The youthful-sounding reporter from a national woman’s magazine called to interview me about life balance issues, chagrined that the cut-off for ages to be addressed in the article is 35. “Please don’t pass this on,” she whispered to me, after reviewing this website. “I’ve got elementary school children in the house so everybody thinks I’m in my thirties, but I’m actually in my late forties.”
Susan, who freelances home with dogs barking in the background not to mention playground sounds and Nintendo bleeps, went on: “And you know what? I’m not the oldest mom at the school gatherings. We’ve got plenty of fifty year olds. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like for them to still be parenting in their sixties?”

In the November 14, 2006 online New York Times reporter Claudia Dreifus reports on illuminating discussion she had with Dr. Robert N. Butler founder of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Department of Geriatrics in New York and author of a recent report titled “Ageism in America.” Dr. Butler is about to turn 80 and as he says is fortunate to be “fairly vigorous” and with financial resources. One aspect of his study looks at us boomers and how we might fare if health discrimination and individual safety during national emergencies isn’t addressed.

Mingling with 900 something of the country’s top marketers attending American Marketing Association's MPlanet in Orlando, I’m having trouble shaking Ken Dychtwald’s compelling image of the baby boomers as a pig in a python. Boomer visionary Dychtwald was the first demographer in the country decades ago to popularize the concept that because of the size of the generation, boomers (the pig) would be moving through time (the python) making a huge impact as we go. (http://www.agewave.com/)

Happy Holidays from The Boomer Blog. See you back here January 1, 2007!

2006 was the year that the worlds of marketing and media woke up to the power and potential of the boomer consumer. Whereas a year ago, we were lucky to find a couple of articles a week showing up on our “GOOGLE” searches, now there are multiple offerings daily. They flood into us from virtually every industry and from around the world.

Given the volume of statistics and predictions about this powerhouse generation, who spend $2.1 trillion on consumer goods and services alone, selecting the top trends for ’07 is quite the challenge…one we’re gladly taking on. So without further ado, here’s our top trends about marketing to boomers for 2007.

New Year’s Day 2007 and the top news stories of 2006 are old news now, lost in the auld lang syne haze of balloons, bourbon and confetti. There’s one 2006 story that tops my list for 2006 because its moral takeaway remains constant. It’s the story about the man who showed up.

Rocky Balboa fans: Run up those steps and wave your hands wildly. We’re 60, we’re proud and we’re still fighting heavyweight boxing champs for the title. But that’s not the fantasy, part. (Okay, it is—but there’s something even bigger that happens in the newest installment of the Rocky franchise.)

Spoiler alert! Don’t read on if you don’t want the most under-reported but most vicarious moment of the film—for empty nesters, in any case—revealed to you.

Disclaimer: I haven’t bought Nora Ephron’s book about women and aging: I Feel Bad About My Neck. But I’ve read it, the way I read all books that I think I need to know about, but don’t want to contribute to raising up on the bestseller lists: standing up at the bookstore high volume sales table.

Boomers invisible? Marginalized? Forgeddaboutit. You know all those busy people who said they’d get around to writing their big book “someday”? Well, someday came. The amazing thing is that some of these authors even have “real” publishers (as opposed to “independently published”) who are betting on the market for boomer self-help. This is particularly noteworthy, since self-help is not much of a happening thing for other generations right now. Since whether a book has a publisher or not says less about the quality of the book and more about the marketing, I won’t tell you which is which—just know that here are five “on topic” for your consideration:

Close your eyes and think of a tea party. People are coming and going. People old and young. Sometimes you need them and sometimes they need you. Authors Kate Klimo and Buffy Shutt, of Coming of Age All Over Again: The Ultimate Midlife Handbook, interviewed recently on the “Forever Young” segment of the "Today Show", talk about visualizing yourself at the tea party ... with friends, with children, with parents, with young people you mentor professionally. They say the key to aging well are friends and the changing roles you play in each others lives.

Yesterday I flew across country. As I settled in my seat -- 23D -- I was hoping that the middle seat would stay empty. The guy in 23F kept saying maybe we'd get lucky and get a break on this full flight. Unfortunately for us, the 6'5", nearly 400 lb guy sliding sideways down the aisle was heading towards us. You guessed it. He took his seat and half of mine. We could barely get the arm rest down and he had to suck it in big time to lock the seat belt. And when I needed to scroll the channels up and down -- yes on our shared arm rest -- my index finger had to sneak under the folds to make the change. I even wondered it he’d think I was flirting.

When I was a marketer in my 20’s and 30’s, the thought never occurred to me (or to any of my similarly-aged clients, for that matter) to target “old” people. That was the 1970’s and 80’s, and there was no discussion by marketers or the media about people 40 plus as a market force. They were off the radar screen—powerless, invisible.

In yesterday’s blog, we addressed that fact that Gen X and Y marketers have noticed something new for western society. Their elders have begun hitting 60—and unlike generations past—are refusing to fade away.

For boomers and generations to come, the implications are enormous, as we all adjust to this new reality. It’s easy to bash boomers as suffering from a character flaw that drives them away from more age-appropriate roles. The truth is much more complex—so here’s part two of my rebuttal...

Vanity Fair magazine’s slick February 2007 cover features actress Demi Moore sprawled out in a fluffy, white bathrobe, sporting gold slippers and holding a hat reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn. The headline? “Demi Moore—Her Husband, Her Body and Why She Never Ages.”…Never ages?

This is the season for bridal magazines. At last count, rushing to the biggest magazine stand at the airport to make my much-anticipated purchase, there were five or six top choose from. Big, glossy, glamorous, eye-catching—and missing out on a huge market of potential purchasers.

Here’s how the boomer woman’s birthdays tend to go, ages 42-61…

42
43
44
In my early forties
In my early forties
In my forties
In my forties
Still in my forties
50 is the new 40
50
50
Early 50’s
Early 50’s
Early 50’s
Early 50’s
Early 50’s
Still in my 50’s
Not yet 60
The Big 6-0
Can you believe I’m 60?

Carol Orsborn

In 1966, Time Magazine collectively coined the Baby Boom generation “Man of the Year”. This generation lived up to Time’s momentous designation, fearlessly going on to lead a number of revolutionary movements, among them, fittingly, the women’s movement. (Note that Time now pays tribute to “Person” of the Year).

I don't feel as old as I am.
I don't know what I really look like.
I don't get me most of the time.
At sixty, I still laugh at all the crude, crazy things my kids do.
My eyes look out of a body I don't recognize.
And while I don't wear faddish clothes, I like to glam it up.
But most troubling of all, my head is in a transition I don't get yet.
No longer anyone's child since my mother died this past August, I have strangely become the matriarch of my family.
Kids, family, pals and pets are drawn like little magnets to my sphere.
Friends and colleagues seek my counsel.
Yet, I am not ready to accept it all because when I do, I will really need to accept the fact that I'm getting old.
And, while I am thrilled to be the center of this wheel of fortunate outcomes, the role is still new to me.
These expectations, responsibilities are new to me.
I have no mother/father role models as my parents were lost souls having survived the Holocaust...
And with their emotions locked away forever.
Looking at it another way, maybe its good news:
I'm still learning to be me.

Eileen Marcus

Here’s an untold sports story from Super Bowl Sunday that has nothing to do with football, but rather, is derived from the world of the martial arts.

An 80-year-old woman was relaxing in her home alone during the game when an intruder broke in and threatened to rob her. Thinking quickly, the woman pretended to have a major heart attack, so rattling the burglar that he not only fled the scene empty-handed, but helped her get her hands on medicine she said she kept in the garage first.

On Sundays my mother doesn’t always go to church, and she doesn’t whip up hearty breakfasts for my father. This day is reserved for someone else. On Sundays, she smiles, puts on her lipstick, and glides dutifully into the assisted living home nearby. As she enters, the older adults in the living room slowly look up. Something new is breaking up the quiet of their day. A door has opened, someone has entered and sunlight has filled the room. Mom spots her 87-year old mother, who sits silently dazing ahead, failing to recognize her daughter. And then what my mother has known for so long hits her all over again: she is now the caregiver, my grandmother the child.

Having attended more than a few marketing-to-boomer conferences, one thing has become clear. Before long, much of the talk centers around boomer gals. Of course, boomer women influence 80 per cent of consumer goods and services for their demographic. And any boomer man who is still married to a boomer woman will attest to her, ahem, influence. But that isn’t the whole story.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

Having the great fortune of living in the Napa, Valley (when I’m not on the road as a boomer ambassador) I take my inspiration from the art and spirit of wine. Wine, you see, has the good sense to improve with age. In fact, the finer the wine, the better it gets over time.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

Many of us are so proud about keeping up, being as agile and able as a 30 or 40 – something. Well, I hate to admit it but I played the old lady card and it felt good. Call it survival of the fittest or fleetest but last night, close to midnight, I was coming out of Manhattan’s Penn Station. It was snowy and unplowed, slippery and nasty and of course no cabs in sight.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

We’re always telling clients, prospects and anyone listening that boomers live by life stage as much as actual birthdays. So true. Two weeks ago I visited a cousin who is several years younger than me and much as I love her, I wouldn’t want to live her life. Her life includes early bird dinners, constant telephone conversations, shopping at the condo boutique and … designating herself as her mother’s personal caregiver, climaxing a life long difficult relationship with anger fed martyrdom.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

Did you hear that?

That was the sound of Feminism -- baby boomer-style – roaring back to life.

In a new book called The Feminine Mistake: Are Women Giving Up Too Much?, Vanity Fair journalist and baby boomer Leslie Bennetts warns that women experience an unexpected toll when they give up work to raise children, but reap surprising benefits -- beyond just a paycheck -- when they maintain their careers while parenting.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

Okay, I couldn’t resist. This is actually a critique of a book that has gotten a lot of buzz lately, which is really titled: Walking on Eggshells: Navigating the Delicate Relationship Between Adult Children and Parents, by Jane Isay. (“Flying Dolphin Press.”) I hope the book is a huge bestseller for one reason: it will show that I’m not the only boomer parent who loves her children more than life, itself, but has to watch not just every word, but every thought, eye twitch, etc. I think the title says it all.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

Did you happen to catch the full-page Smith Barney ad that ran in the Wall Street Journal on March 27? (And one assumes elsewhere, as well.) This is an ad that really gets it right.

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We talk a lot about how there is no such thing as “the boomer woman.” That said, I’ve been with two very different slices of the demographic this past couple of weeks, and if my eyes were closed, I wouldn’t have known which was which.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

Last fall, the AARP-fueled Focalyst study of 42,000 boomers showed that virtually every boomer—regardless of their income bracket—felt ill-prepared to maintain their current level of lifestyle into the retirement years. This isn’t just an issue of the lower and middle class.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

Wow! Grab your (red) hat and join in on the fun! Eileen and I just got back from the annual gathering of The Red Hat Society, this year at Nashville’s Opryland Hotel, and I must admit, that I’m suddenly a believer!

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

I get acid reflux when I hear that 60 is the new 40. The new 60 is the new 60 because no one’s ever lived it the way we are now. One of my yenta friends and I were of course speaking about another friend and commenting about her take on this aging of ours. According to her, she’d had her turn. Turn at what? Sure, we had our turn at adolescence, teenaging, marriage and motherhood. But now it’s our turn at olderhood and we’re exploring with the same tenacity as when we took our first steps.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

What comes to mind when you think of boomers being in denial about health and retirement issues? And more importantly, as a marketer, would it be interesting for you to know that somebody—in fact an entire industry—is making millions of dollars off this generational foot dragging?

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

Two weeks ago at the annual New York Food Bank gala, yours truly anticipated another painfully philanthropic evening of dry speeches and drier chicken. Instead, my entire table – consisting mostly of fellow Boomers –swooned like teenagers at the room’s celebrity wattage. And not just any celebrities – these stars were our age: iconic figures from the ‘70s and ‘80s who’ve stayed innovative, relevant and still oh-so-cool right up to today.

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We’ve been doing a lot of traveling lately and I just have to comment on the becoming of invisible me. Maybe it’s the traveling or maybe it’s the places we’ve been but my biggest take away is Kathy Bates line in Fried Green Tomatoes … “I may be older but I have better insurance.” And while it may not have been two young things in tight jeans and belly shirts who took my parking spot, these people tried to take my dignity.

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The other night I was reading a poem by Mary Oliver and stumbled upon the following line, which seemed not only lush, but appropriate as we move into sweet, sweltering June. She writes,"Yes, in summer we all live in the dreamy palace." The 'dreamy palace' is surely a fickle place, as distinct and countless as the readers who conjure it.

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There’s this old story about the first woman elected president. At her swearing in her mother is congratulated about her daughter’s success. The mother’s response was to point to her son several rows back and brag about him being a doctor.

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Many of us believe the late years of retirement will be more like "rewirement," a freshening up, a good powdering of our noses, some sacred space in which to finally contemplate our life's journey. We won't be like the Others, in a vapid nursing home chomping through rubbery chicken on someone's militant schedule. No sir, you won't catch us engaging in less than scintillating conversation over bingo.

After all, we may be bungee jumping. We may be hunting. We'll be anything but dying.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

Boomers are known for their optimism. Experts attribute this to our having grown up in the post-World War II euphoria, when anything seemed possible. Whatever diseases hadn’t been cured yet would soon be eradicated, due to the ascendancy of scientific breakthroughs. Walk on the moon? Of course, technology paved the way. The economy? Booming. Even the rise of liberal religion in our sophisticated suburbs (more community center than judge of righteousness) took the sting out of such “outmoded,” unhappy-making notions as eternal damnation. All of this contributed to the promise that a happy ending for not just our generation but all of humanity was inevitable.

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You may recall my blog some entries back, calling for Happy POGO Day…POGO standing for “Parents of Grown Offspring.” Taking my favorite subject de jour, dealing with blame or criticism from your adult child, I revisit the themes of my more recent blog, “On Happy Endings,” demonstrating that it is possible to whine and grow one’s level of maturity, all at the same time.

So, speaking of bad jokes, how is it fair that those offspring whom you loved more than life itself could ever possibly find any fault with you? And how, too, is it that after investing oodles of time, love, money, caring etc. into our children as we grow up, that the pay-off is that in the end, to be a good parent, you’ve got to let go!

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I may not have found a honey since my divorce but I have discovered the wonder of having a honey do man.

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