But young people are so much cooler

[by Todd] This should come as no surprise, but it will be dismissed by agencies across the country. AutoPacific, research company for car makers, finds that only 10% of auto ads are aimed at the people buying cars, baby boomers.

"You have to look and see that the oldest boomer is hitting 60 but the youngest is 41," said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific told Brandweek. "So all boomers are not geriatric by any means. But it appears that the advertising world is abandoning them in droves."

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the advertising industry is awash in agencies spending billions of dollars on work intended to impress their peers, not necessarily customers. In the first six months of 2005 alone, there was $6.7 billion spent on advertising. By AutoPacific's calculations $6,030,000,000 was misguided.

Think about that the next time you watch a car commercial.

Comments

[Robin Zaleski]

-Boomers represent 27% of the total US population
-Seniors represent 13% of the total US population
-GenXers represent 20% of the total US population

Boomers buy 41% of all new cars.