Alice in Blunderland

I have just sat through a surreal presentation from a guy from the EU who was attempting to quantify the cost of ageing. Now I would be the first to admit that this is not a simple (or in my mind) possible task.

Firstly, he attempted to do the forecast until 2050. When we don’t know if Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy will be in the EU come Xmas I reckon that trying to forecast for the next 38 years is - how can I put it nicely – well the word ‘idiotic’ comes to mind as the best descriptor.

Next he spent half an hour talking about the issue of retirement and how the changes in the retirement age, of EU countries, would change the cost of ageing. The one minor issue he ignored is that it doesn’t matter what age you decide that should people retire, if they don’t have any work, the calculations are not worth the paper they are written on.

As I was sitting there listening to this well meaning fellow wittering on it became clear why Europe is in the mess it is. The administrative class has completely lost a hold of reality. I wonder if it ever had a hold and ‘lost it’ or if it’s employees perpetually inhabit this strange Blunderland reality?

I then had a quick look at the presentations from the WDA Forum. ‘Death by PowerPoint’ is an understatement. Well meaning presentations – mostly stating the obvious – with no concrete or actionable suggestion how things should change. Next year the WDA will have their conference about another topic related to ageing – stacks of PowerPoint slides will be watched and soon forgotten and everybody will have a good time. What a depressing state of affairs.

So what’s the message for marketers? Most everything that emanates from Government, be national or EU, is of very little value. Most of the worthy organisations, that supposedly exist to assist older people, produce little IP of value. Dick Stroud