Chances are good the readers of
Marketing Blurb missed the "Focalyst Executive Forum: Innovations and Insights in Reaching Boomers and Older Consumers," a joint venture of AARP Services and Kantar Research. But if you had attended, you would have heard boomers complain about how they are depicted in advertising. Not all boomers have silver hair and walk hand-in-hand with their spouses on the beach.
AARP reminded advertisers that boomers are constantly reinventing themselves in cycles which include serial marriages, second and third families, new jobs, and recovery from formally fatal diseases. Author Gail Sheehy told forum attendees that advertisers should address boomer lifestyle, not age. "A first-time mother at age 49, which is not unheard of now, needs a stroller that's easier to fold up. The new student at age 49 needs comfortable school shoes." So before you craft that next boomer campaign, push a baby stroller a mile in a boomer’s shoes.
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