See the previous post for the context of this letter.
To the Editor of the FT.
Christopher Caldwell’s amusing destruction of the Demos report ‘Power of the boomers missed the most obvious explanation for the report’s simplistic and abstract conclusions. The answer was to be found in the report’s supporting documentation that contained a series of quotes from ‘boomers’. You might have expected to find a quote from a factory worker, shop assistant, farmer or bus driver. Strangely these groups were ignored, Demos preferring the views of a trade unionist, teacher, social worker, rights campaigner and somebody who runs a media and consultancy company. If this is indicative of the consultancy’s research sample it helps explains their conclusions.
I must point out one factual error in Mr Caldwell’s article. He stated that ‘as the largest pool of consumers they (Boomers) also constitute the largest advertising market’. Research published by Help the Aged showed that just five per cent of advertising targets the over 50s.
Paradoxically, marketers are still fixated on the younger consumer even though their parents and grandparents possess the majority of the spending power.
