Ken Dychtwald and Keith Reinhard on Creating a Cultural Sea-Change to Combat Ageism

On September 22 the Jack Myers39 Leadership Conversationamp160Confronting Ageism in Media and Advertising led by MediaVillage CEO Jack Myers brought together BoomAgers CEO Peter Hubbell In the Groove founder Susan Feldman ageing expert Ken Dychtwaldamp160and DDB Worldwide Chairman Emeritus and agency legend Keith Reinhard to discuss why agencies and clients need to give up their search for the fountain of youthamp8212and to bust some Boomer myths in the process Watch the full conversation hereThe issue of ageism in media and advertising is a tangled one a combination of several cultural threads that is in some respects a monster of the industry39s own makingAfter all as Dychtwald pointed out through as late as the 1950samp160youth was seen as a miserable timeamp160quotWhen you were young you had no money no powerquot he said quotIt stunkquot The angst of youth combined with lower life expectancies for much of human history meant advanced age was more of a status symbolWell it did until Pepsi came in with a campaign geared toward young people in an effort to snag market share from CocaCola quot39Everybody loves youth39 was a marketing trickquot Dychtwald said quotAnd it workedquotThat trick has been so effective that even though study after study has proved that the formation of a brand identity is a myth and that Boomers are no more brandloyal than the most impulsive twentysomethingquotI39m not brand loyalquot Dychtwald who turned 70 a few months ago said quotIf I were I39d still be wearing Hanes I don39t use any products I used when I was 25quotThat39s one big myth that has been busted Another is that Boomersamp8212and their eldersamp8212are Luddites that their needs are limited to devices that help them get out of the tub Dychtwald put up a series of slides that put this myth to rest as well Consumers 55 are responsible for41 of spend on women39s apparel and personal care products42 of groceries new vehicles and air travel44 of housewares55 of book purchases and OTC drugs56 of spend on vitamins67 of prescription drug spendAdults over 55 control 69 percent of the wealth in Americaamp8212and they aren39tBut then there39s the economic thread The cost pressures on agencies in particular are enormous with clients often incentivizing more quotefficientquot uses of money like hiring two younger creatives for the same price as a more senior creative This has resulted in what Reinhard calls the quotjuniorizationquot of agencies and has led to average employee ages well below 30The problem here is obviousamp160quotIf you39re a pizza maker you can keep cutting the quality of your pizza doughquot Reinhard said quotUntil someone doesn39t buy your pizzaquot Although Reinhard loves the enthusiasm and energy and even genius of these younger employees he doesn39t think they39re as capable of telling stories that cover the vast variety of life experiences the 55 audience hasSo how does the industry untangle the ageism knotWell the trade press can certainly help Reinhard said Every other week it seems a new quot30 Under 30quot list of wunderkinds comes out but where are the quot40 Over 40quot lists quot50 Over 50quot Studies about Millennials get instant play in the press studies about Boomers less soAnother imperative is to get clients on boardamp8212agencies go where clients lead and if clients can put away their fears about their brands seeming quotoldquot itself an ageist mindset agencies will do the work to include the 55 viewpoint At stake are literally trillions of dollars so the incentive for both parties is thereFor Dychtwald a fundamental shift in the way we think about age in our culture is needed quotWe39ve got a sixgeneration societyquot he said but the advertising community is so laserfocused on youth that it leaves vast swaths of the country on the sidelinesamp8212or worse insists that people want to see idealized versions of themselves onscreen quotThe idea that 55yearold women want to be 30yearolds is like saying people of color want to be whitequot Dychtwald said quotThere39s something wrong and mean and ignorant about itquot amp160Pitting generations against each other is similarly wrong and ignorant he adds quotThere is no 39Boomer vs Millennial39amp8212how dumb are we that we feel the need to pickquot Dychtwald asserted quotWe live in a world where we can market to multiple people at the same time Generational fabrications are only sort of usefulquot In fact the use of generational labels ends where marketing beginsWhat Reinhard would like to see is a merging of the mindsamp8212combining the strengths of young geniuses with the life experience of the old masters This integration though requires us to put aside our generational thinkingDeprogramming this instinct to think generationallyamp8212and not simply generationally but adversariallyamp8212is difficult on a large scale but Dychtwald argued all the more essentialquotThere39s a lot of life going on out therequot heamp160saidAlso Read Disproving Age Bias In the Groove Captures Untapped Potential of Active 50 Female Consumers by Raquelle ZuzarteClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Ken Dychtwald and Keith Reinhard on Creating a Cultural Sea-Change to Combat Ageism

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