Use "Positive Aging" in Marketing to Baby Boomers?

 

Have you heard of marketing campaigns for Baby Boomers utilizing the theory of "positive aging"?  It is being suggested by many in the marketing profession.  Yet I find issues with this.  Blogs and websites are popping up everywhere with terms such as: Gerotranscendence; Center for Positive Aging; Healthy Aging;and hundreds of positive mental health articles bracing for this "age wave".

Not that there is anything wrong with "positive mental health", but is there such a thing as purposely delivering negative advertising to Baby Boomers?  Scare tactics on savings?  Forget it! Baby Boomers learned to live in the "now" better than any other generation. Tacking up the word "positive" in front of any word perceived as negative, will not appeal to anyone much less those of us lumped into the largest segmented generation spanning over 20 years.  So why does marketing try to pigeon-hole a group that includes early Boomers and late Baby Boomers? In many cases, we have the same generational group giving birth to members of the same generation?

If you are a Boomer, then you understand the dangers of labeling, and probably still hate the idea of segmenting people.  If you are not a Boomer, then proceed with caution if your advertising does not acknowledge the individuality and uniqueness with which  Baby Boomers regard themselves.  Is this a selfish attitude?  Not in the least.  

Baby Boomers can simply be counted on to cherish their uniqueness in the scheme of things, and are not to be underestimated in dealing with what might be judged as manipulation by a "machine".