Boomers

The LOHAS Forum and the Future of Conscience Consumerism

“Stop, children, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down.”

Buffalo Springfield’s chart-topping protest song entitled “For What It’s Worth,” written by Stephen Stills and released in 1967, anticipated social turbulence and confrontations of the late 1960s. This anthem has been often associated with anti-Vietnam War fervor of that time; yet today it resonates as a memorable melodic signature of momentous societal and cultural change.

This classic folk-rock song kept running through my mind as I listened to dozens of speakers articulating context for another revolution. The 13^th annual LOHAS Forum at the St. Julian Hotel in Boulder, Colorado, June 17 – 19, 2009, showcased impassioned visionaries who are humming notes of historic change in the way this nation consumes and discards — how we choose to live our lives in a time of global warning, economic turmoil, diminishing natural resources, and population explosion. Dramatic and determined thought-leaders possess many unique points of view, but they share a familiar message: an influential, irrevocable transformation is underway.

LOHAS, an acronym that stands for Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability, is a lifestyle and consumer cohort identified in the late 1990’s, which has grown to become a $209 billion global market segment. Consumers described as LOHAS are passionate about sustainability, health & wellness, personal development, resource conservation, corporate social responsibility, social justice, and natural/organic living.

According to Natural Marketing Institute (NMI), the Pennsylvania-based company that has for years conducted groundbreaking original research describing this segment, LOHAS consumers comprise 17% of the U.S. population. The Boomer generation over-represents the segment: 21% of Boomers are LOHAS consumers (24% higher than average).

An intrinsic connection between Boomers and LOHAS becomes more obvious when considering historical context. Launched on April 22, 1970, birth of Earth Day, the modern environmental movement barnstormed a nation through myriad protest marches and civic activism of this generation. Boomers created overwhelming political pressure, leading to the Environmental Protection Agency and passage by Congress of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. In conjunction with awakening to environmentalism, Boomers found sustenance in organic and natural foods popularized by nutritionist and author Adelle Davis; discovered the viabilities of aerobic fitness from running advocate Dr. Kenneth Cooper; and immersed deeper into spirituality with wise counsel from new gurus such as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. From among their ranks came LOHAS-style businesses such as Wild Oats, Whole Foods, Starbucks, Stonyfield Farms, Silk Milk, and Celestial Seasonings.

As NMI proposes, the substantial influence of LOHAS consumers turns the 80/20 rule upside down. Also known as the Pareto Principle, this economic imperative maintains that 80% of a company’s income typically comes from 20% of its customers. Opinionated, outspoken, omnipresent and representing nearly 20% of the U.S. population, LOHAS consumers today are shaping core eco-values of 80% of the population. 80/20 has become 20/80.

This also leads to a new business imperative: pay attention to LOHAS consumers and their evolving preferences and behaviors; anticipate trends that will soon emerge broadly in the national population. LOHAS consumers are a fountainhead of what’s to come in the marketplace. They are precursors… progenitors.

An intense, mind-spinning emersion into the future of western lifestyles and consumerism, The LOHAS Forum cannot be condensed into a single post. Here I've posted some representative insights and comments from those who are leading the charge toward “responsible capitalism”: the men and women driven by deep-seated commitment to global sustainability and human health.

Ray Anderson

In the early 1990s, industrialist Ray Anderson experienced an epiphany when reading Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce. His carpet manufacturing company, Interface Global, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial floor coverings, is nearly half way to achieving his vision of “Mission Zero” – zero scraps into landfills and zero emissions into the ecosystem.

Embodied Energy: the energy actually expended to create a tangible product

Biophilia: the nearly universal human desire to be outside in nature and to experience serene moments

“The cheapest energy is the energy not used.”

“You can’t create green products in a brown company.”

“Sustainability can be the most significant competitive advantage in a recessionary economy.”

“LOHAS means more happiness with less stuff.”

Steve French

Steve French is Executive Vice President and Managing Partner of Natural Marketing Institute, the research firm that has played a leading role in defining, tracking and articulating the LOHAS segment.

Current hurdles to LOHAS adoption:

1) Price sensitivity due to economic recession

2) Trust in companies because of proliferating “green” marketing messages

3) Product selection: finding environmentally friendly packaging and products across all categories

4) Sacrifice avoidance: increasing unwillingness to buy higher-priced, environmentally friendly products

5) Conflicting desire to reduce all consumption, even sustainably manufactured products

6) Time scarcity: consumers do not have time to investigate company claims of social responsibility and sustainability

Hunter Lovins

President and founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, Hunter Lovins educates senior decision-makers in the areas of sustainable development, globalization, energy and resource policy, economic development, climate change, and land management.

350 ppm: the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere; scientists measured 385 ppm in the 2007 atmosphere

Green buildings improve labor relations, health, worker productivity and business efficiencies. This has been demonstrated empirically by none-other-than Wal-Mart and the giant retailer’s new holistic green initiatives.

Business needs a new business case for survival, which Lovins calls Climate Capitalism.

Wade Davis, Ph.D.

 

Wade Davis is an Explorer-in-Residence for the National Geographic Society. He has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.” Author of nine books, including the international bestseller, “The Serpent and the Rainbow,” Davis is indeed a poet’s scientist and a scientist’s poet who shares impactful stories about the world’s vanishing cultures.

“Together the myriad of cultures of the world make up an intellectual, social and spiritual web of life that envelopes the planet and is as important to wellbeing of the planet as is the biologic web of life that you know as a biosphere.”

“You can think of this cultural web of life as being an ethnosphere, and you can define the ethnosphere as being the sum total of all thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness.”

“The ethnosphere is humanity’s legacy and a symbol of all that we’ve achieved and the promise of all that we can achieve as a wildly creative species.”

“When each of you in this room was born, there were 7,000 languages spoken on earth. Now a language isn’t just a body of vocabulary or set of grammatical rules; a language is a flash of the human spirit. It’s a vehicle to which the soul of each particular culture comes into the material world. Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an ecosystem of social and spiritual possibilities. And of those 7,000 languages spoken the day you were born, today fully half are on their way to extinction.”

Hunter Lovins articulated one essential ethos of the LOHAS movement: “Real leadership is extraordinary courage by ordinary people.” Like Lovins, many of the movement’s leaders are also Boomers who for several decades have been drawing the battle lines between those who waste and exploit and those who preserve and protect natural and cultural resources for the future.

The people who belong to the LOHAS movement are certainly extraordinary — and often courageous. They are visionaries inspiring ordinary people to do amazing things: to bring sustainability into mainstream value consensus; to change our national focus from wasteful consumerism to “conscious” or “conscience consumerism”; and to motivate the next generation of leaders to be creative, bold and committed to restoring the nation’s fundamental values of preservation, idealism and individual initiative.

A generation ago, folk-rocker Stephen Stills sang, “There’s something happening here; what it is ain’t exactly clear.” The journey toward a healthier, less materialistic, more altruistic and sustainable society isn’t always clear.

But it’s happening.

Additional General Session Speakers:

Ted Ning

Ted Ning: Director, LOHAS

Gwynne Rogers

 

Gwynne Rogers: Lohas Business Director, Natural Marketing Institute

John Marshall Roberts

 

John Marshall Roberts: Author, Igniting Inspiration

Robyn Griggs Lawrence

 

Robyn Griggs Lawrence: Editor-in-Chief, Natural Home magazine

Adam Lowry

 

Adam Lowry: Co-Founder, Method

Wolf Ludge

 

Wolf Ludge: CEO, hessnatur

Mallika Chopra

 

Mallika Chopra: Founder, Intent.com

Adam Werbach

Adam Werbach: Global CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi S

Carly Wertheim

Carly Wertheim, Co-President, Teens Turning Green

All photos in this post: Copyright 2009, Brent Green & Associates, Inc.

Bacardi Rum Mojitos, Marketing Missteps, Boomers and Social Justice

I could have begun this article with any number of examples, but since it is summertime, I’ll make my case using Bacardi Rum’s recent ad campaign featuring mojitos, a cool libation now being advertised heavily on cable television.

Take a look at this commercial:

For the uninitiated, a mojito is a highball made from white rum, cane sugar, lime juice, carbonated water and fresh mint. Cuba claims the mojito, but reports vary about where and who first mixed up the most popular adult beverage made with rum.

On hot summer evenings, the drink is a fashionable thirst quencher and mood modifier. My neighbors often mix up this minty concoction for their backyard barbecues, and the refreshing cocktails always receive plaudits from guests who imbibe.

The Bacardi mojito ad is lavish and complicated: a continuous tapestry of celebration.

Having drained his glass of mojito, our protagonist saunters through dancing crowds toward the bar. Suddenly he’s walking through a disco as if it’s the 1980s. Women’s clothes then evoke the sixties (notice knee-high go-go boots in one shot). Other dancers suggest the fifties (notice full skirts and petticoats or a geeky guy with Buddy Holly glasses).

A careful observer (who hasn’t consumed too much mojito) begins to notice that our hero isn’t just walking through a funky, convoluted nightclub; he’s also walking through time, into the past.

He pushes through two ornate doors and suddenly the parched protagonist passes through the flapper era of the 1920s. Finally he strolls up to a bar where he is greeted by an urbane bartender in dressy western garb, evocative of the late 1800s.

A catchy and retro-1980s background song entitled Daylight by Matt and Kim binds together this montage of forward momentum and backward time travel.

Bacardi then claims the mantle of mojito superiority with crisp copy to support its ambitious cinematic production: “Since 1862, the best mojitos have always been made the same way. Bacardi. The original mojito.”

This television commercial has received much praise by YouTube viewers, with a lot of credit being given to the hip song. Consumer reactions reinforce the long-understood intrinsic relationship between mood-altering libations and intense rock ‘n’ roll music. Alcoholic beverages have been connected with contemporary music since the birth of broadcast advertising.

So, what’s the problem?

Take another look at the commercial and now scrutinize for diversity. You’ll see Caucasians, Latinos and African Americans. You’ll certainly see a balance of gender, as you would expect for a nightclub evolving backward through the fourth dimension (of time). What you won’t see is anyone over the age of 40 (more likely 30) — neither in the present nor in the distant past where the thirsty customer finally gets his freshly mashed mojito.

Marketers who adore demographic targeting would argue that this spot is only for young men and women. The under-thirty crowd probably constitutes the heaviest consumers of Bacardi brand rum, and this commercial tends to run during television programming that’s most attractive to young adults.

My reaction to this ad is the same as if the creators had not been racially inclusive. A large segment of rum consumers — including those similar to my sixty-something neighbors — do not exist in this time-folding world — not now, not in 1862.

We practitioners of generational marketing embrace a sociological construct called the “cohort effect,” where early and shared generational experiences tend to shape cultural images and perceptions held by a cohort. One of those experiences shared by many young Boomers was a haunting book and movie entitled Logan’s Run.

In this dystopian science fiction plot set in 2016, on the day a citizen turns 21, called Lastday, he must report to Sleepshop for a peaceful execution. Only young adults, teens and children inhabit this future world. The sobering movie awakened many young Boomers to the downside of a society where people over a certain age do not exist. This is one Boomer cohort filter that also shaped my critical reactions to the Bacardi ad.

Further, Boomers and older consumers constitute a favorable and financially prepared market for “white spirits.” According to Research and Markets, an Ireland-based marketing research company, “While spirits consumption declines with age, as it does with most alcoholic beverages, older consumers are turning to premium products as affordable luxuries. The low-carb interest has had a positive effect as well, with white spirits being carb-free and many manufacturers quick to market their products on that basis.”

Advertising to today’s Boomer market has sometimes been addressed with perturbing creative nuances evoking the sixties and hippies, probably conceived by those who never knew firsthand the sixties or hippies. I’ve written about some of those ads elsewhere in this blog.

Another marketing misstep is well-represented by the Bacardi mojito ad: age exclusion or age denial. Older people simply don’t exist in Bacardi’s world. Maybe in Bacardi’s idealized view of its mojito market, older Boomers all went to Sleepshop.

Marketers can’t be age inclusive in every ad they conceive, any more than they can be racially and sexually inclusive, but when an ad portrays such a sweeping canvas of consumers, marketers need to consider the real world, one where people of all ages mix quite well — like lime and mint. Marketers need to consider age inclusion for sensible marketing reasons.

They also need to consider age inclusion as they have racial inclusion: a form of social justice. Notice the African American man and Caucasian woman dancing together in the 1940s segue, which, of course, would never have happened in 1940s reality. Why this creative direction? Because it’s how opinion shapers — directors, copywriters, brand marketers, advertisers — want us collectively to view a post-racial society today. Because, in this case, historical revisionism is the right thing to do when it serves a larger cause of equality.

To those stuck in exclusionary youth marketing, omitting older customers from depictions of their products, I can hardly tip my mojito glass and say, “Cheers!”

ADDENDUM: Patrick Roden, a reader of this blog post, provided a link to an excellent ad that actually celebrates aging, rather than denies it. See his thoughtful comments below. Rather than just provide a link to the Kaiser Permanente ad, here it is:

Boomers and the Future of Hospice

“Life is a journey from beginning to end, measured not in time but in quality.”

This is the first sentence in a pamphlet produced by The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, the largest hospice in the United States, based in Clearwater, Florida. With an average of 2,400 patients and a staff of 1,500, this exemplar organization has played a major role in the evolution of hospice since the movement became popular in the U.S. shortly after introduction of a trendsetting book in 1969: On Death and Dying, by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D., an eminent psychiatrist. Her book demystified death and the dying process, making the final stage of life more comprehensible and manageable — for those who are dying and their caretakers.

Many prefer not to think about the inevitable conclusion to life, but for Baby Boomers, the end of life is becoming more concrete and palpable. Boomers are losing their parents, and a surprising number of their peers have begun to succumb to fatal illnesses, including high-profile personalities such as newsman Tim Russert, folk-rock-star Dan Fogelberg, and Carnegie-Mellon professor Randy Pausch.

I recently addressed marketing professionals for hospices from around the nation under the auspices of the National Hospice Work Group (NHWG) and then later that same day, the leadership team of the Suncoast Hospice.

NHWG is “a professional coalition of executives from some of the largest and most innovative hospices … committed to increasing access to hospice and palliative care.” These compassionate leaders want to eliminate “bad deaths”: dying in pain and in places other than in accordance with the wishes of the dying person. NHWG hospices strive each day to fulfill one overriding promise: that each patient may die with dignity — as each person defines it.

According to Carolyn Cassin, NHWG president & CEO, this association’s members take care of about 12 percent of the nation’s hospice patients every year. Ms. Cassin, like a majority of her NHWG colleagues, is a Boomer. It’s not merely coincidence that many of the CEOs of the nation’s hospices are Boomers who have pursued this profession with passion since the 1970's and 1980’s — another tangible testament to the beneficent values of the “sixties generation.”

Hospice provides care for those who have terminal medical conditions. Either in free-standing, often home-like facilities, in patient homes, or in hospitals and nursing homes, hospice practitioners deliver palliative care. Services include pain control, nursing care, spiritual counsel, and many other nurturing services. One major goal of hospice is to help patients experience maximum possible peace and comfort during the final months, weeks or days of life. Hospice also provides bereavement counseling and support groups for family members of those who are dying or have passed away.

My presentations addressed some boilerplate topics, including an overview of all living generations, the sociological and cultural factors constituting each generation, strategies for marketing to generations, emerging business trends, and current life-stage issues confronting Boomers. I also shared my assessments of how Boomers might challenge the traditions of dying, including hospice.

For example, healthcare policymakers can expect this generation to test inflexible traditions that reduce the fullest possible expression of life experiences during final months and weeks. A trend emerging now is “slow medicine,” in which those confronting difficult medical choices slow down the process to assess fully the restorative potential of yet another medical procedure.

Life-prolonging medical intervention has its value when the outcome allows greater life quality if not extension of time remaining, but when medical procedures only promote more pain and weakness without recovery, then many Boomers will reject last-ditch procedures. Many will put the brakes on “heroic medicine.”

A Boomer neighbor of mine had brain cancer last year, and surgeons recommended a biopsy, which she reluctantly approved without further investigation. She later lamented not traveling to Europe with her husband for a couple of weeks instead of suffering the brutal and lingering side effects of the biopsy. She never regained enough strength and stamina after the biopsy to enjoy any of her remaining time.

Many Boomers will endeavor to make their final days as meaningful as possible by recording and preserving their legacies. This will lead to dramatic growth of personal historians and online resources for those with terminal diseases to “upload” life experiences, values, philosophies, photographs, videos, insights and hopes for humanity.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have recently isolated the psychoactive compound in the hallucinogenic mushroom psilocybin, one of the drugs some Boomers experimented with during the sixties. Researchers have tested the synthesized drug on adults who have never experimented with recreational drugs to determine the potential impact of psilocybin on spiritual exploration. In various studies, those who have taken the synthesized drug have reported experiencing some of the most profound spiritual events of their lives. Someday, hospice may offer psilocybin or other consciousness-altering medications for their patients who are seeking profound experiences of the divine but who are unable to get to this state of awareness through prayer or meditation.

Experts predict that nearly half of those who die in another 20 years will choose cremation. This will have significant impact on the funeral industry. Some Boomers will have their carbon ashes compressed into manmade diamonds. Others will choose “green cemeteries,” where remains are buried legally in public parks and inside cardboard boxes with no grave markers. Others will choose to have their remains buried offshore in artificial reefs. Hospice personnel will likely become involved in helping patients plan more creative funerals and burials.

We can expect Boomers to transform the final stage of life with as much creativity as they changed the nature of being a teenager, a middle-aged adult and now a grandparent. They will embellish the dying process with new customs that allow people to reach the conclusion of life with the greatest possible dignity and grace — a genuine sense of completion.

The last slide of my presentation revealed a graying Boomer man holding a protest sign, hearkening back to the sixties and a time of strident protest marches; he bore one possible concluding aphorism for this generation:

  

The Pain of Being Boomers and Bayer's Aleve

Shortly after a recent stair-stepper workout, my normal assertive gait took on a noticeable limp, transporting me back to 1976. I had taken a chaotic fall while skiing on Aspen Mountain that season, hyper-extending my left knee. Residual pain from a tumble over a misplaced mogul creeps up on me after workouts involving a lot of knee activity. I limped to my bathroom and took an Aleve Liquid Gel, knowing that my historic pain would blessedly soon dull once medication kicked in.

This phenomenon of aging — sometimes called Boomeritis in honor of the generation’s inexorable march to the aches and pains of old age — has become an intense focus of pain medication marketers, including Aleve… especially Aleve.

A recent series of TV ads features testimonials from athletic Boomers who refuse to give up their sports. A Boomer woman plays badminton and credits her stamina to the pain numbing qualities of the medication. A Boomer man lauds the medication’s value for perpetuating his ability to continue playing baseball. Their pronouncements are inspirational: “Never stop playing.” These customer testimonials showcase real people with joint and muscle challenges who intend to stay active no matter what — with a little help from their pharmaceutical friends.

Bayer, the manufacturer and marketer of Aleve, has impressed me with its sense of the Boomer target market. The first ad to get my attention was a commercial released about three years ago featuring Leonard Nimoy from Star Trek fame.

Nimoy played Mr. Spock, the emotionless Vulcan who presented a hand sign by splitting his four fingers into a victory V. The hand sign would accompany his popular idiom: “Live long and prosper.”

In this TV spot, the aged Nimoy laments his inability to make his Spock hand signal in front of a rapt audience of adoring Trekkies, who wait in suspense to see if the actor can still fully portray his unruffled and logical TV character. Because of the miracle of Aleve, Nimoy/Spock successfully presents the gesture painlessly with his arthritic hand.

This clever commercial reveals the power of Boomer nostalgia in support of brand marketing. My colleague Chuck Nyren, who first made me aware of this Aleve/Spock commercial when we were traveling together on a speaking tour of Europe, points to this ad as a great example of nostalgic advertising. The spot demonstrates an evocative execution of historic Boomer media culture without the typical pandering and sixties hoopla around hippies, tie-dyed t-shirts and Woodstock classic rock music ad nauseam.

Chuck and I concur that this Aleve/Spock television commercial demonstrates a nuanced sensitivity to how generational nostalgia can support a brand without relying on pandering or a clueless grasp of the finer points of Boomer historic culture.

The newest Aleve ad campaign exhibits another achievement by Bayer: insight into Boomers' feelings about aging in their current life-stage. Many Boomers are confronting the consequences of many years of active sports. Joints are barking from wear and tear. Muscles and tendons strain more easily. Yet, most Boomers do not prefer to give up recreational sports that they’ve pursued for decades. Fitness-oriented Boomers are pugnacious. Most have little hesitation to enable their active lifestyles with pharmaceutical palliative when necessary.

This campaign reveals life-stage marketing from a Boomer perspective. Yes, Boomers are at the period of life when their bodies are showing ravages of joint/tendon wear and tear. But they’re also in a generation that typically refuses to let go of youthful pursuits, often with an attitude of defiance over conventional thinking about slowing down as one ages.

The category of over-the-counter pain killers has a robust and competitive future with the aging of the Boomer generation. Bayer has established a burly beachhead in this market as demonstrated by both its nostalgic advertising and its nuanced comprehension of athletically active Boomers today.

Further, when perusing Bayer’s website for Aleve, you discover in-depth medical information covering almost every conceivable medical condition for which this medication has applications: back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, sports injuries, sprains, strains and osteoarthritis.

 

Bayer’s marketing team is not above criticism. You can watch the Nimoy ad above, which has been posted on YouTube numerous times. However, I am unable to link you to sample ads featuring the athletic Boomers pursuing their sports in spite of chronic pain. The ads aren’t posted online. I couldn’t even find online references to this campaign, such as you might read in press releases or through discussions by other bloggers, with one exception.

This lack of full deployment of online media misses enormous opportunities.

Bayer’s marketing team understands and deploys online marketing with respect to targeting Generation Y. Bayer conducted a viral online campaign targeting young people in July 2007 for Aleve Liquid Gels with a click-through game beginning at the website http://www.aleviator.com, now a broken link.

According to a January 2009 Pew Internet study, 74 percent of the Boomer generation uses the Internet, representing 36 percent of the Internet population. Seventy-eight percent research health information online!

With Boomers substantially online and comprising the most significant demographic group searching for information about medically related problems, Bayer would have been prudent to post the ads, not only on their Aleve product website but also on YouTube. They could have even followed the approach taken by Mutual of Omaha and its "Aha Moments " campaign and included online video testimonials by athletic Boomers.

Missing proven online opportunities is almost as painful as not taking Aleve.

UPDATE:

Within a few days after this article, a "Never Stop Playing" Aleve commercial appeared on YouTube, so finally the TV campaign is going viral online. Embedding is being blocked by someone, so you'll need to link here to see it.  BG

Levi's, Harley-Davidson and Iconic Baby Boomer Brands

Just before I wrote this post, I attended a fascinating marketing seminar presented by my associate and client, Arjun Sen, former vice president of marketing and operations for Papa John’s, who is renowned nationwide for his extraordinary marketing expertise, as encapsulated in this seminar title: Winning Big in a Down Economy.

When I sauntered into the seminar room that Friday morning, another colleague teased that I looked as if I had just gotten off a Harley motorcycle. Here’s what I was wearing to match a chilly Denver Friday: black Tony Lama cowboy boots, a black Tommy Bahama pullover sweater, a black Andrew Marc leather jacket, and a black Mezlan wide leather belt. My pants were not black but blue — faded-blue Levi’s jeans.

Although every other item in my ensemble is relatively new, these jeans are not: they have a perfected wash-worn appearance with a few wear spots almost ready to reveal skin. When my company honors casual Fridays, I don’t mess around with sissy business casual. I become the rebel Boomer I am at heart.

Levi’s brand jeans are particularly important to the rest of this post, which isn’t about casual Fridays but about durability and power of Boomer brands, an amorphous concept some wise marketers either don’t fully understand or naively underestimate.

My relationship with Levi’s travels way back to 1964, the same year The Beatles stormed American consciousness. I remember my first pair: purchased oversized for my thin frame due to the shrinking nature of cotton denim, deep indigo blue and so stiff from the store they could almost stand without me in them. When my first coveted pair of Levi’s came home with me from J.C. Penny’s, I didn’t see them as they were but as they would become with much nurturing and patience, hundreds of washings and wearings later. Eventually they would become resplendently washed out and unique. My affection for them would grow as they faded into oblivion.

I have never purchased any other brand of blue jeans but Levi’s. Do the math: that’s 45 years of loyalty, averaging six pairs per year. My lifetime value to Levi Strauss & Company begins with their signature product and has a worth of around $8,100.00. But their flagship blue jeans are only the beginning since I have also purchased Dockers pants, Levi’s branded shirts, and many other products sold by this company.

Further, I’ve been a walking, breathing advertisement for the company for all these years. If you should check out my backside, you might notice distinctive orange Levi’s stitching on the rear pockets or, on closer inspection, patented copper rivets. I prefer you not to notice the patented button fly. (Boomer tidbit: Jacob Davis, the original tailor, made his product from hemp cloth supplied by Levi Strauss.)

I’ve also been a snob about this brand. When I observe what others are wearing for blue jeans, and when they’re not wearing Levi’s, I think of them as slightly un-cool. I don’t care if someone has spent a hundred times more for a frou-frou designer denim brand, as far as I’m concerned, they’re pretenders. They don’t belong in the same room with James Dean, Marlon Brando, Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, and me.

This is the power and durability of a Boomer brand. Not all Boomers feel loyal to Levi’s, but enough do to have enriched the company for decades. And although we associate Levi’s with youth and rebellion, would it be smart for Levi Strauss to ignore the Boomer market today as we are marching past 50 and 60 years of age? Of course not, and that’s why the company has kept pace with Boomers throughout our consuming lives.

When bellbottom jeans became fashionable, Levi’s sprouted bells. When fashion became a bit more conservative and bells turned into flairs, Levi’s flaired. When Boomers started growing girth, Levi’s developed a relaxed-fit line. I expect the company to someday develop an easy-on, easy-off version for aged Boomers when dressing convenience, undertaken with nursing assistance, becomes the driver.

Bury me in Levi’s.

Along this trajectory of Boomers aging, Levi’s has rebranded and updated its marketing to appeal to Boomers’ children, Generation Y. Although GenY has adopted other esoteric preferences, such as Lucky’s brand, you still see the distinctive Levi’s brand swaggering around, filled with Boomers’ kids. This leads to another golden truth about Boomer brands: iconic products live on in today’s generation of youthful consumers.

A recent article in The New York Times brandishes a patently ageist headline: “Harley, You’re Not Getting Any Younger.” Journalist Susanna Hamner captures this market reality: a recessionary fall-off in sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. She attributes this market situation to “graying baby boomers, whose savings, in many cases, have gone up in smoke in the market downturn." Later in the article, she continues: “(Harley’s) core customers have grayed, and they are buying new bikes less often. The average age of a Harley rider is 49, up from 42 five years ago.”

This grave article even quotes sagacious wisdom from Gregory Carpenter, a marketing professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern: “Harley understands the baby-boomer consumer incredibly well, in a holistic sense… but to grow and thrive, they must create a deep emotional connection with younger consumers.”

A subtext of this article reverberates: the future of Harley-Davidson is cloudy, and the company has a do-or-die imperative: rebrand to appeal to today’s young consumers or risk extinction. Otherwise, as Boomers die, so will the brand.

Quoted experts who looked at this marketing quagmire frankly underestimate the power of Boomer branding and how extensively Boomer cool is being embraced by young people today. These experts must be ignoring how clothing styles from the sixties have become the hottest fashion look among women under 30. Or how Lucky has become one of the fastest growing retail operations in the country. Or that rock music lovers can expect to compete with GenY fans for Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, and Paul McCartney concert tickets.

Boomer cool is cool, not was.

Further, Hamner’s death-watch article does not appreciate that the Harley brand is more than a Hog. I embrace Harley-Davidson and values this brand represents. I don’t own a motorcycle. But the brand speaks to me, reminding me of a hair-in-the-wind persona that rushes below my crisp business exterior: the same wildness that puts me in Levi’s on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, and any time I’m not getting paid to suit up.

Today’s diminishing sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles isn’t a reflection of a mortally wounded brand. Declining sales reflect a flagging economy. As my esteemed colleague Arjun Sen wisely observes: “More brands are competing for consumer expenditures; consumers are spending less; and companies are fighting for fewer dollars.” An unbelievably retrogressive economy guarantees weak sales, but a sales decline for a revered Boomer brand is not a reflection of inadequate or outdated brand relevance. In fact, Harley-Davidson inspires “brand insistence,” as Arjun Sen argues. In other words, those who love a brand are willing to kick your ass when you criticize the brand; in a sense, you’re criticizing who they are.

In response to The New York Times article, Harley-Davidson ran a full-page ad with an unsubtle headline: “You Can File Our Obituary Where the Sun Don’t Shine.” This isn’t just a company telling The New York Times to stick it: an iconoclastic segment of the Boomer generation is telling The Times the same thing: “Screw it (you). Let’s ride.”

My colleagues at The Boomer Project, whose insights about the Boomer Consumer are often poignant and penetrating, concluded in their recent newsletter that Harley just doesn’t quite get it: “Far from seizing the throttle and seeking new vistas, the company is focusing on its existing customer base, trying to entice existing Harley owners into trading up to newer, more expensive models.”

This view misses several points. First, the core customer base is hardly ready to park their rides. Mark-Hans Richer, Harley’s chief marketing officer, has the Boomer consumer squarely in his crosshairs: “(Boomers) are not about to stop riding because they’re getting older. It would be dumb to walk away from our core customer, the most lucrative customer.”

When the economy rebounds the flow of Boomer money will rebound also. Pent-up demand will fill showrooms, even if a pall of austerity follows this generation to the grave. Boomers always find money for what they need, and a Harley is necessary for someone who lives to ride.

Arjun Sen fully agrees with this observation. During a down economy, the most important priority for companies is to defend and grow the business with existing customers. The most advantageous marketing opportunity right now is to move light customers to medium customers and medium users to heavy users. It costs much less in marketing investments to up-sell current customers than to bring in new.

Second, the existing customer base is more than a motorcycle rider. Boomers will not stop being Harley customers as long as the company figures out new and evocative ways for them to be customers. This includes branded spare parts, accessories, clothing and specialty items; Harley theme parks and museums; and, as I pointed out years ago in the first edition of my book, Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers, even a Harley-themed active-adult community is conceivable. (Imagine roaring thunder every Sunday morning for the rest of your life.)

A Boomer brand is much larger than a product: it’s a relationship. Extend the brand; extend share of wallet.

Third, iconoclastic, Easy Rider, anti-establishment virtues manifested by Harley core products will be adopted by Generation Y as this young generation earns more disposable income to spend on pricier Hogs. They’ll ride, and they’ll listen to Springsteen on their iPods while cruising to Sturgis, South Dakota, for the annual Harley-Davidson version of Woodstock.

This is not to conclude that Harley brand managers can ignore brand tweaks to retrofit the brand to younger demographics and their unique tastes. This is necessary progression of an enduring, iconic brand: evolution not revolution. Core Harley attributes are timeless in pop culture.

When I pulled on my first pair of Levi’s, Harley was the ride for bad boys. Boomer Harley riders are still bad boys at heart, corporate trappings, gray beards and all. Their sons (and daughters) can be equally bad by owning the baddest brand in America. If you’re bad, a foreign-made bike is not an acceptable substitute.

Harley badness will live as long as custodians of the brand never forget what freedom means in American culture: the road, the ride, the faded blue denim Levi’s vibrating on the saddle, and an extended middle finger at all of society’s tiresome forces to conform.

Boomers in APAC: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, India, Singapore and Hong Kong

One rewarding aspect of being involved in marketing to a changing and burgeoning segment is developing business relationships worldwide with like-minded colleagues. My travels have afforded me opportunities to meet and collaborate with Boomer marketing notables such as Dick Stroud in the United Kingdom, Arjan in't Veld in Holland, Jean-Paul Tréguer in France, and Hiroyuki Murata in Japan.

Following Dick Stroud’s referral last year, I met Kim Walker, an Australian at birth but a globetrotter who has spent much of his career living elsewhere. Kim and I have had numerous email exchanges and long video teleconferences via Skype.

He asked me to be part of his board of advisors (joining Dick Stroud from the UK), and I have appreciated playing a small role in the development of Kim’s marketing consultancy, appropriately called SILVER.

First, let me explain why this firm exists and share with you some background about its founder.

Like many of us who come from the advertising agency industry, Kim spent his advertising career targeting young consumers, from teens to young adults in their late 30’s — but rarely those over 45. 

Then, in May 2005, something dramatic happened that shook him to the core: He turned 50. And around the same time, so too did many of his peers, clients and friends. Yet he noticed that advertising continued to focus on younger groups.

He studied demographic research and realized the marketing industry had become blinkered by habit. Marketers were obsessed with younger markets, but executives were missing a phenomenon unique in the history of the world. Kim decided to help companies capture this overlooked opportunity, and he is well-equipped to be such a trailblazer.

Working mainly in the marketing communications field, Kim has held local and regional C-suite positions in Singapore, Hong Kong, New York and Tokyo. Most recently he was President and CEO for M&C Saatchi in Asia. He has also been a senior executive with Carat Asia Pacific and Bates Worldwide. He has launched new operations or led acquisitions in most Asian markets. He’s also an entrepreneur, having founded three successful start-up businesses of his own. His Japan business was awarded Ad Age Global Media Innovator of the Year 2000 for creating transparency in the Japan media marketplace.

So, I'd like to introduce you to an Australian, songwriter, adventurer, photographer, philanthropist, speaker and dad (two teen girls). He’s a marketer’s marketer who has some innovative ideas for business development in the Asia Pacific region. 

SILVER is the realization of Kim’s dream following his jolting wake-up call. The firm is the first strategic business and marketing consultancy in Asia Pacific focused on Boomers. The firm has accumulated unique insights and knowledge into this market segment using a brain trust of global advisors and partners. SILVER has three primary areas of service: 

1) INFORM with unique research, data and downloadable SilverMatters™ insight reports.

2) ADVISE to help companies grow and to increase understanding through a proprietary SilverBullet™ strategic process, training, executive briefings and speeches.

3) CONNECT businesses to the senior market through refined brand positioning plus relevant and targeted communications strategy.

I interviewed Kim Walker to gain a better understanding of the opportunities awaiting US and European companies that develop strategies to target Boomers in the Asia Pacific region. 

What defines and describes the Asia Pacific (APAC) Boomer market?

Contrast. We have the oldest, largest and fastest growing 50-plus populations in the world. Yet these regions reflect remarkable diversity: Anglo-Saxon cultures of Australia and New Zealand; the Confucian cultures of Japan and China; the Indian (filial piety) cultures; and the advanced city-state cultures of Singapore and Hong Kong.

What are some significant similarities between Western born Boomers and Boomers born in APAC?

We know very strong similarities exist with Australian/New Zealand Boomers but as for the truly ‘Asian’ countries, the primary similarities would be world-event related. APAC Boomers have heard much of the popular classic rock music: The Beatles and Rolling Stones, for example. And they were certainly aware of the Boomers’ major defining war: Vietnam (although few Asian countries were involved in the conflict).

What are some significant differences?

APAC Boomers usually have an extraordinarily strong sense of family and responsibilities to their families even in retirement. These countries typically venerate the old. (But this perpetuates a negative stereotype!)

Why should marketers become more knowledgeable about Boomers in Asia Pacific?

As in the USA and elsewhere, Boomers across Asia represent a lucrative and virtually ignored market opportunity. But that’s where the similarity ends. Even within and among the Asian countries, attitudes and opinions vary — as our survey data demonstrates.

APAC 50+ spending power will hit US $2 trillion by 2015. The 50+ group is growing five times faster than overall population growth. They have the money and the time to spend it. They have been largely ignored and are therefore fertile ground for businesses to make inroads — particularly attractive in these tough economic times.

What is an example of a major “ah-ha” that your research analysis has revealed so far?

Attitudes and behaviors of Boomers in a particular country will be strongly influenced by the average age of the country and its economic and social maturity. In some ways, there are more similarities between Boomers in ‘older’ countries like Japan and Australia than between Boomers in many ‘Asian’ countries.

Is ageism a problem in APAC countries?

Very much so. Society and the seniors themselves must jointly shoulder the blame. Some views of aging are born from Confucian values that place older people on a pedestal: as decrepit but wise. Boomers in many Asian countries see themselves as being the ‘same age or older’ than their real age. This is a total contrast to Western society where, on average, Boomers see themselves as being 13 years younger than their real age.

What can US consumer brand marketers gain from understanding Boomers in Asia Pacific?

Asian boomers are not the same as their Western counterparts, and even among Asians they differ greatly. The one thing they have in common is their relative wealth and the time to spend it.

Culture will affect the way they spend discretionary assets, so it’s critical for marketers to understand these nuances. Consider travel and tourism as an example. Rather than taking an extravagant dream vacation, Asian Boomers are more likely to pay for the entire family to travel somewhere together. Their consumption will be less conspicuous as they feel the need to justify any self-indulgence to their family and peers.

Kim Walker is a man who has traveled far, both as a marketing executive and as the father of two nearly grown daughters. He has developed a unique perspective of the opportunities waiting for businesses that learn how to tap the wealth of Boomers in APAC countries.      

Aha Moments, Mutual of Omaha, Insurance Advertising and Baby Boomers

My Ah-Ha! Moment came one cold workday morning in late fall. It was early, still dark outside, and for some reason I started thinking about my generation: how far we’d come; how uncertain the road ahead. Having been in marketing for over a quarter-of-a-century, I had seen (and used) just about every kind of segmentation strategy: demographic, geographic, psychographic, ethnic, sexual, lifestyle and past purchase behavior.

What I had not seen were many great examples of advertising that had been finely tuned to the shared history and cultural nuances of my generation: Baby Boomers. Further, I had not experienced advertising that addressed aging in a way I thought congruent with the aspirations, outlook and values of Boomers.

The largest generation of adults in the history of this nation had been misunderstood, misrepresented or maligned… sometimes all three at once in a single, pitiful ad. To put it in vernacular: many marketing portrayals of Boomers and aging just sucked.

So, feeling frustrated about the authenticity and resonance of advertising aimed at my generation, I started jotting down my thoughts. Hot black coffee, always a part of my sunrise rituals, supercharged my thinking that morning. In a few hours I had an outline and framework for a white paper about marketing to Boomers.

Over the following weeks, the white paper expanded into a short book, which eventually I published in 2003. The short book became a longer book in 2005. Then it grew again in 2007 to a still-larger volume of 325 pages.

Along the way, I took up the good fight to insist that marketers become more effective and nuanced in their portrayals of those of us who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s — those of us who were aging enough to become synonymous with aging. Sometimes I became downright bellicose with bashers who simplified Boomers as narcissistic, materialistic and sophistic. Sometimes I became infuriated when seeing stereotypical ads portraying older adults of any generation as inane and fatuous.

Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers became a springboard for this blog, which now has at least 100,000 words of content: the depth of an ambitious book, all published digitally here for your reading pleasure. And, along the way, I have grown in my appreciation of and respect for many others who are committed to the same broad goals: to make our nation and world a better place to grow old; and, to bring equanimity to collective perceptions and portrayals of all generations.

What is an Ah-Ha! Moment? In the early days of being Boomer, this psychological event would often be portrayed during Saturday morning cartoons as a light bulb switching on. Daffy Duck, confronted with another perplexing dilemma, would suddenly see another conniving way around his problem when a light bulb switched on in a thought balloon above his head.

This psychological moment of clarity is also called “the insight experience.” And scientists now know that these moments of clarity come with enhanced brainwave activity in non-visual parts of the brain, particularly in the temporal lobe.

Mutual of Omaha, the legendary insurance company that is this year celebrating its 100^th anniversary, defines the Ah-Ha experience as “a moment of clarity, the aha moment is a defining moment where you gain real wisdom — wisdom you can use to change your life.” They’ve taken this ancient idea (historically portrayed as an apple dropping on Sir Isaac Newton’s head, propelling his insights into the nature of gravity) and transformed it into a new branding campaign.

Although not limited in scope to just the Boomer generation, a preponderant number of the Ah-Ha Moments in the company’s new advertising campaign are stories shared by people who are north of 45.

For example, “Tom,” a man appearing to be in his fifties, tells the story of sitting on a dock for two days, reflecting and imagining. He was looking for a change in his life, and he thought of a premise for a children’s book. At that moment, he made a commitment to complete a book for his young goddaughters.

“Polly” and “Jane,” two great friends who have shared much history, announce that “fear of aging is a big lie.” They are determined to disarm the myths and stereotypes of aging, and they do so with laughter and temerity.

As you spend time with the “Official Sponsor of the Aha Moment,” you’ll discover many other special moments in the lives of ordinary people. This is what makes this branding campaign out of the ordinary: real lives, real stories, real people, and real production values. These are people who’ve all encountered a personal moment of reckoning and have taken another path, the experiential route to greater authenticity and congruency.

These consumer testimonials enhance the authenticity of an insurance company in a time when belief in the veracity and altruism of the industry is under a hailstorm of criticism. These witnesses to personal change and growth don’t sell insurance; they portray the possibilities for lives grown larger through the magic of wisdom. The campaign inspires “citizen journalism” and showcases hopeful, human stories in a time of broad pessimism. (Pay attention to why the website is also a clever database development tool.)

This makes the Mutual of Omaha’s campaign quite wise in the context of much national stupidity. It’s a nuanced and integrated branding program that appropriately portrays older people as relevant, passionate and committed. It’s optimistic, realistic and memorable in its simplicity.

The companion website, http://www.ahamoment.com, compels each of us to consider our own wisest moments of insight. The elder statesman of insurance companies connects the dots between our shortcomings and our dreams for a better tomorrow. The company ultimately insures the future after a defining moment.

As I became acquainted with this marketing campaign, I reconnected to my own history with the company. Most Boomers remember Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom,” the television series begun in 1962 and starring zoologist Marlin Perkins. Not only did Perkins occupy a special place as a TV celebrity among Boomers, he had a significant role in propelling Boomers toward a conservation ethic. The original show earned a modicum of fame in advertising circles for the “sneaky commercial,” which would involve host Perkins saying something to this effect: “Just as the mother lion protects her cubs, you can protect your children with an insurance policy from Mutual of Omaha...”

There is nothing sneaky in the company’s contemporary marketing program. It is the kind of straight-ahead campaign I had in mind on a frosty morning seven years ago when my own “insight experience” made me aware that marketers could do a better job of reflecting the wisdom and benefits of growing, learning and aging.

ADDENDUM, April 25, 2009 — Omaha, Nebraska — Mutual of Omaha filed a lawsuit against Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Productions over use of the phrase “Aha Moment.” Oprah claims she made the phrase famous and has used it for years before the insurance company unveiled its new ad campaign in February and also filed for a trademark: “Official Sponsor of the Aha Moment.” Mutual of Omaha claims the popular Boomer icon and TV host failed to protect the phrase as a trademark and therefore cannot claim ownership.

I advise both parties to sort this out and find an amicable compromise. “Aha Moment” comes from the field of psychology, and I know for sure that I studied the concept decades ago and have used it in my own communications since I learned about the power of the insight experience.

Perhaps Oprah and Mutual of Omaha will have their own Aha Moments and learn how much more effective they can be by collaborating rather than litigating. The insurance company cannot win a public relations battle with Oprah, and neither legal team may be able to win a trademark battle when courts take a serious look at how extensively the phrase has been used for a generation. 

Declining Boomer Readership and the Future of Newspapers

Printed newspapers may be on their way to obsolescence with as much finality as Town Criers. In my home city of Denver, Rocky Mountain News, an institution in the Mile High City for 149 years, finally bit the dust in February.

According to The Denver Post, more than 30 newspapers are now for sale, and nobody is making offers, and for good reasons. Between 2006 and 2008, the nation’s newspapers lost $5 billion in advertising revenue. Debts are mounting, and many more cities may lose their daily newspapers before the end of this year.

Imagine Philadelphia without the Inquirer, one of the nation’s major newspapers dating back to the Civil War. Its owners, Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.

Part of the demise of newspapers can be blamed on significant loss of classified advertising sales to online sites such as Craigslist. But a greater threat to long-term viability is declining newspaper readership. Americans across all generations aren’t reading printed newspapers with nearly the same commitment as bygone years.

Over a two-year period, from 2006 to 2008, the proportion of consumers who read a printed daily newspaper fell from 34% to 25%. Falling print readership can be partly attributed to Generation Y (born between 1980 and 1995), with only 13% print readership and a broad failure to adopt the traditional medium. But Boomer print-only readership fell from 36% to 28% in the same two-year period.

According to Pew Research in a report released in February, not only has print newspaper readership declined because of migration online, overall readership of newspapers, both print and online, have declined significantly in two years of tracking. Readership has declined from 43% in 2006 to 39% in 2008. Although Boomers still read online and print newspapers more than younger generations, this generation’s overall readership percentage fell from 47% to 42% in just two years.

I can live without newspapers, I guess. But I’m going to rue the day when the nation’s top newspaper journalists have all started PR agencies in order to make a living. When we lose newspaper journalism, we lose one of this nation’s best sources for independent and thorough investigation of complex issues surrounding our lives. We lose journalistic investigations emanting from newspapers in small cities and towns, often where significant stories are closest to the bone. In 2008, 14,500 newspaper jobs ended with more layoffs guaranteed this year.

We lose the theater of a front page heralding 72 pt. type and proclaiming death of a great leader or election of another. Large typography online just won’t provide the same visceral impact. Printing a story from a desktop printer will not provide the same sense of history as do yellowing newspapers bearing momentous headlines, tucked away for successors.

As typical with most Boomers, the tapestry of my life can be threaded together with newspaper headlines: assassination of John F. Kennedy; Richard Nixon’s resignation following persistent investigation by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein; explosion of the Challenger space shuttle; and the Persian Gulf War.

Certainly these stories could have been investigated and reported online, but will tomorrow’s news stories be crafted with as much journalistic investigation and hardcore reporting? What happens when we lose the medium that has most consistently uncovered the truth? Can we count on leaner online news organizations to hire great talent and nurture reporters with the same high standards for accuracy and truth?

The Fourth Estate appears to be morphing into The Fifth Estate, unabated. Tomorrow’s leading news stories may only be reported online by Yahoo, MSN and CNN. Tomorrow's headlines may only be presented as bits, not atoms.

Will we get the whole story? Will online news organizations investigate local implications of major stories? Will future generations have indelible records of great journalism?

Academy Awards and Heroes; Mickey Rourke, Boomers and Fighters

Alas, the 81^st Annual Academy Awards did not deliver a coveted Oscar for Best Actor to a pugnacious Boomer fighter, Mickey Rourke. Nevertheless, he won a more important contest.

In his acclaimed comeback role, Rourke plays Randy (The Ram) Robinson, a downtrodden pro wrestler whose halcyon days are more than two decades behind him. The Ram is divorced, broken and defeated.

Parallels between The Ram and Rourke are more than cursory. Rourke’s comeback role in The Wrestler reflects aspects of his real-life comeback.

Once a rising Hollywood superstar, Rourke lost control of his career and future, nearly fading into Tinsel Town irrelevance through self-destructiveness. Suicide was once a pressing possibility.

The Academy nodded instead at Sean Penn, who won Best Actor for his portrayal of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk. This has handed Rourke another defeat, but one that won’t sideline his revitalized acting career. He has finally learned to fight back.

An interesting column juxtaposing Rourke’s role with real-life pro wrestler Tito Santana appears in a weekly New York Times column called Generation B, reported and written by Michael Winerip, a veteran Boomer journalist for the newspaper.

Rourke’s sensitive portrayal of The Ram and Winerip’s column about middle-aged professional wrestlers inspired me to reflect upon another fighting hero, Dr. Mark Crooks, who at 64 has demonstrated true grit when confronting nearly insurmountable obstacles.

A four-time cancer survivor, an extreme adventure athlete long before there was a name to describe what he did, he personifies fitness and health, exuding a lust for living on the edge that belies a manicured life.

The triumvirate ruling his intense passage has been disease, danger and determination.

He began running ten years before it became a fashionable Boomer fad. His grandmother owned a health food store in Kansas City, so he grew up consuming vitamins and organic foods when most Americans would have considered these practices cultish.

A large, well-built man with a rugged tan and supercharged athleticism, Mark was an academic pioneer at the University of Kansas, receiving the first doctoral degree in health and sports science with a minor in sports psychology. He confronted academic traditions with a persistent dislike for conventional thinking.

A simmering distrust of capricious power, borne of a father's abandonment in childhood, focused him laser-like on achievement and taught him that life is a risk, and the way to meet adversity is through intense physical and mental preparation. The way to fight injustice is to spark fear among the unjust. His imposing physical size and superior fitness have served him to this end, motivating him to test the limits of strength and endurance.

The arch of Mark’s life began at age fourteen months when ignorant doctors treated a sinus infection with radiation. The unfiltered nuclear blast was 70 times the level considered safe by today’s standards.

This overdose fractured his immune system, spawned a tennis-ball size tumor in his neck at age nine, and now, as a middle-aged man, has forced him to confront thyroid, lung and prostate cancers during the last ten years. He has walked then jogged away from each medical challenge.

Mark has stared down death 39 times. He has survived several near-fatal motorcycle accidents, watched a shotgun blow up in his hands, nearly collided with a riverboat while swimming at night in the Missouri River, and crashed into the Kansas prairie in an ultra-light hang glider. And he has also survived daredevil feats to demonstrate resilience of the human body under most adverse conditions.

After exhaustive physical and mental training, he successfully jumped ninety feet into the Missouri River from a downtown Kansas City bridge; he swam from Kansas City to St. Louis in the Missouri River, fighting hypothermia and exposure for five exhausting days; he scaled the highest building in Kansas City; and, he came within hours of setting the world’s record for continuous underwater scuba diving.

These feats comprise a sizeable portion of his book published in the early 1980s: Achieving Wellness through Positive Risk Taking. Although this book never found a large national audience due to the vagaries of self-publishing, Mark nevertheless was years ahead of fitness trends then sweeping the nation, from jogging to daily vitamin supplementation, from organic foods to strength training.

What is important about Mark’s story isn’t just the melodrama of a determined life but the wisdom he has gathered along the way. He personifies Friedrich Nietzsche’s inspirational message:

That which does not destroy you makes you stronger.

His journey reveals the discipline and intelligence of a thoughtful academic, contrasted with the “Go for it” nonchalance of an extreme athlete. He has conquered insurmountable odds because he understands the human body, how to overcome disease and heal tissue damage. Like Mickey Rourke, he knows how to fight back.

As Boomers grow older, facing inevitable chronic diseases, we will need additional inspiring survival stories, imagined or real.

Mickey Rourke’s cinematic portrayal of a professional wrestler and Mark Crooks' confrontations with cancer have important implications to those who want to create unforgettable advertising campaigns targeting Boomers.

Comeback and survival themes resonate powerfully with this generation, now more than ever.

Mickey Rourke's true victory with The Wrestler is professional achievement against all odds, a role reenacted daily by my friend Mark.

Marketing and Advertising to Boomers Revisited - Pepsi, Dylan and Forever Young

In August 2005, I posted commentary on this blog entitled Boomer Marketing Basics. In this brief overview, I addressed some typical questions that journalists  ask me about marketing to a generational cohort. Over three years have passed, and so this is a good time for me to readdress some of my key points with more contemporary illustrations. This post covers the first of my hypothetical questions:

1) How is marketing to Baby Boomers different from marketing to the public in general?

One primary insight I shared is as follows:

“Marketing to a generational cohort, as opposed to a demographic or lifestyle segment, draws validity from an observation developed by a German psychologist: a zeitgeist. This simply means a shared sense of a time, particularly the impressionable years surrounding early adulthood.”

While this is essentially true, some important details are missing. First, the German psychologist is actually the father of sociology, Karl Mannheim, perhaps history’s greatest theoretician about generations.

Mannheim’s theory of generations includes the observation that a generation has the potential to affect an individual’s consciousness in much the same way as social class. When members of a generation reach their mid-teenage years, they discover a gap between the ideals they have learned from older generations and the realities they experience. Because of this disparity, the young generation eventually develops ideas, values and social behaviors that constitute a “set of collective strivings.” The generation then forms “fundamental integrative attitudes” that can persist through life, even beyond age 50.

Understanding exactly how unique and widely shared generational attitudes and values learned in early adulthood become the “basis of continuing practice” is the key to generational marketing. 

Since 2005, a number of Boomer-targeted advertising campaigns have been launched with flourish, and many of these campaigns have been criticized for their superficiality and obvious pandering. Some sophisticated companies have reduced their marketing messages to simplistic portrayals of peace symbols and mythic Boomer culture such as “Never trust anybody over 30.” A clear-cut example of this was a TV and online campaign launched in 2008 by Combe for the men’s hair coloring product, Touch of Gray for Men.

Some experts in marketing to Boomers believe that trotting out hackneyed Boomer symbols and slogans as window dressing to a product message is tiresome at best and flawed at worst. I agree with these concerns. However, I maintain that tapping into a generation’s coming-of-age zeitgeist with exactly the right nuances and message strategy can be extraordinarily powerful when executed with sophistication.

Quite to my pleasant surprise, I witnessed a good example of this in the line-up of otherwise lackluster TV commercials during Superbowl 2009: a spot produced for Pepsi-Cola called “Refresh Anthem,” a clever juxtaposition of Bob Dylan when he was young with the contemporary rapper, will.i.am:

While this TV spot shows some archival Boomer documentary snippets, which have in other advertising contexts received “thumbs down”reactions from Boomer marketing pundits, this spot’s nostalgic reifications lead to a very contemporary conclusion: Every generation refreshes the world. Cool.

I believe this message taps into a number of values shared by most Boomers: (1) staying young in mindset; (2) having a strong patriotic core (juxtaposition of returning Vietnam War vets and Iraq War vets); (3) finding renewed relevance through contemporary manifestations of Boomer music culture (rock 'n' roll served up by Bob Dylan and updated by will.i.am); (4) honoring go-for-it physical engagement with the world (skate boarding 1969 and 2009; surfing and beach culture); and, (5) seeing cultural and artistic representations of our lives manifested with new forms of expression (from Gumby to Shrek; from lighting cigarette lighters at rock concerts after dark to displaying blazing cell phone LCD screens). 

Produced by PepsiCo's new advertising agency of record, TBWA/Chiat/Day, this TV spot clearly supports a Pepsi brand message that originated in 1963: a beverage for a new generation of young people, The Pepsi Generation, which was the first time a consumer packaged goods marketer claimed an entire generation, not just a demographic group but a way of life. 

Created under the direction of Dave Burwick, PepsiCo’s new chief marketing officer, the entertaining television commercial also honors two generations: Boomers and their Millennial Generation children. And the commercial concludes with perhaps the most powerful (and needed) message in today's media milieu of generational antipathy: EVERY generation refreshes the world.

I believe that most Boomers embrace this concluding statement. Rather than being reduced to ideological zealots, we’d like marketers to understand our formative and continuing passion to change the world constructively and to honor what we’ve accomplished to achieve this “collective mentality” that springboards from our youth.

The company clearly “gets it” in this TV commercial by demonstrating how a generation’s zeitgeist can be placed successfully in a contemporary framework and by honoring all generations for their unique contributions to social and cultural progress. This is an excellent portrayal of the deeply held value of inclusiveness (gender, racial, cultural and generational), packaged with a tightly constructed brand message.

And although PepsiCo may benefit most from the younger Millennial Generation in terms of product sales, the company and product nevertheless win a halo for honoring Millennials’ parents and portraying shared connections between these generations. This will have long-term branding benefits as Millennials progress through future life stages.