication and no value in the channel … Track down the creative directors responsible for all those asinine, tie-dyed, surfer music spots and shove their Smartphones up their service entrance.

I’ve never been quite that graphic.  I’ll scratch my head in public, but not my ***:

NostraChuckus Scratches His Head
… In this age of digital ephemera, where things zoom by, just as quickly zoom into oblivion, are forgotten, or even worse, never seen, when these same things zoom by again and again and again, they’re all, all of a sudden, brand new.

More from Media X (and Yours Truly if you follow the links):

We aren't now and never were a Generation just about Me.

You think we're brand loyal.
(A second favorite excuse of agencies is: “Baby Boomers don’t change brands.” Nyren dismantles this excuse nicely with examples of brand switching, and he further acknowledges that in cases where loyalty to a brand does exist, marketers who do not target Boomers give them no reason to change.)

And the next person that hires Dennis Hopper to star in their commercial will find their house thoroughly TP'ed … Find somebody else to represent the Sixties. Stanley Owsley would work.

(Again) Boomers are going to have to go back to the barricades and do what we do best: Force the issue …

A chapter in my book is all about that:

I’m going to try to motivate you—to rally the troops. If you are a creative who is a Baby Boomer, those troops would be you.

 

Cloned. Memed.  I like it.

50+ Marketing Seminar in London

Thursday 16 July 2009, Olympia, London, UK:

50+ Marketing Seminar
The 50+ Marketing Seminar brings together a wealth of experience and knowledge from the UK's experts on marketing to the 50+ and mature markets.

I know three of those experts:

Kevin Lavery: One of the founders and currently Managing Director of Millennium, the UK’s leading specialist marketing consultancy for the 50+ market.

Reg Starkey: A former President of the Creative Circle, Reg’s work has been recognised with national and international awards. He has published one book for Millennium, ‘SAMPLES OF ONE’ and contributed to two others on the mature market, as well as editing their B2B magazine CIRCUS throughout 2008.

Dick Stroud: In July 2003 I started the world's first daily blog that is dedicated to 50-plus marketing. Before running my own companies my career included working for IBM and PA Management Consultants. At the dawn of time I collected a first-degree in Electronics and an MBA.

We all contributed to Circus Magazine (PDF).  Kevin, Dick, and yours truly are members of IMMN.  I’ve blogged about Kevin, Dick, and Reg dozens of times:

Kevin Lavery: Why we should be marketing to the over-50s

London & Marks & Spencer
After The European Speaking/Consulting Tour it was off to London for a good mix of business and pleasure - so much so that it was hard to separate the two.

InTwoFocus
If you’re here you’d better pay attention to what’s happening over there:
InTwoFocus is Europe's first Web video marketing agency specialising in the 50-plus market

Reg Starkey blogs…
Creative problem-solver Reg Starkey is now blogging for CreativeBrief.com:

Reg's practical experience of working with many of the world's most acknowledged advertising agencies has now been combined with an in-depth knowledge of the important and neglected mature market. His knowledge and consultancy in this sector is sought by discerning clients in a broad range of sectors.

So this should be a good one.  Too bad I won’t be there to heckle them from the gallery.

Me vs. We Redux

A colleague sent this email:

Good story today -
This Boomer Isn't Going to Apologize

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.)

This blog gets hits from search terms such as selfish boomers. The googlers usually end up on one of these 2005 posts:

Those Selfish, Money-Grubbing Baby Boomers
Andrea Coombes of MarketWatch has put together a trenchant article about Baby Boomers and their value systems. In this case, it has to do with inheritances … Money is low on the list of what boomers hope to inherit …

Selfless baby boomers switch careers
Kevin Corke of NBC News has put together a short piece about Baby Boomers wanting the second acts of their lives to be more meaningful by finding jobs that are socially responsible. It was prompted by a Princeton Survey Research Associates International study.

Or one from early 2008:

Me vs. We
Last week I read a piece of marketing advice: "Baby boomers have always been considered the 'me-generation,' and that doesn't change with age."  It's this type of reckless gibberish that is useless to marketers, and ultimately harmful to their clients.

And there’s a book.

I explained it all way back in 1998:

Baby Boomer Nutrition  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.

Truth be told, I get queasy reading all the bashing and the defending.  I did like this piece, however:

How Boomers Can Change the World (again)
By Rosabeth Moss Kanter 
World, get ready! The Baby Boomers are becoming the Senior Boomers, and they want to change you again.

So what does all this have to do with advertising?  I’m not sure.  Maybe something, maybe not. A snippet from my book:

More from Matt Thornhill: Blessed or Cursed? Baby Boomers Frequently Unfairly Attacked

The Midlife Gals

From: Kelly Jackson
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 3:17 PM
To: Chuck Nyren

Chuck,

We'd ask if we can call you Chuck, but as boomers, you know that we'd do it anyway.

We're two sisters from Texas. We're The Midlife Gals, who are making a name for ourselves all over the Internet (just google The Midlife Gals and poof ... first two to three pages of nothing BUT us).

We're KEEN to become spokeswomen marketing to boomers. We are presently writing a conversational weekly column and producing and starring in weekly videos for More Magazine online. For More Magazine, we're sort of a twisted, dangerous version of Dear Abby. We know that boomers need humor and react to that type of marketing. We're sort of The Smothers Brothers with bosoms. Please peruse our website/blog:

http://www.themidlifegals.com

How do you suggest we break through?? It's not as if we aren't TRYING!

Thanks,
KK and Sal
THE MIDLIFE GALS®

NostraChuckus Scratches His Head

Who is NostraChuckus?

Another déjà vu …
For me, the strangest episodes are happening while reading news articles about Baby Boomers and realizing that I’ve read versions of them all before – in my book and blog. 

And they’ve given me excuses to have tongue-in-cheek fun with my alter-ego NostraChuckus.  But recently it’s been spooky.  I’m starting to believe my own goofy hype – hype I made up myself.  (Or maybe I’m still having tongue-in-cheek fun ...)

A recent piece in MediaPost:

Maybe Peter Pan Should Move To Madison Avenue
… Nationwide research by AARP shows that the majority of consumers over 50 feels that advertising and marketing either portrays them negatively or ignores them altogether.

Why? Because it's being created by people at least 20 years younger.

Hmmm.  All points made sound suspiciously like my online and trade mag articles, my blog, my consulting, a big chunk of my presentation when speaking.  Since 2003. 

I’m happy to see all this.  Maybe even proud.  Because  NostraChuckus predicted it all – including the emergence of small-to-medium sized ad agencies staffed with folks who understand that ‘the best advertising is done by people who advertise to themselves’ …

I’ve also yelled it over Led Zeppelin. (audio download)

Related posts here?  Every third one, probably. (And at last count, there are 481 of’em.)

A review of Advertising to Baby Boomers from 2005 – and two snippets:
  

From the book:

  

I guess NostraChuckus is scratching his head because in this age of digital ephemera, where things zoom by, just as quickly zoom into oblivion, are forgotten, or even worse, never seen, when these same things zoom by again and again and again, they’re all, all of a sudden, brand new.

—
Dick Stroud, another brilliant seer of simple common sense, is likewise scratching his head – but for different reasons.
_

Update 7/01/09: Memed again.