When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.
When you read those words, if Paul Simon’s eponymous song “Kodachrome” doesn’t come to mind, you must not be a Boomer (and/or a classic rock fan). The song is playing in the background while I’m grooving to... ah, writing this post.
The odd thing is that I’m listening to Paul Simon transport me back to my youth — Kodachrome... give us the nice bright colors, give us the greens of summer, makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah — while another browser window is open to a new Dutch online magazine ... created for Dutch citizens over 50 ... by a 27-year-old child of Boomers ... and I’m impressed.
In 2007 while on a speaking tour of Europe, I met and had lunch with Arjan in’t Veld (last name translates to “in the field”), a striking young man towering two meters tall (that’s over 6 ft. 5 in.), with fire in his belly and a goal to turn his marketing education into a business focused on people old enough to be his grandparents and parents.
He quickly transformed from a college graduate with a master's degree in marketing to becoming one of The Netherlands’ leading authorities on 50+ marketing.
Bureauvijftig, his marketing agency founded with partner Dick Vos, has attracted a banner list of international clients who see vibrant opportunities when they think of all the Kodachrome colors swirling around Boomers (those alluring hues of Euros and U.S. dollars).
Now for the magazine, ENNU, you’re going to click here: www.ennumagazine.nl. Then you will see this:
The magazine has been written and recorded in Dutch, so if you don’t read Dutch or understand the spoken language, you’re not going to appreciate fully how well all the content has been developed. But I’ll bet you’ll be impressed with clever integration of multimedia to create an engaging and enjoyable user experience.
If you want to hear Paul, click on page 4:
You should then feel the same sense of kinship I have always felt for the Dutch since they have so fully embraced American music and culture (with their own twists, of course). As you travel through Amsterdam, you’ll often hear the music that defined Boomer youth, and Arjan’s team has embraced this intercultural experience with the inaugural edition of their online publication.
If you want another taste of something more familiar than foreign, click on page 15, a layout clearly dedicated to single Boomers seeking new love. Notice also how photo frames above the Boomer couple are actually windows to external 50+ dating websites.
Sometimes it takes getting out of our own country to encounter new ways of experiencing being Boomer through media, as has this new online journal taken some very creative steps toward envisioning a 50+ magazine for the future.
Consider the possibilities that will soon unfold with the introduction of Apple iPad. Suddenly, a merely printed magazine seems inadequate.
I can read the writing on the wall.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.