Unjournalism

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Steven Cody, in a column submitted to PR site Bulldog Reporter, talks about marketing to Generation M, which he says stands for either “multitasking” or “media.” He cites statistics about how much time kids spend online and how little they watch TV, compared to maybe “older kids” in their late 20s or so.

First of all, dude, Generation M is about “multitasking” or “media”? That’s rather lame. Do we really need more “Generation [Whatever]s”? And if you must assign a letter to this “generation,” based on your premise, shouldn’t it be K, for “Generation Kiss My Ass, Advertiser?”

Second, Cody says about an 18-year-old girl (his daughter?):

[Marketers are unaware that] Catharine is IMing her “buds” Kimmy, Christie and Sarah, asking their advice on the coolest styles. And, she’ll choose her shoes based upon what her friends say, not what a TV spot or traditional placement tells her to do.

People keep talking about this social-media era as if it’s literally a whole new world. It’s not. The media have changed, but the reality is still the same: I care more about what my friend or my mom or my boss tells me than what a TV commercial or a banner ad or even a well-earned media placement tells me. Of course. This isn’t only true now, but it’s also true for the folks who were around well before Al Gore invented the Internet. But some folks, like Cody, talk about this “new” era in which - gasp - kids don’t care about ads!

It’s not like text messaging or DVR changed that. I still don’t want to see advertising, but everyone knows it’s place. And that place, of course, is the 16 minutes during “Lost” in which I flip past 40 pages of ads in Rolling Stone. (And then buy what my friend bought because he’s smarter than Crispin Porter + Bogusky will ever be.)

Technorati Tags: Steven Cody, Bulldog Reporter, Generation M, social media, multitasking, marketing, text messaging, Crispin Porter + Bogusky

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