I don’t get it!
BOOMers, we are the first fully mass-media marketed-to generation. TV didn’t join the party until we were the children of the 50s.
For most of us, Mr. Potato Head was the first toy sold on television. All hell broke loose from there, and we have been listening (mostly) to Madison Avenue ever since.
In our youth, we were told that “things go better with Coke”. Non-believers in Coca-Cola could choose to become part of the “Pepsi Generation”. Burger King said we “could have it our way”. When we got our DLs we were told by Esso to “put a tiger in our gas tank!”. Virginia Slims sold their cigarettes, targeting women with “we’ve come a long way, baby” (discontinued on 1/1/71 with all ads for smokes on TV).
Sexy men and women were often used to sell products because, for most, we like looking at sexy men and women and want to be that way, to whatever extent our God-given gifts will allow us.
Today, BOOMers are targeted by mostly medical ads for diseases, conditions, and syndromes (many of which I didn’t know existed and feature side effects like death). The ad culture has, in its herd mentality, firmly believed people over the age of 55 are “locked in” and won’t consider different brands or products.
Such garbage!
Then came social media, which gave rise to a group that lives to social-engineer and began lecturing us on their ill-conceived realities.
Woke advertising: the corporate world’s attempt to surf the wave of social justice while wiping out spectacularly on the shore of common sense. It’s like watching a clown juggle flaming torches—entertaining, but you know it’s gonna end in a blaze of embarrassment. The ignorance fueling these campaigns is a masterclass in missing the mark, and the failures are so gloriously predictable you could set your watch to them.
Picture this: a mega-corporation, flush with cash but starved of self-awareness, decides it’s time to “connect” with the youths. They hire a team of marketers who’ve spent more time on X than in the real world, and the result is an ad that screams, “We’re here for equality!” while tripping over its own sanctimonious shoelaces. Take Bud Light’s 2023 Dylan Mulvaney fiasco. They thought slapping a trans influencer’s face on a beer can would scream “inclusivity.” Instead, it alienated their core audience—guys who just wanted a cold one, not a lecture on identity politics. Sales tanked, boycotts erupted, and the brand became a punchline faster than you can say “tone-deaf.”
The ignorance lies in the assumption that consumers are idiots who’ll clap like trained seals for any pandering gesture. Woke ads often feel like they were crafted in a boardroom echo chamber, where nobody dared ask, “Wait, does this actually make sense?”
Two recent examples define success and failure.
EPIC FAIL- The CEO of Cracker Barrel got out of bed one day and decided that nostalgia, the old-fashioned country store, and products that made their 600+ national restaurants popular had to go. “Let’s take everything that defined our brand and made us successful and flush it!”.
It was a giant middle finger to their loyal customer base. If the Cracker Barrel CEO is still there at year’s end as anything but a server (I doubt she’d know a biscuit from a dumpling), it’ll be a miracle.
SUCCESS- American Eagle Jeans went the old route and hired the very attractive actress Sydney Sweeney to work her way into a pair of their pants in a commercial, while praising her “great jeans”.
I loved it.
The “woke”, however, heard “great jeans” as “great genes” and decided Ms. Sweeney was Adolph Hitler. A play on words triggered these nincompoops (a word deserving wider usage) into seeing a cute commercial as a hat tip to genocide. Last I checked, American Eagle was the best-selling jean in America. Nobody protested. No riots. People just said “enough insanity” and supported the company with their dollars.
Then, there’s the failure of execution. Woke ads love to virtue-signal, but they often come off as exploitative. Gillette’s 2019 “The Best Men Can Be” campaign scolded its own customers about toxic masculinity. Bold move, lecturing the guys buying your razors. The result? A PR disaster, with X posts calling it a betrayal of their loyal base. Sales dipped, and the brand learned the hard way that preaching doesn’t move product.
Last I checked, masculinity is still popular with most women. Let the ladies decide who’s a jerk and who isn’t.
Target’s CEO just resigned after years of losing customers by turning their restrooms into political props. Victoria’s Secret’s recent brush with bankruptcy ended when they decided to once again put sexy women in their sexy clothes after some, uh, garish and misguided marketing.
These companies think they’re championing progress, but they’re often just commodifying causes. It’s performative, like a toddler in a superhero costume—adorable until they trip and cry. Consumers aren’t as gullible as brands hope. They can smell inauthenticity a mile away. When you lecture instead of listen, you get Bud Light’s quiet boycott (sales have never recovered) and Cracker Barrel’s emptier dining rooms.
The lesson? Stay in your lane, sell your product, and leave the moralizing to philosophers. Or at least hire marketers who’ve met a human before.
And don’t forget BOOMers in your messaging. We have open minds. We have money.
Most of us have great jeans, too!
Greg Budell has lived in Montgomery for 20 years. A 50+ year veteran of radio, TV and writing, Greg hosts the Newstalk 93.1FM Morning Show with Rich Thomas, Susan Woody, and Jay Scott, 6-9 AM Monday – Friday. He returns weekday afternoons from 3-6 PM for Happy Hour with Pamela Dubuque and a variety of sidekicks. His favorite topic is life! Greg can be reached at gregbudell@aol.com.