is Discussionist the end of DemocraticUnderground?

[MADem]

138. Look at travel--that's geezers, not kids, and a big sector.

Same deal with CARS. It's the old people buying the "good" ones...pricey and sturdy. The One Percenters go for the crazy flash ones, and they come in all ages.

And a lot of grandparents do the sensible thing and give the kids some green. If it's not an XBOX or a PS4 or something that can't be screwed up, they'd as soon give 'em a gift card loaded up--saves tears.

The gents don't spend as much on the personal grooming, on average (but they'll spend plenty in the pro shop at the golf club), but go into any high end department store and check out the prices of the stuff at the make up counters...and then look who's buying that crap. They're all in the sixty plus club, and they are dropping hundreds at a pop on a product or ten that is marketed towards women in their thirties and forties, and sold to them by children in their teens and twenties whose only epidermal crack is on their asses. It's a competition amongst some of 'em, which elixir they can buy that will magically take away that Rand-McNally Road Map look on their faces...

Advertisers are starting to realize that they've been sold a bill of goods--millenials are damn hard to reach and their promise has not been realized; it's not just cheesiness that results in so many "I've fallen and I can't get up," "Step - In Tubs," the "Stannah Stairlift," home security systems, foot powder and shoe inserts, burial insurance, grandchild educational programs and insurance, and cruises to everywhere making up such a huge chunk of the ads on TV....never mind Fred Thompson and Henry Winkler shilling reverse mortgages so people can have even MORE money to take that Viking or Holland America cruise. It's low hanging fruit.

They haven't quite figured out how to cross that divide, either, and sell the stuff that crosses generations, like jeans, and shampoo, and even foodstuffs in a way that makes it clear to whom they're offering the product. They stick to far too many 1950s/60s era paradigms. Good thing those boomers are just overgrown kids...!

I think your cite is right about the list of geezer assets, I think he's lowballing his advertising percentage, though--I see more and more advertising directed at thirty somethings as well as forty and up every day. Thing is, most people who are in their fifties FEEL like they are in their thirties--see, they aren't "like" those "other" "old" people. That might account for some of the slippage with regard to targeting ads. Ads ostensibly targeted towards the "thirty somethings" are going to find resonance with people pushing sixty...because they're all a buncha Peter Pans. Advertisers KNOW this, or they are starting to realize it. It's not all ham handed "stupid old people" Swiffer ads (Waaah Morty, how does this woooork? Ugh!).

Granted, too, the article is half a year/plus old, and change of this type happens fairly rapidly:

Here’s what I have found.
People over 50 have about about 70% of all the wealth in the country
They are responsible for about half of all consumer spending
They buy 62% of all new cars
Despite the fact that many are retired, they still have 55% higher annual income than some other adult demo groups.
And on average they have a net worth about 3 times that of the rest of the people
They dominate 94% of CPG categories.
They are the internet’s largest demographic constituency.
They are much easier and much cheaper to reach than any other demographic group.
And, according to Nielsen, they are the target for 5% of all advertising.
Let me repeat the key fact here. Despite the fact that people over 50 are responsible for about half the consumer spending in the country, they are the target for 5% of all advertising.

Those fifty year olds, though, are finding something to like in those beer commercials, those fashion sales blared out from those GAPpy, Old Navy, Kohls, JCPenny, etc. retailers...and they just don't realize the ads aren't meant for them.