I about fell out of my seat laughing when I saw the following billboard, as I was surfing across the net, checking out John Erik Metcalf’s blog. As Roy Williams, the Wizard of Ads predicted back in 2003, older generations just don’t get this younger generation, the Millennials, just yet. Roy states:
AOL and Yahoo.com are the Kerouac and Salinger of the new generation that will soon pry the torch from the hands of Boomers reluctant to let it go. Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley have become Tupac Shakur and Eminem, and the Baby Boomers’ reaction to them is much like their own parents’ reaction to Chuck and Elvis. But instead of saying, “Take a bath, cut your hair and get a job,” we’re saying, “Pull those pants up, spin that cap around and wash your mouth out with soap.”
And here is the oh-so-laughable billboard that some out of touch boomer must have been responsible for:
1. Pretend that it won’t affect your business. (Let me know how this works out for you.)
2. Search for a Rosetta Stone that will give you a window into the minds of these barbarians at the gate, so that in the future at least you’ll know how to do business with them.
2. Search for a Rosetta Stone that will give you a window into the minds of these barbarians at the gate, so that in the future at least you’ll know how to do business with them.
The way work gets done is changing. Figure out how to work with these changes- and your business will benefit.
Tags: millennials, business, marketing
they even got the billboard space for free from clear channel. i’d like to find a manuscript–your Rosetta Stone–for marketing to millennials and ship it to these folks. oh well.