AARP & NostraChuckus

It’s been a banner year for NostraChuckus, famed Soothsayer of The Mundane and The Obvious.  However, even he could not have predicted such a banner year for himself:

09 January 2018
2018: The Year of Big
… Advertisers will finally follow simple common sense, something a certain seer has been urging for years …

26 MARCH 2018
NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense has spot-on prognosticated what would come true in 2018

02 JULY 2018
The Year Of Big Gets Bigger
NostraChuckus, famed soothsayer of the obvious, continues to amaze with his humdrum prognostications…

19 SEPTEMBER 2018
NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense vs. Apple Watch
… While both offerings are worthy, we prefer The Crystal Ball because it can actually tell the future of the Apple Watch …

Now this:

AARP to Take On Ageism, Enlists Former Ad Executive Cindy Gallop
… Madison Avenue has long been obsessed by youth and its workforce tends to be weighted toward the younger generation…

“The ad industry is an extremely ageist industry,” said Ms. Gallop, who added that she plans on pressuring agencies into hiring more older people…”

“When you have older people creating, producing and approving ads, the problem is easily solved,” Ms. Gallop added …

NostraChuckus in 2003 (via The Wayback Machine):

Advertising to Baby Boomers: Back into the Fold
The Giant Leap: There had better be a minor revolution in the creative end of the advertising industry. Talented men and women in their late forties and fifties need to be brought back into the fold if you want to reach us. This includes copywriters, graphic artists, producers, directors, and creative directors.

Truth is, you can analyze marketing fodder all day and night, read countless books about marketing to Baby Boomers, attend advertising and marketing conventions around the world, and soak up everything all the experts have to say. Much of what is out there is valuable and useful, some practically required reading, others instructive and illuminating. But if you plan on implementing a creative strategy, and turn it over to a different generation of advertising professionals - you'll forfeit the natural sensibilities required to generate vital campaigns.

The book of prophesy © 2005/2007:

Intro and First Chapter (PDF)

NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense is getting hazy now……

NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense vs. Apple Watch

A quick comparison of NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense and the new Apple Watch:

Our Pick: NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense

While both offerings are worthy, we prefer The Crystal Ball because it can actually tell the future of the Apple Watch:

NostraChuckus in 2014:
Never Leave The Hospital! Health Tech Wearables, Implanted Chips
… Wired ‘n Monitored will create a whole new disorder for the mental health industry. Having devices wrapped around you or implanted that constantly flash and beep will cause over-the-top anxiety.

Washington Post in 2018:
What cardiologists think about the Apple Watch’s heart-tracking feature
.. Some doctors said that including heart-monitoring tools in such a popular consumer product could trigger unnecessary anxiety and medical visits.

Modern (and ancient) tech gadgets can be helpful – but picking the right one for you is often a challenge. Do you want to know all about the present? Or the future?

It all comes down to personal preferences.

From The Nothing New Dept : Retail’s New Niche

Retail's new niche: Aging baby boomers
The number of senior citizens in the United States is expected to nearly double by 2050, creating a fast-growing niche for retailers and manufacturers.

Odd sentence. What is an ‘aging’ baby boomer? I guess one who isn’t dead.

How about ‘fast-growing niche’? I guess in the grand scheme of things, thirty-odd years is a nanosecond. 

The Baby Boomer Market is a ‘niche’?  I guess the Pacific Ocean is a niche.

Executives at Gillette have for decades defined shaving as a rite of passage … in recent years, executives have begun to see another milestone emerge in their customers’ lives: the moment when sons begin shaving their aging fathers.

Smart that Gillette understands the difference between 50-70 year-olds and an 80-100 year-olds. Few advertisers do.

A touching, sweet video:

… At Best Buy, the focus is increasingly on aging Americans who live at home …

Step one: Make it easier for adults to keep tabs on their aging parents. The company’s Assured Living program, introduced a year ago, uses a network of sensors to alert caretakers to changes in routine.

Best Buy’s acquisition of GreatCall … (has) two Jitterbug phones — one with a touch screen, the other a flip phone.

Will their youngish sales force be trained to differentiate between fifty-sixty somethings and eighty-ninety somethings?

I’m sixty-seven. If I walk into a Best Buy and say, “I’m looking for a smartphone,” and the salesperson steers me to a Jitterbug, I’d turn around and walk out. If I walk in and say, “I’m looking for a smartphone for my father” – I would be happy if he/she steers me to a Jitterbug.

We’ll see.

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Yours Truly is participating in a project/startup:

TV Spots I Remember

My previous post:

28 or 52 or 103 Things Only Baby Boomers Remember 

While banging it out I began thinking about commercials that have stuck with me through the years. They’re not necessarily the best or most famous – simply ones I loved, knocked me out.

Although the advertising revolution was well under way by 1965, I remember first seeing this commercial (I’m fourteen) and just going batty. I had no idea what I was watching. No commercial before had ever started and continued non-stop as a montage. Every image was memorable. Montages of any sort weren’t really used much on television – in commercials or programs:

Volkswagen Ads. There were so many. A great mini-doc:

The VW spot I went nutty over was for the Bus/Station Wagon. I swear I remember it being a minute long. An old couple is walking down a residential city street, looking for an address. They find it, walk up a few flights of stairs, then ...

Stone-faced absurdity. I’d never seen anything like it in a commercial. The actress playing the mother makes it all work.

Special effects. They’re all over the screen today. In the 1960s this was about as good as it got:

How about a spot whose sole purpose was not to use special effects? Talk about thrills and chills…

There is no ‘greatest commercial ever’ – except, of course, the Volkswagen Snow-Plow commercial:

My favorite greatest commercial ever:

Simple message: FedEx=Fast.

28 or 52 or 103 Things Only Baby Boomers Remember

There are hundreds of lists of things only Baby Boomers will remember. I stumble upon a new one every month or so.

The latest one from Good Housekeeping:

28 Things Only Baby Boomers Will Remember

Usually, some Baby Boomer puts these lists together. This time, no. So there are anachronisms and cognitive dissonances every which way - telephones, gas stations, cars from the 1930s and 1940s, and so on. For example, the picture above is captioned:

 Whether it was The Beatles or the Beach Boys, people born in the '50s definitely remember buying their first vinyl record and listening to it over and over again.

Hmmm. That’s not quite the way I remember it. What pops up in my mind is one of these:

Here’s a better list:

37 Things Every Baby Boomer Will Remember

22. Your doctor would lecture you about junk food while smoking a cigarette in your face.

23. You didn’t know who was calling you until you actually picked up the phone.

24. You know the anticipation of waiting for a polaroid picture to develop.

There are loads of better lists.

Now, think about a 25-year-old creative putting together an ad campaign targeting Baby Boomers.

The Human Resources/Brain Power Posts

From the vaults:

15 March 2010
Hire Baby Boomer Creatives
Truth is, you can analyze marketing fodder all day and night, read countless books about marketing to Baby Boomers, attend advertising and marketing conventions around the world, and soak up everything all the experts have to say. Much of what is out there is valuable and useful … But if you plan on implementing a creative strategy and turn it over to a different generation of advertising professionals — you'll forfeit the natural sensibilities required to generate vital campaigns.

Generations Make Better Decisions Together