RIP: TeeBeeDee

Readers have emailed wondering why I haven’t commented on the demise of TeeBeeDee.  It’s because I’ve said everything I have to say about these sites – in numerous posts over the years and in my book.

Some posts:

Sleepy Baby Boomer Internet Villages

Invasion of the Baby Boomer Pod People

Invasion of the Baby Boomer Pod People Returns

Eons: An Almost Obit

In a Wall Street Journal blog the founder of TeeBeeDee is interviewed:

Wolaner added that no other companies have successfully figured out this space.

That’s because there is no space - at least ones that can be monetized.  From my book, originally published in 2005 (now available as an updated paperback):

Web pundits are drooling over social networking sites. While this business model is successful and will continue to be, I’m not convinced that people over fifty really care about la-de-da virtual socializing. There has to be a reason to join and hang out other than simply being a Baby Boomer. Sites that center around specific interests like gardening, politics, health, travel, dating, food, art, sports, real estate, education, grandparenting, volunteering, mentoring, etc. will attract a 50+ base. But few want or need to simply hop online and proclaim,“Hello! I’m Joe and I’m a Baby Boomer!”

And TeeBeeDee was one of the better ones.

Advertising to Baby Boomers (Preface & Intro) Free Download

I tossed up the Preface & Intro to my book on Scribd as a free download:

Advertising to Baby Boomers (Preface & Introduction)

It’s culled from the original PDF from Paramount Market Publishing – so it includes the TOC and some blurbs.  (I’m not quite as wonderful as the ‘praise’ page suggests – but most of you know that already …)

The whole thing is easier to read if downloaded.

Advertising Has Removed Music's Soul

Trenchant post by AdRants’ Steve Hall:

Advertising Has Removed Music's Soul
When a musician pours their soul into their work, it has deep meaning and, as a listener, we feel that meaning. When that same music appears in a commercial, it's as if every bit of blood sweat and tears that went into the creation of that music is minimized to a point where the work has almost no meaning at all.

Lots of takes by lots of folks on the same subject:

Invoking "The Sixties"

Ameriprise vs. Fidelity Financial Redux

More In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Boomer Nostalgia

Food fights, Balloons and Dancing Gorillas

77 Truths About Marketing To The 50+ Consumer

An updated edition of the influential 77 Truths is now available:

77 Truths About Marketing To The 50+ Consumer, 3rd Edition
a brief guide to marketing to baby boomers
by Kurt Medina & John Migliaccio
77 Truths shares over 25 years of insight by each of the authors into some of the special views, preferences, likes, and dislikes of the growing market of baby boomers.

I haven’t seen this new edition – but I’d better order one soon because my copy is a disheveled mess from frenetic flipping, corner creasing, Jackson Pollock-like coffee spilling, and Picasso-like underlining and scribbling.

Boomers are a once in a lifetime opportunity

A piece in the Small Business section of USA Today by Steve Strauss:

Ask an Expert: Boomers are a once in a lifetime opportunity
Like it or not, the Boomers have been at the forefront of a variety of important issues and events: Vietnam, the sexual revolution, civil rights, the self-awareness movement of the '70s and the health craze of the '80s, to name a few. These are people who will always see themselves as open-minded and young. Willing to try out new ideas, the Boomers are a creative entrepreneur's dream.

Not much new, but it’s good to know more people are catching on. 

I left a comment:

Nice piece. I've been screaming about this for six years - in a book, a blog, press interviews, during speaking and consulting gigs. The real issue: marketing and advertising folks grasping the fact that Boomers are not disengaging - and will be buying non-age related products for the next twenty-odd years. If you target this group for toothpaste, computers, clothes, food, nail polish, sporting equipment, toenail clippers - anything at all (almost), and you do it with respect and finesse, they will appreciate and consider your product.