• USA Today, Monday, February 26, 2007 11:30 AM

Realizing that the 79 million baby boomers in the U.S. are active consumers who are not following the patterns of previous generations, campaigns to reach the older demographic are a bit edgier than previous efforts.

Some show "real" boomers doing bold things. Dove's TV, Web and print marketing campaign for its new pro-age line of beauty products includes discreet nude photos of real women 50 and older, for example.

Others target boomers with nontraditional services. Match.com has homed in on single boomers, and they're the fastest-growing subscriber age group for the site that pairs singles. A current TV ad features a widowed New York woman age 71 whose Match.com logon is DanishBeauty22.

Another tack is the use of iconic, nostalgic personalities. Financial services firm Ameriprise Financial tapped Dennis Hopper for its recent ad campaign, for example. The ads scored low overall with adults surveyed by Ad Track, but of the target boomer-age consumers -- adults born from 1946 through 1964 -- 79% rated the ads "very effective" or "somewhat effective."

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