Just as sure as April
showers bring May
flowers, this month
brings the annual ritual
of television "upfront"
ad buying to New York
City. This is a chance
for the networks to show
off their fall line-ups
and biggest stars to
advertisers. With
Charlie Sheen and Donald
Trump thankfully out of
the picture, at least
temporarily, many
advertisers will be
searching for the best
strategy to reach
Millennials (born
1982-2003), a generation
that is becoming as much
of an economic force as
it is a political one.
Unfortunately, the
importance of America's
youngest politically and
economically active
generation, seems to
have been missed by many
power brokers in another
important East Coast
city, Washington, DC.
In a recent
research report,
media agency OMD
calculated that
Millennials have 11
percent more buying
power than the Baby
Boomers did when they
were between 15 and 29
in the 1960s and 1970s.
"There is no mainstream
marketer who is not
targeting this group
right now," says Laura
Nathanson, executive VP
for ad sales at ABC
Family. Media research
and consulting firm,
Frank
N. Magid Associates,
whose Generational
Strategies initiative
first brought the
generation to the
attention of the
broadcast and cable
industries, estimates
that Millennials make up
27 percent of the total
U.S. population and more
than half of TV's key
adults-18-to-49 sales
demographic.
All of this didn't stop
CNN from announcing the
results
of a survey -- about
cultural issues on which
most Millennials hold
distinctively liberal
positions -- with a
sample in which only 10
percent of respondents
were under 35 instead of
the proper proportion of
closer to 30 percent,
describing the findings
as being based on "all
adults." Thousands of
Millennials quickly
signed a petition from
OurTime,
a group dedicated to
"standing up for all of
us under 30", asking CNN
to "commission a new
poll -- one that surveys
a diverse sample of all
Americans who have a
constitutional right to
be represented in our
democracy!"
Glenn Beck demonstrated
slightly more
understanding of the
country's demographics
when he announced that
he will initiate a new
project to "target
the youth" after he
no longer appears
regularly on Fox News.
Unfortunately, Beck then
went on to describe
Millennials as
"frustrated, used and
misguided," three things
the generation is
definitely not, but
which may well describe
its reaction to Beck and
similar-minded Boomers.
According to a
recent
survey of more than
3,000 18-29 year olds
conducted by Harvard's
Institute of Politics,
almost four in 10
Millennials consider
themselves liberals and
a clear plurality
identify as Democrats;
only one in 10 are
supporters of the Tea
Party movement.
But even as President
Obama got cool creds for
conducting a
town
hall with Facebook's
founder, Mark
Zuckerberg, an estimated
10 thousand young people
rallied in Washington
under the banner of the
Energy Action
Coalition's "PowerShift
2011" to demand the
administration do more
about climate change and
the need for a clean
energy economy. Their
pointed slogan, "With
you or without you," was
clear enough to cause
the president to alter
his schedule and
meet
with the leaders of the
rally in the
Roosevelt Room of the
White House.
While a clear majority
of Millennials (55
percent) still support
Obama (more than any
other generation), the
IOP
survey shows that
jobs and the economy
remain far and away the
issue of greatest
concern for this
generation. Fifty-seven
percent listed it as
their highest priority.
More than half of those
who have not graduated
from college consider
their financial
situation to be either
fairly or very bad; 23
percent of those under
25 were
unemployed in 2010.
Even among college
grads, unemployment
averaged nearly 10
percent last year. In
this case, the personal
clearly has the
potential to be
political.
Although Millennials
remain optimistic about
their future economic
circumstances,
Republican attempts to
cut funding for Pell
Grants and other
educational
opportunities, coupled
with the continuing
failure of the recovery
to generate jobs that
will enable many
Millennials to pay off
their historically high
student debt, suggests
that the generation's
personal path to
prosperity will continue
to be strewn with
obstacles thrown up by
short-sighted members of
older generations.
To get the nation's
attention focused on
their economic plight,
on April 27th, young
people donned their best
job interview clothes
and visited their local
Congressional office,
carrying briefcases
affixed with bold block
letter signs saying
simply, "I need a job."
The goal of these "Briefcase
Brigades" was to
dramatize the economic
plight of young people
and prod Congress into
investing some of its
time on creating jobs
for America's youngest
generation of adults.
Given the fact that
one out
of four eligible voters
in 2012 will be a
Millennial, it is hard
to understand why they
would need to take such
dramatic steps to gain
attention to their
economic plight.
Perhaps Millennials
should simply encourage
members of Congress, as
they return from their
Easter recess, to take a
shuttle flight to New
York later this month.
That might cause more
people in the capital to
understand the
importance of putting
the needs of Millennials
upfront in their policy
deliberations. If
politicians become as
enlightened as media
moguls are about the
emerging generation,
America will have a much
better chance of winning
the sweepstakes for our
country's future.
