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Snickers Super Bowl ad with senior star Betty White gets thumbs up
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Monday morning quarterbacking always takes on a special meaning following Super Bowl Sunday when analysis of the commercials gets about as much play as reruns of the game itself. The judging and voting are all over the internet for the best commercial. Even a glance at some of the buzz shows a big lead for the Snickers ad featuring Betty White and Abe Vigoda, just days away from his 89th birthday. After Betty, now 88, gets tackled in a backyard football game, a buddy gives her a Snickers and “she” becomes the young man who “was” before hunger, and runs like the wind, only to tackle another famished soul who turns into Abe Vigoda. “You’re not you when you’re hungry.” The USA Today Ad Meter has shown this ad on top all day Monday, February 8, 2010.
The aging theme recurred throughout the commercials, although it certainly was not the only theme of the day. The Boost Mobile ad featured Mike Ditka, former Bears coach, and an array of retired players in a dance and song number "The Boost Mobile Shuffle." Jim McMahon, who led the Bears to a victory over New England in Super Bowl XX, rides into the frame on an electric scooter, and raps on about sprayed- on tan and Cheeta print thong. “That’s fresh,” coos Ditka.
Electric scooters, by the way, have come a long way over the past few years. See the variety of models available, including those that come apart for easy travel and off road versions.
The 36 year-old band, Kiss, showed up hawking Dr. Pepper. A considerably older Chevy Chase riffs on his “Vacations” series of films in an ad for Homeaway.com and Brett Favre, aged another 10 years, plays a 50-year old MVP still in the game, shilling for Hyundai. “Maybe I should retire,” he muses. And The Who took care of the half-time show led by 60-somethings Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend .
One can ask with all this attention whether Boomers reign or are in a free fall now as the butt (see unrelated-to-topic Dockers Super Bowl ad) of such humor. When Vespa Motor Scooters came back at the start of the millennium, the company was certain its target market was twenty-somethings and marketed heavily to that demographic. It found out five years later that its biggest market was, in fact, Boomers. DMW Direct, a worldwide marketing and consulting firm, produced a report last year, “Boomers: New attitudes, new lifestyles, new opportunities,” underscoring just how rich the Boomer marketplace is. “And don’t call them seniors,” yells one of the big headlines from that report, reminding marketers that Boomers and seniors are entirely different demographics.
The number of Boomer-related blogs grows exponentially, inviting commentary, complaints and confabs on the topic. Boomers and seniors have also become the subject of dissertations, educational seminars and research studies. A presentation affiliated with the University of Kentucky, School of Journalism analyzes the portrayal of seniors in the media, providing details about how frequently various age groups appear in which type of programming.
Find a Vespa dealer in Denver.
Brent Green & Associates is one of the marketing firms in Denver focused specifically on Boomers' advertising. Green authored the book, “Marketing to Leading Edge Baby Boomers” in 2006, exploring what he calls “the nation’s most lucrative business opportunity.” Since the economic difficulties of the past year, fewer are talking about Boomers’ wealth and spending power. Instead, the focus has shifted to jobs as record numbers of people, especially those aged 50 and older, are unemployed. The Boomer Group is a woman-owned, Denver-based company that matches Colorado employers with experienced candidates. The company played a role in the Rose Foundation’s Boomers Leading Change project. It also received a grant from the Rose Foundation to help Baby Boomers improve their job search skills.
Kathryn also writes as Denver Mobility Products Examiner and Denver Disability Examiner. Contact for inquiries and suggested future topics. Click "subscribe" above to receive articles on a regular basis.
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