Focalyst: Ads Send Wrong Message

Here's a good piece by Joshua Chaffin originally in The Financial Times:

Ads send wrong message, says survey

Nearly one-quarter of US baby-boomers are insulted by the advertising messages that companies are sending them, according to a new study … The survey suggested that many companies were taking a misguided approach as they attempted to reach out to the largest and wealthiest group of US consumers.

I agree with the Focalyst findings - but my solution is a bit different. Reaching Baby Boomers has more to do with sensibility when fashioning ad campaigns and less to do with simply defining cohorts and targeting them. The reason campaigns are ineffective is because the best advertising is done by people who advertise to themselves. Hire Baby Boomers to be the creative directors, copywriters, art directors, and graphic designers - and guess what - Baby Boomers will respond to intelligent advertising.

Have I said this before? About a hundred times over the last four years.

Mike Irwin will be in Chicago (along with Yours Truly) on October 20th at the Beyond the Boomers Business Conference.