PhotoDude.com

Tue. Oct 15, 2002

The Myth of '18 to 34'

The Myth of ’18 to 34’ – The advertising industry has long functioned on the the basic ”appeal” to a particular target audience, the ”18 to 34’s,” to the point it became more than just a target audience. It’s become a driving force of American culture. "It is, as it has been for 40 years, the principle by which a great deal of our popular culture—not just TV, but music, movies, radio—comes into existence."

"The odd thing is, there’s no real reason for it anymore."

"People over the age of 50 account for half of all the discretionary spending in the United States. Proportionally speaking, there are more of them than there ever were, and they are voracious cultural consumers. They watch more television, go to more movies and buy more CD’s than young people do. Yet Americans over 50 are the focus of less than 10 percent of the advertising."

"Between 1973 and 1990, median real income for families with children headed by persons under 30 fell an amazing 16 percent. And in 1990, three out of four men between the ages of 18 and 24 were still living at home, the largest proportion since the Depression."

"They’ll catch on eventually. But advertising is a vast mechanism, risk-averse and inertia-driven, and like most multibillion-dollar industries it changes course with all the agility of an oil tanker. And so, for now, the polestar of the target demographic endures. It has gone from an ecstatic confluence of societal change and economic opportunity to a fusty business institution."

"In the meantime, the Fox network, eager to reassure advertisers made restless by its drop last year to second place among 18-to-34-year-olds, has just announced that this fall it will become ’bold, younger, more noisy.’ The network’s new motto? ’It’s Good to Be Bad.’ "