Boomer Consumers

Boomers are ones of America’s biggest spenders. But why do they feel ignored by advertisers?

from: Inside E Street, Updated February 2012

Youth worship continues to be a marketing mantra, and it rankles people over 55, who feel largely ignored by advertisers except when it comes to products that play into the notion of aging as a disease that must be cured. Fortunes have been made by astute manufacturers who have catered to boomer consumers throughout their lives with products from the Band-Aid to the mini-van. But on Madison Avenue, the young consumer is still king.

Inside E Street travels to MIT’s AgeLab to observe the cutting-edge research where age-friendly systems are developed. Lark McCarthy puts on AGNES (Age Gain New Empathy System) - also known as Aging Suit - which was designed to simulate the physical limitations of older adults. AGNES helps product engineers and designers better understand aging in order to develop products specially designed for boomers and older consumers.

Also, we hear from two advertising insiders -- Barbara Lippert, former Adweek Columnist, and Tom Burrell, Founder of Burrell Communications and an inductee in the Advertising Hall of Fame. Lippert and Burrell talk to Lark about whether mainstream advertisers will begin to focus on the growing wave of boomer consumers.

This is the third of an occasional series of Inside E Street broadcast, of When I'm 65.