You would think that marketing to baby boomers would be an easy task, but if you look at the media and its advertisers, you could easily see a different picture.
To be young, gifted, beautiful, blond and white has long been the image that sells. Remember Barbie, Ken and Chatty Cathy? I actually remember throwing my life-like black baby doll (who could walk) down the stairs of our basement because she didn't look like Barbie. In some advertising circles that philosophy still holds true. However, the “hype” that advertisers have long used on the younger “gullible” generation no longer works on us baby boomers. These days you have to SHOW US YOU KNOW US!
Slowly but surely companies are starting to take note of this economic power baby boomers are supposed to have. It’s just been in the past couple of years that someone discovered that women go through something called menopause. And to help all of those horny baby boomer men cope with their issues, there’s Viagra and Cialis to the rescue!
But what is disturbing is the lack of diversity in marketing to baby boomers. I went to the www.knowmenopause.com site recently. I saw Meret, Caitlin, Pam and Denise front and center, but none of them looked like me. Why is that? Menopause doesn’t discriminate. It’s an equal opportunity annoyer so why not portray that diversity?
Ironically, I did see an ad for Viagra with an African-American male recently and I thought, “Why would he need that?” Throughout history we’ve been told the black male is a beast in bed and his anatomy is larger than life.
The media, unfortunately, continues to lump baby boomers into one big group. Their theory is that we are all grew up in the suburbs, watched the Mickey Mouse Club and then went on to change the world through our opposition to the War and our fight for civil rights. In addition, we received top notch educations and went on to achieve tremendous success in Corporate America while maintaining the all-American family lifestyle. If you look at who's running the newsrooms, you can see how that conclusion is drawn.
WHATEVER!
You need to read my book, Whatever! A Baby Boomer’s Journey Into Middle Age to get the “other” side.
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