Why advertisers ignore baby boomers and their money

While boomers and the "greatest generation" watch more live television than younger viewers, many older adults unsurprisingly tune out ads; more than half of older adults surveyed

by the advertising firm GlynnDevins do not believe ads portray them as "people to be respected." Paltry marketing budgets aimed at older consumers reinforce the perception that

aging consumers lack value. The Nielsen study revealed that "less than 5 percent of advertising dollars" target adults ages 35 to 64, and cites age 49 as the "cut-off,"

when many marketers stop courting customers. When boomers reached middle age, says Lori Bitter, president of The Business of Aging, a consulting firm in Alameda, Calif., advertisers decided

"they weren't relevant." Call it the Ponce de León Effect — the obsessive search for a fountain of youthful consumers. Bitter, who characterized the lack of respect for older

buyers as "bizarre," recently advised a major company in the packaged-goods industry. The company had copious data proving that its customer base is between 47 and 70.

Nevertheless, Bitter's client worried that targeting that market would make its brand look old. "We are a youth- and beauty-focused culture," Bitter says. "We sort of

culturally brainwash ourselves." BRAZEN AGEISM Nearly two-thirds of companies, according to a 2005 survey, "had no specific plans for targeting boomers or 50-plus consumers in

their product development, marketing or advertising." Aside from entrenched societal ageism, reasons for this include outdated assumptions that older consumers are cheap and so

brand-loyal that they are immune to advertising. And many agencies have no place for older creative talents. In 2012, _Ad Age_ asked Nancee Martin, director of talent for TBWA Worldwide, to

assess job opportunities for older copywriters. She was dismissive. "There's a commonly held conception that to be a creative, you need to know what's hot, what music is cool,

what website is all the rage — and [with age] you become less aware of those things." The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median age of advertising employees is 39.3 —

about three years younger than all workers. But many creatives at big ad agencies feel career prospects waning by their mid-30s. Rob Baiocco, 50, cofounder of the Baiocco and Maldari

Connection, recalls working on the coveted Captain Morgan rum account in his 30s while an executive creative director at Grey Advertising, but "then I got a little bit older. Some of

the people that were looking at the brand probably thought, 'You know, let's get some younger guys.' " Baiocco sensed pressure and resigned the account. Big agencies, he

says, often force out aging creatives or assign them "less sexy" accounts like pharmaceuticals. BOOMERS SPEND — AND CHANGE BRANDS Agencies often associate success with

award-winning spots that sway young people, says Bob Hoffman, author of _101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising_. "Nobody in the advertising business and very few people in the

marketing business ever built a career on successfully talking to 60-year-olds." Despite the youth worship at many ad agencies, Ken Dychtwald, CEO of the consulting firm Age Wave,

believes many marketers live in the past. Lifetime brand loyalty "was once a reality, but now it's just a myth," he says. Previous generations often selected a brand between

the ages of 15 and 25 and never switched. That became the target age for advertisers. But that has changed. A study in 2007 found that 70 percent of boomers would change home appliance

brands and slightly more would switch clothing preferences. Brent Bouchez, 56, cofounder of the ad agency Bouchez Page, calls boomers "brand-promiscuous."