…while being screened for long-term care insurance, before making a joke. It could cost you thousands.To pick up where we left off on my earlier blog, you may recall my difficulties counting backgrounds from 20 by 3’s (under pressure) as a test of my mental acumen. To falter could conceivably be part of a picture that could cost one thousands of dollars extra in premiums—or deny you entry into the promise land, entirely.
For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog
Now here’s another important tip. Do not be fresh, ironic or funny. My financial advisor, who knows boomers well, specifically warned us to play it straight. “If they ask you who the current president of the United States is, don’t say ‘Calvin Coolidge’, even if you think it’s hysterically funny and laugh afterwards.”
What is it about boomers? Having lost our innocence with the assassinations of JFK and Bobby, and having seeped ourselves in cynicism as a result of Watergate, we have never taken well to authority. It’s something of a knee-jerk reaction for many boomers to rebel against “the man”—even if she sounds like she’s about 22 and is actually a nurse retained by the insurance firm for the purposes of screening out the infirm. We have perfected irony, the recognition of sardonic paradox and irresistible in-jokes and put-downs.
So, to make a long story short, while I botched the counting backwards bit (and was therefore shamed into behaving for the duration of the call) Dan counted just fine. But when it came to the president bit, he made something of a stump speech about the state of politics in our country before finally, reluctantly getting around to sarcastically naming our current leader. But that’s not the worst of it. When the screener asked him if he could remember who the last president was, he thought it would be really funny to say: “Could you repeat that? I can’t remember the question.”
She didn’t laugh.
Anyway, we got coverage, somehow. But here’s a tip to integrated marketers, who understand that the sales process that starts with great ads and publicity but permeates the entire purchasing process, all the way to service reps and screeners. If you want to get a more accurate reading of our mental capabilities—and don’t want your screeners to suffer from any more smartass answers from boomers--perhaps you should put a, ahem, somewhat more sophisticated version of cognition and memory tests online. If that isn’t in the cards, couldn’t you at least teach your screeners to laugh?
Carol Orsborn