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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Mountains of dumbness; the choices we make; and good growing weather…..

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

So, it all becomes crystal clear. All of the inane, immature ads. The way modern advertising appears to work….or not work. All the dumbness surrounding marketing in the 21st Century becomes very clear after listening to a CBC Radio show called the “Age of Persuasion”. It would seem the average age of advertising account managers in New York is only 28. Only 6% of advertising account executives are over 55. It’s all young people controlling the advertising industry and that’s why things appear so dumb. And it seems it’s all wrong. For years now – the last 40 years to be exact – the folks on Madison Avenue have assumed that the key demographic they should be reaching is 18 to 49. That’s the age group that retailers and wholesalers alike have thought did the most buying. Wrong! And double wrong! It would seem that every study, report and statistic points to the fact that it is the group of people who are over 55 who have the most purchasing power and the most disposable income. And yet this group of people are almost ignored in the overall marketing strategy. Boy, is that strange! It seems that ‘way back in the 1970’s, executives at ABC TV invented the myth that if companies could win over people when they were young, they’d have them for life. Everybody bought into it. But it isn’t true. People cannot be taught to be brand loyal in their teens and then kept in line for the rest of their lives. Over 55s buy more of almost everything in the market…..cars, houses and even electronics where you’d expect the young people would win out. No, it seems that nearly all advertising in this modern age is misdirected and headed toward the wrong demographic. And that’s why most of the advertising is full of young people and directed at those same young people. So, the next time you see a really stupid ad on TV, you’ll know why. It’s because of all those young people who think this sort of thing works. They should think again!

You know, I’m a guy who understands the world of politics and economics pretty well. I know why we have the socio-economic system we have. It’s because for thousands of years, the world has been a brutal place and it took more than a bit of savagery to survive. But we should be getting beyond that. These days, almost every time I see a really rich person, I find it abhorrent. It really bothers me these days that a few people have so much while the rest of the planet struggles mightily. It ain’t fair. And most of where we end up in life is luck. Now, the people who have been successful in life will tell you life is all about choices and they’ve just made the good ones. It ain’t true, folks. Where you end up in life is ‘way more a product of luck and fate than anything you actually do yourself. You have no control over where you’re born, who your parents are, whether you’re smart or not so smart, whether you’re big and strong or small and sickly. And there are a host of other factors you have no control over as well. So, don’t start telling me it’s all about choices. It might be all about choice for a small elite group of people on the top, but it’s certainly not about choice for the rest of us. It’s about playing the hand we’re dealt in life. And a great many of us have no ace, no face and no trump. It makes life really tough and it makes it hard to make the right choices. Anyway, I’ve written about this sort of thing before and I don’t want to get boring. Just don’t buy into this whole “choice” thing. Because it’s mostly a lie. And you might have read that here first.

Well, I hope you’re all getting your gardens in after our extremely soggy spring. We’ve got most of our stuff in and my wife is finally happily gardening away. But, man, what a soggy spring. I hope the farmers are going to be okay. I worry about them with the kind of weather we’ve had. And we’ve gotta eat. Here’s hoping for a good rest of the growing season…..

Well, out of time for another week and hoping you’re getting along into summer. Take care and remember….”Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may.”



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.