About Brent Green This blog is about Baby Boomers and our impact on business, society, and culture, today and in the future.
Here I explore many themes relevant to those of us on a thoughtful journey to reinvent the future of aging. I am a consultant and author of six books, including "Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers: Perceptions, Principles, Practices, Predictions."
I present workshops and give keynote speeches about the intersection of the Boomer generation, business, aging, and societal transformations.
My company, Brent Green & Associates, Inc., is an internationally award-winning firm specializing in building brands and forming successful commercial relationships with Boomers through the unique power of generational marketing. Marketing to Boomers
I welcome your comments and questions here. This blog is a continuing conversation that began in June 2005, and I'll appreciate hearing from you.
Media relations, media interviewing, public speaking, and leadership training for senior executives provided by veterans in PR and news reporting
Discover the future with Brent Green's new book, "Generation Reinvention: How Boomers Today Are Changing Business, Marketing, Aging and The Future."
Internationally award-winning direct response marketing for Boomer-focused companies
Brent Green & Associates is a leading marketing company with specialized expertise in selling products and services to the Boomer male market, comprised of over 35 million U.S. adults. Click here to visit our website.
Lee Eisenberg Lee Eisenberg is the author of "The Number," a title metaphorically representing the amount of resources people will need to enjoy the active life they desire, especially post-career. Backed by visionary advice from the former Editor-in-Chief of "Esquire Magazine," Eisenberg urges people to assume control and responsibility for their standard of living. This is an important resource for companies and advisors helping Boomers prepare for their post-career lives.
Kim Walker Kim Walker is a respected veteran of the communications industry in Asia Pacific, with 30 years of business and marketing leadership experience in Australia, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York. His newest venture is SILVER, the only marketing and business consultancy focused on the 50+ market in Asia Pacific. He has been a business trends and market identifier who had launched three pioneer-status businesses to exploit opportunities unveiled by his observations.
Hiroyuki Murata Hiroyuki Murata (Hiro) is a well-known expert on the 50+ market and an opinion leader on aging issues in Japan and internationally. Among his noteworthy accomplishments, Murata introduced Curves, the world’s largest fitness chain for women, to Japan and helped make it a successful business. He is also responsible for bringing the first college-linked retirement community to Japan, which opened in Kobe in August 2008.
Hiro is the author of several books, including "The Business of Aging: 10 Successful Strategies for a Diverse Market" and "Seven Paradigm Shifts in Thinking about the Business of Aging." They have been described as “must read books” by more than 30 leading publications including Nikkei, Nikkei Business, Yomiuri, and Japan Industry News. His most recent book, "Retirement Moratorium: What Will the Not-Retired Boomers Change?" was published in August 2007 by Nikkei Publishing.
Hiro serves as President of The Social Development Research Center, Tokyo, a think-tank overseen by METI (Ministry of Economy, Technology, and Industry) as well as Board members and Advisors to various Japanese private companies. He also serves as a Visiting Professor of Kansai University and as a member of Advisory Boards of The World Demographic Association (Switzerland) and ThirdAge, Inc. (U.S.).
Some of us are intimately familiar with every outdated technical skills demonstrated in a classic TV ad from Apple.
The spot follows an unassuming archivist working in an ancient building. Shelves bulge with film reels, photos and negatives. With a gentle gaze, the stooping man orchestrates his antique tools to bring celluloid memories alive. The final result, a short documentary film called “Together,” appears miraculously on a young mother’s iPhone somewhere else in the world. Images of her young family fly by as Lykke Li’s moving interpretation of "Unchained Melody" calls to our memories of young love, parenting, and perhaps Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze’s poignant movie, “Ghost.”
The purpose of this ad, incidentally, is to showcase Memories, Apple’s iOS 10 app for iPhone 7 and above. The app auto-magically curates iCloud photos and videos from a time period, wedding them to music to create emotional mini-films. As if a ghost from another time, the wise, tireless archivist is always ready to help when his call light snaps on.
So is this one more ageist TV ad portraying negative connotations of aging? Or is this docudrama a positive depiction of aging and the special power of intergenerational connections? Please post your reaction and comments below.
When I first considered watching Once Upon A Time in Hollywoodin a movie theater, the 2 hours and 45 minutes running time was almost a deal breaker. That’s at least two intruding bio-breaks and a large swath of the day. However, since I’ve written and edited a book about 1969 with seven coauthors, it also seemed incumbent upon me to see the movie soon after release given relevant historical context.
This movie is quintessential Quentin Tarantino with A-list actors, gratuitous violence, suspenseful plot twists, a virtuoso classic rock soundtrack, and memorable cultural touchstones. For those who enjoy this director’s idiosyncratic film innovations, the movie is a work of time compression: the actual 165 minutes of film running time can feel like 60 minutes. I was so entertained by the acting artfulness of Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, with the movie’s rapid-fire pacing and short vignettes, that I felt a twinge of regret when the credits finally appeared onscreen. It’s over so soon?!
There, I’ve given the movie due tribute. Now I will address what’s wrong with this larger-than-life film, entertainment value notwithstanding.
If moviegoers assume they will be experiencing a vicarious and instructive trip back to 1969, they are destined to be disappointed, especially those of us who lived through 1969 as young adults. Given the 50th anniversary of 1969 in 2019, Tarantino has wisely hooked 1969 into the movie’s framework, perhaps because of promotional possibilities. This movie taps into the half-century look-back and nostalgic zeitgeist many are experiencing now.
However, 56-year-old Tarantino did not experience 1969 through the lens of adolescence or young adulthood. As a six-year-old, he was still playing with Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots and G.I. Joe. Nor did his lead actor, 44-year-old DiCaprio, who was born in 1976, or 55-year-old Pitt born in 1964. These Hollywood giants understand 1969 second-hand through a mishmash of media reports or their own imaginations. Their conceptions of 1969 have been appropriated from public memories rather than acquired through personal experiences.
Since Tarantino wrote the screenplay, I’ll focus my critique on him. His movie ignores huge swaths of essential hallmarks of the last year of the 1960’s: Apollo 11, the Vietnam War, Woodstock, and the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam on October 15th, to name four monumental examples.
The single smidgen of important history covered about that year is the Manson Family murders, but the screenwriter/director re-configures history as is his practice. His macho protagonists, portrayed by DiCaprio and Pitt, kill the invading family members rather than playing out actual history, when Manson’s messengers murdered actress Sharon Tate, four other adults, and Tate’s unborn child.
My other criticism is Tarantino’s portrayal of hippies. He has an inglorious attitude about them. They first appear in the movie as scavengers invading trash receptacles in an alleyway. Charlie Manson’s minions are also hippies, thus drug-addled, unwashed slobs — sociopaths capable of mercilessly murdering random luminaries.
For noncritical moviegoers who harbor the same prejudices as Tarantino, Hollywood’s hippies represent strawmen for Baby Boomers, a generation that came of age during the late sixties and early seventies. The protagonists are middle-aged characters and sympathetic representations of hard-working and well-meaning Americans of that time. Not perfect. But respectable. The younger hippies represent all that’s wrong with a nation unraveling at the seams during an era of extreme upheaval. The director fails to communicate essential context for youth rebellion, which was Vietnam, a disastrous war that claimed 58,000 American lives and killed more than 2 million Vietnamese.
Many people who reached adulthood during that time will admit to some “hippie sensibilities” such as longer hair for men, tribal and mod fashions for both sexes, opposition to disingenuous politicians, and experimentation with psychoactive substances. But the vast majority were not unwashed, sociopathic, directionless narcissists. Yours truly grew his hair longer, protested the Vietnam War, sampled a few psychoactive substances, served as a student leader, worked at part-time jobs, and continued accumulating academic achievements that placed me on the Dean’s List at Kansas University. I partied and played and protested, but I maintained focus on my academic and vocational future. Most of my peers did the same.
In 1968, the late social scientist Lewis Yablonsky published The Hippie Trip: A Firsthand Account of the Beliefs and Behaviors of Hippies in America By A Noted Sociologist. This is an academic discourse by an expert researcher that describes and estimates the size of the American hippie sub-segment of young people. Yablonsky concluded that there were about 200,000 full-time hippies in the United States—those identifiable as dropouts from mainstream or straight society. Yablonsky also estimated that there were another 200,000 teenyboppers, part-time hippies, and weekend iconoclasts who might attend high school, college, or work in conventional jobs, but who also dabbled in hippie culture. This leads to an estimate of about 400,000 total hippies in 1968.
Hippies as a cultural sub-segment came largely from Boomers born between 1946 and 1955, which I have labeled as Leading-Edge Boomers. The oldest would have been 22 in 1968, and the youngest would have turned 13. Based on data from Births in the United States 1930 to 2007, the size of the 1946-1955 Baby Boomer cohort was 37.63 million. Using Yablonsky’s estimate of 400,000 hippies as the numerator and all Leading-Edge Boomers as the denominator, the percentage of Boomers who participated in the 1960s’ counterculture at the most extreme edges of engagement or withdrawal would be 1.06% (400,000 / 37.63 million = .0106).
Yet, those who harbor negative attitudes about Boomers and wish to perpetuate stereotypes about this generation, prefer to equate the hippie cultural construct with all Boomers. 1969 Boomers = Hippies. 2019 Boomers = Made Over Hippies. On the contrary, most members of the generation were going about the serious business of attending college, training for trades, serving as social and political activists, and beginning careers. Many superficial hippies then grew up and proceeded to revolutionize our lives. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates come to mind.
Tarantino is another example of a long line-up of cultural critics who portray the Boomer Generation’s coming-of-age period as societal and cultural miasma, underscored by nihilist narratives promulgated by rebellious youth. This is an interesting thematic approach from a screenwriter/director who has undertaken extraordinary steps through his movies to improve the cultural and social standing of groups that have been typecast and mercilessly maligned during the 19th and 20th centuries, from African Americans (via Django Unchained) to members of the Jewish faith (via Inglorious Bastards).
Visit a theater near you and watch Hollywood if you want to enjoy another fictitious Tarantino blockbuster with its cinematic grandeur and superior acting.
Do not see the movie if you are looking for an accurate and comprehensive portrayal of 1969, including the young people who helped define the year through their social justice passions and personal sacrifices. Tarantino doesn’t understand one of the most chaotic, challenging, and compelling years of the 20th century. He's not a reliable historian.
Alternatively, I offer our book as one historical resource that does get it.
Boomer Resources
Senior Forums Senior Forums is a very active online community where the issues that interest Boomers are discussed, dissected, derided, defended, or downright denied in an aura of friendly chatter and banter among like-minded people.
Bring your sense of humor and join a laid-back, international forum of straight talkers who generously offer common sense to support those who need it and laugh with those who embrace the funny sides of aging.
Fierce with Age Carol Orsborn, Ph.D., invites readers and followers of her blog to join her for what promises to be an exciting, challenging and rewarding next stage, similar in transformation to earlier chapters of life that the Boomer generation traversed and reinvented over the decades. A respected Boomer business authority and author of 19 books focused on spirituality, Carol trusts that through prayer, meditation, personal and spiritual growth, Boomers have the potential to fundamentally change their lives for the good, experiencing the aging process as “a potent mix of spiritual growth and personal empowerment.”
50plusboomerlife — Boomer life - travel - fashion - facts and more! This charming blog is written with purpose and passion by Kristine Drake, a native of Norway. I met Kristine at a magazine launch event in Stockholm, and we've remained in touch. Please keep in mind that this articulate and insightful blog is being written by someone who uses English as her second language. You'd never know it unless I told you so. Norway is a magical country, so Kristine's European perspective about life after 50 enriches us all.
Fifty Is The New Forty Since 2007, FiftyIsTheNewForty.com has been a dynamic, trendy go-to destination for savvy and successful 50-something women. Interviews with prominent Boomers, articles, guest blogs and reviews. Fun, funny, informative, and relevant.
Mark Miller's "Hard Times Retirement" Mark Miller, author of "The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security," is a journalist, author and editor who writes about trends in retirement and aging. He has a special focus on how the Boomer generation is revising its approach to careers, money and lifestyles after age 50.
Mark edits and publishes RetirementRevised.com, featured as one of the best retirement planning sites on the web in the May 2010 issue of "Money" Magazine. He also writes Retire Smart, a syndicated weekly newspaper column and also contributes weekly to Reuters.com.
David Cravit's blog David Cravit is a Vice President at ZoomerMedia Ltd. and has over 30 years’ experience in advertising, marketing and consulting in both Canada and the US. His book "The New Old" (October, 2008, ECW Press and recommended here) details how the Baby Boomers are completely reinventing the process of aging – and the implications for companies, government, and society as a whole.
Silver - Boomer Marketing in Asia Pacific The only strategic business and marketing consultancy focused on 50+ in Asia Pacific, SILVER is helping companies leverage the opportunities presented by the rapidly rising population of ageing consumers throughout Asia Pacific. Founder and CEO Kim Walker is a respected veteran of the communications industry in APAC, with 30 years of business and marketing leadership experience in Australia, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York. Silver can INFORM with unique research, data and insight reports into the senior market. ADVISE to help companies increase understanding through audit of their ageing-readiness, strategic workshops, training and executive briefings. CONNECT business to the senior market through refined brand positioning plus relevant and targeted communications strategies.
VibrantNation.com VibrantNation.com is the online destination for women 50+, a peer-to-peer information exchange and a place to join in smart conversation with one another. “Inside the Nation” is Vibrant Nation Senior Strategist Carol Orsborn's on-site blog on marketing to the upscale 50+ woman. Carol, co-author of “Boom,” as well as 15 books for and about Boomers, shares her informed opinions from the heart of the demographic.
Entitled to Know Boomers better get ready for a deluge of propaganda about why Social Security and Medicare should not be secure and why these programs must be diminished and privatized. This award-winning blog, sponsored by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, provides an in-depth resource of breaking news and cogent analysis. You've been paying for these programs since inception of your career; now it's time to learn how as individuals and collectively we can preserve them for all generations.
Time Goes By This is the definitive blog to understand what is happening to a generation as it ages. Intelligent. Passionate. Humanistic.
Route 50Plus Produced by the Dutch organization Route 50Plus, this website brings news, knowledge, and information about the fifty-plus population. The Content and links can be found from more than 4000 national and international sources. Topics include fifty-plus marketing, media, new products, services, and trends. Partners of Route 50Plus include Plus Magazine, 50 Plus Beurs, SeniorWeb, Nederland Bureau door Tourisme & Congressen, Omroep MAX, De Telegraaf, MediaPlus, and Booming Experience.
Dr. Bill Thomas Under the leadership of Dr. Bill Thomas, ChangingAging.org seeks to elevate elders and elderhood in our society by taking-to-task the media, government and other interest groups who perpetuate a declinist view of aging.
Serene Ambition Serene Ambition is about what Boomers can do, and more importantly, who Boomers can be as they grow older. Blogger Jim Selman is committed to creating a new interpretation or paradigm for the second half of life
The Boomer Chronicles The Boomer Chronicles, an irreverent blog for baby boomers and others, is updated every Monday through Friday, usually several times daily.
Host Rhea is a Boston-based journalist and a Gemini who grew up in a small town in New Jersey. She has written for People magazine and The Boston Globe. She was also managing editor of Harvard University’s newspaper, The Gazette. She wrote the “Jamaica Plain (Boston)” chapter of the book WalkBoston (2003; Appalachian Mountain Club) and started a popular series of Jamaica Plain walking tours in 1996.
LifeTwo LifeTwo is a community-driven life planning and support site for adults who have recognized the speed at which days are passing by. This often begins to happen in-between the mid-30s and the mid-50s. Sometimes this recognition is triggered by a divorce, career change, personal loss or some other significant event and sometimes it is just the calendar hitting 35 or 40. The hosts' goal is to take what otherwise might become a midlife "crisis" and turn it into a positive midlife transition.
BoomerCafé.com BoomerCafé is the only ezine that focuses on the active, youthful lifestyles that boomers pursue. Instead of a brand new edition every week or every month, BoomerCafé is changing all the time, which means there’s often something new to read each time you go online at www.boomercafe.com.
Jean-Paul Tréguer Jean-Paul Tréguer is the author of "50+ Marketing" and founder of Senioragency International, the first and only international marketing and advertising network dedicated to Boomers 50+ and senior consumers.
Dick Stroud Generational and 50+ marketing is taking off in Europe, with no small thanks to the author of newly published "The 50+ Market."
David Wolfe Respected widely for his thought-leading book, "Ageless Marketing," the late David Wolfe established an international reputation for his insights, intellect and original thoughts about the future of aging. This blog carries on ageless marketing traditions in honor of David.
Matt Thornhill Boomer pundit Matt Thornhill has taken new ground with his path-breaking Boomer research. When you need fresh Boomer insights, contact Matt for original research, both online and focus group.
Chuck Nyren Chuck Nyren, author of "Advertising to Baby Boomers," is a seasoned creative director and copywriter with talent to match. Ad agencies absolutely need his counsel about any of their clients planning to target Boomers.
Recent Comments