by Wendy Price

“Where have all the flowers gone? Long time passing…”
– Pete Seeger

My mom was humming a Pete Seeger song the other day as she passed by in the kitchen. Having been weaned on folk and rock music from the 1960s, because that’s what she was listening to then, continues to influence me even today.

She was and still is a freethinker, a believer in “live and let live” and is less worried today than she was in her daisy decoupage days of the 1960s. If the headlong idealism of that generation has faded away, reminders are still with us, woven into the fabric of everyday life like a macrame wall hanging – still around but nobody knows why. If those save-the-world dreams seem cast aside or forgotten, well, for a lot of folks they have been.  

Mom’s been classified, (a word we both despise) as a Baby Boomer, a generation born from 1946-1964. The world makes jokes about how well they are adjusting to rapid technological changes and how they tried to protest their way to a better world (and did), but probably not in the way originally intended. Instead of protest signs, Boomers have discovered that spending power is where it’s at. According to VISA Business and Economic Insights, Boomers presently represent a growing segment and significant number of buyers in the marketplace and “will continue to drive U.S. spending for the next five to ten years.” Boomers have purchasing power and aim to use it. California dreamin’ was a quest which over the decades has evolved into getting enough exercise, watching children grow-up, and working until well past the age of 65. On their way then meant getting back to the garden, not putting back dough in a 401K. Over the last two decades a lot has changed, and Boomers have discovered that having enough bread is where their mojo now lies. 

Have Boomers become jaded or more (gasp) more mature, since their days of hangin’out in the parking lot of a burger joint? Mature, perhaps, but all signs seem to point to simple pragmatism. So, what happened? Those stylish Bohemian sandals are now in some thrift store labeled vintage. Jonesin’ for orthopedic insoles is the new cool. Oh, and those nurtured dreams of one day living in a van, farming on a commune, growing vegetables, practicing tantric sex, smoking weed and getting stoned?  Yeah, that fell flat on a large slab of stone cold reality. Same thing for the advice of parents nobody under the age of 30 believed because, well, parents were well over the age of 30, and dropped dead of a heart attack right after one too many martini lunches. 

Turns out, those hard-living parents of the 1950s were also people who knew a little something about how money works. They saved for a house in the suburbs and lived there until the mortgage was paid-off. But hey, that was their story, not their kids who came of age in the ’60s. Their lucky kids learned how to twist and rock-up to high school dances. Then upon graduation, those same lucky kids were drafted and shipped off to Vietnam to continue the good fight that their parents had begun. Life looks differently to each generation and deals us all a different hand. The anthem of the young in the ’60s was sung by a generation going to get it right; they had somewhere better in mind. Yes, they were going to prove everyone wrong – their parents and The Establishment. They deeply wanted and knew that there was something more to living life than their parents had told them about, and certainly nothing as dull as a Buick in the driveway of a three bedroom suburban home. The dream was out there and it promised to be more beautiful than Lucy in the Sky.

How many who toked-on those far-out dreams would now pay $3000 for a good night’s sleep on a posture perfect mattress? Apparently quite a few would, and that translates to influence in the marketplace. Step aside Gen X and Millennials, the 55+ hipsters are rocking in the free world. “The nation’s population has a distinctly older age profile than it did 16 years ago. According to the United States Census Bureau: “The median age is increasing in most areas of the country.” The Baby Boomer Generation, those born from 1946-1964, isn’t into choosing whether “it’s better to burn out or fade away” because they came down and realized that it’s not cool to live on a dream. No bread – no dream, it seems. It might be better to fade away – who the heck wants to burn out? Isn’t that what a three martini lunch and a hard attack at age fifty is all about; what their parents had dropped dead from? With a tip of a golf hat to Neil Young, it’s much nicer to die with assets than without them. Burning out is dying a lonely death in some state assisted nursing home. There ain’t no in-between man. Cha-ching is where it’s at for this once idealistic generation of bra burners, war protesters, weed smokers, commune living, long-hair hippie types. Earning is the way to a better mattress rather than a lumpy seat in a VW Microbus. Bling is the new way to “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Poor Timothy Leary, he got some of it right, or so it seemed at the time. But hey, he’s dead and Boomers were left holding a stale bag, jonesing for a comfy place to sleep.

Boomers have been shedding stardust in advertising for decades since the 1960s and see life from both sides now. Aerosmith wailing “Dream On” in a music bed for a 2004 Buick television ad, beckoning Boomers to buy instead of get high. What happened to not trusting anyone over the age of 30? Ads have evolved to banners on a newsfeed and social media posts. No longer is television the medium used to communicate and sell to generations of a family sitting in a living room after dinner. Advertising has shifted its focus to include Boomers who control a significant amount of discretionary income. They won’t be forgotten even if they are the slowest segment of the market to catch-on to the latest in social media trends – or are they? According to Media Trends, a media research firm which conducted a study and published a report in 2021 on Baby Boomers:

“Not only do Boomers have more to spend and are prepared to
spend it, they are also much more tech savvy and marketing friendly than is currently believed.” – Media Space Solutions, 2021 Report

Boomers still want it all – the dream and the bread. A microbus and the cash to fix it; a love shack by the beach and a comfortable IRA to sleep on. After a certain point, youthful idealism turned to earning a buck, contributing to a productive retirement fund and putting away enough savings to rock-out on a family vacation.