25 Defining Images in Baby Boomer History

Hi Chuck ,
We would love to share with you an article that we just posted on our own blog! “25 Defining Images in Baby Boomer History” would be an interesting story for your readers to check out … so we hope you will consider sharing it!
G. T.

I get a lot of not-quite-spam emails like the above. Underneath it all is a company/website that promotes online learning – not such a bad thing.

Nice to see a Boomer timeline that doesn’t stop with the Vietnam War – as if we all disappeared in the early 1970s – and magically reappeared thirty-five years later in a Volkswagen Bus.

Interactive Guide: Advertising & Marketing to Baby Boomers 2nd Edition (2010)

The first one has been fiddled with thousands of times:

Interactive Guide to Baby Boomer Marketing/Advertising Goes Copper

So I put together a 2nd edition covering the last six months or so.  It’s a loose-knit compendium of popular posts and news stories.  Download it here.

Don't call them old

A long time ago (it seems) I was interviewed for a newspaper piece:

Don't call them old
JEAN STARR Times Correspondent
December 14, 2003
"Not wanting to get/be/look older isn't anything new. However, baby boomers will do it a bit differently," he said. "Looking and being healthy will be more important than toupees and botox.”

I’ve been talking about this stuff for that long?  I was so young back then.  It was before the book, this blog – although I was writing about baby boomers on something that was a blog before there were blogs.

And I’d been interviewed plenty of times – but this was the first time I’d been asked about Baby Boomers and advertising.

While reading the article again after so many years, I realized that some but not much has changed. 

And it reminded me of a recent chat with an entrepreneur.  He has an interesting sports-related product, something many Boomers and other demos would enjoy and benefit from – but it’s being positioned and marketed as a medical device.  It’s not at all cool-looking and oozes old.

From that 2003 article:

Nyren dreams about, what for him, would be the perfect bicycle. "It would be cool-looking, not flashy. It would have wide tires and a huge comfy seat. It would have handlebars like on the old Schwinns," he said. "You want to sit there and be comfortable. You want some gears but you don't need 150. And you don't want to look old."

I’ve given up on the not looking old part – but the rest still rolls.

Your Brain On Games Redux

As NostraChuckus predicted, it’s the Year of The Baby Boomer Brain.

More research about brain games:

Brain-training companies are challenging the findings:

Posit Science Disputes Results
"There is a fatal flaw in the BBC study; it assumes that since their methods did not work, all methods would not work," said Steven Aldrich, CEO Posit Science.

Obviously I’m not qualified to comment on whether these digital gizmos revivify your rotting noggin.  However, for years I’ve questioned why the hype was so thick.  Did it have to be? 

Study: Brain Exercises Don't Improve Cognition By Eben Harrel
The study … undermines the sometimes outlandish claims of brain-boosting websites and digital games.

My advice has always been to take the high road with the 50+ Market.  They’ve been around long enough to recognize most B.S. – and when they feel they’ve been fooled, say goodbye to them.

A post from a year ago:

The Brain Games Game
I scratched my not-too-bright head and wondered what the difference was between a brain game and any mind-bending game: Rubik's Cube, Scrabble, Sudoku, etc.  Obviously, this new crop of revolutionary IQ busters improved your brain power while all the others were, I guess, just for laughs. 

And that’s what bothered me about the marketing – and still does.  Are these new-fangled blinking lights on a screen the best way, the only way to keep your noggin nimble?  This seems to be the claim.  Or are they a new breed in a long line of cognitive games that go back to counting pebbles on cave floors?

You certainly get the ‘hard-sell’ impression that if you don’t buy and play these games, eventually your brain will leak out of your nose and ears.  Why not just tell the truth?  These are high-tech, stimulating computer-generated exercises that will help keep your mind sharp - are structured, measurable to some degree (so they’re useful for medical research), and quite entertaining. 

And there are a lot of them – so you won’t get bored just playing one over and over. 

Not much has changed since that post.  The brain game industry recklessly jumped into hype mode and now they’re paying the price.  It doesn’t matter what the truth is – the doubts are out there for all to see. 

With a bit of sensible PR, marketing, and advertising – the industry could have avoided all the negative publicity by positioning their products not as miracles, but as what they are –  brain-twisting workouts that are fun to play, keep your mind active – and in research/medical settings are measurable instruments. They don’t make you smarter, they aid in making you as smart as you are. 

Oh, well.  Perhaps the brain games powers-that-be didn’t play enough brain games …
_____

Dick Stroud: Dumbed down Science

Laurie Orlov: The BBC Brain Training study -- let's flip it around

Baby Boomers - A South African Perspective

To: nyrenagency (at) gmail.com
Subject: Baby Boomers - A South African Perspective

Hi Chuck

A Baby Boomer myself, I have for many years contemplated to further my post graduate studies. I live and work in Johannesburg, South Africa. Reading on the internet about you and the work you have done on advertising to the Baby Boomers have really motivated me to follow my dream and to submit a research proposal on this subject to my local university. I first graduated in 1976 with my very first job at an ad agency in Johannesburg. In and out of advertising over the years of rearing a family, I now have the time to pursue my studies again. I have mainly had a career in media strategy and implementation.

My first step is going to be to order your book, Advertising to Baby Boomers on-line and start with a comprehensive literature overview. Hopefully this topic will bring me the meaningful field of study I have been in search of for many years. I will have to find out what has been done in South Africa that is relevant.

Any thoughts on attempting a study on Baby Boomers from a South African perspective will be much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Tertia Strydom
Johannesburg
South Africa
____

I emailed Tertia this link (from a 2006 blog post):

Managing age diversity in the advertising industry
Do people working in ad agencies lack emotional intelligence, because their average age is lower than in traditional organisations? Paula Sartini explores the issue of age in the advertising industry in this paper.