• by John Gaffney , October 15, 2002

Cut Charmed; Heavy Up on 60 Minutes: Lot of buzz so far this week about a New York Sunday Times article about advertising to the 18-34 demographic group. The core of the article is this: “People over the age of 50 account for half of all the discretionary spending in the United States. Proportionally speaking, there are more of them than there ever were, and they are voracious cultural consumers. They watch more television, go to more movies and buy more CD's than young people do. Yet Americans over 50 are the focus of less than 10 percent of the advertising.” The article then proceeds to take apart the logic and strategy of advertising to the 18-34 group at an intense level. The article was intriguing but missed a huge point. That point is that the 18-34 year old group will someday top 50 years old. The best time to influence any customer group is when they’re young. Maybe they will grow up to be loyal to your brand and even recommend it to others. Sometimes this business is hard to figure out, and sometimes stats don’t help. But when you’re 18 to 34 it seems to me the world is a lot more full of wildness and possibilities than it is when you top 50. So hit the kids who watch Charmed. And hit the settled down folks who watch 60 Minutes. I like what someone who works Pepsi told me once: “Think young. Be young. The customers will follow.”

Car Jam: It has almost become a template for new car ads to hit the airwaves now with funky, strange music that you never heard before, but you’d love to find out who it is. And of course, you’d love to buy it. This will be an effective tactic this year. But next model year, I think it will need a new twist.

Too Much Football: If you sit through an NFL game you will realize that beer companies have taken their TV ads to an almost perfect mix of sex, comedy and energy. They fit the sport and the programming dead on. All this without a “whassssuuuuppppp?” And by the way, what ever happened to viral marketing?