Demographic Cleansing Of Ad Industry

A milestone in marketing stupidity has been reached.

According to a September report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor, a majority of consumer spending (51%) is now done by people over 50.

These people are the target for 10% of marketing activity.

On the other hand, marketers spend five times as much money marketing to millennials, the moronic obsession of every marketer on the planet, than any other group.

How can such obvious stupidity exist? The answer is in the unapologetic malpractice and bigotry of the marketing and advertising industries.

There is almost no one over 50 left in the advertising business. They have been the target of demographic cleansing -- and eliminated from agencies.

The result is a generation of advertising people with enormous self-regard and no hint as to the true nature of "the consumer" they are all so sure they know everything about.

The ugly truth is that the marketing and advertising industries hate older people. We like the excitement of youth, not the boredom of middle age and the frailties of old age. And so we have concocted all kinds of bullshit for ignoring them.

I have previously detailed the ignorance of these spurious pretexts for prejudice. But the one that incontrovertibly defines the stupidity of our industry is this one: the canard that older people want to be like young people. Older people want to be youthful, but they do not want to be like young people.

Nonetheless, if you need an example of the navel gazing of marketers there's this: millennials, who buy about 12% of new cars, are featured in about 99.9% of new car ads.

Even if it were true (which it emphatically is NOT) that older people want to be like young people, why in the world would you TARGET the advertising at young people when they buy almost none of the cars?

There is no logic to the advertising industry's disregard for people over 50.

It is marketing by selfie-stick - narcissism disguised as strategy.