Earlier this month, the Toronto Star presented a special series by journalist Judy Steed documenting the most pressing policy issues of our aging society, as part of the 2008 Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy. It is apparent that Ontario is bracing for a grey wave – a demographic tsunami is headed our way. Canada is fading to grey, as the population bulge known as the baby boomers closes in on senior status, with the first wave turning 65 in 2011. This generation will live longer than their forebears; not only has Canadian life expectancy doubled in the past century, to 82 for men and 85 for women, but many more of us will live to be 100. What are we going to do with all these old folks?

More importantly, how will the proliferation of all these senior’s affect our society, economically and culturally? Will they have the same influence and buying power as they have had throughout their entire lives? Will advertisers continue to target the aging boomers? Will the boomer be defined in a new and improved way?

ZOOMERS
Dr. David J. Demko, professor of gerontology and editor of AgeVenture News Service, first coined the term in 1998 to identify this new trend-setting group of Boomers who are breaking retirement tradition.

Increased life-expectancy has transformed ‘Yesterday’s Yuppie’ into ‘Today’s ZOOMER.’ These new boomers are colouring outside the lines, zig-zagging and zooooooming toward a bright new horizon chock-block full of possibilities for reinventing retirement and redefining what it means to be a mature adult in the new millennium.

According to Dr. Demko, someone is a ZOOMER who:

1) Knows the difference between primary (inevitable) and secondary (reversible) aging
2) Performs daily exercise (aerobics for endurance, anaerobics for strength, and neurobics for brain power)
3) Calculates daily nutritional and caloric needs based on age, gender and weight
4) Orchestrates a social support system of companions, close friends and a confidante
5) Enjoys a positive self-concept, and a passion for living life to the fullest
6) Achieves the resources necessary to live an adventurous life thanks to sound retirement planning

Gee, I wonder how many of these ZOOMERS still have the necessary resources to live an adventurous life, since the economy has gone down the toilet.

Nevertheless, the ZOOMER has been decreed a viable and new audience, and is the latest venture of Toronto media guru Moses Znaimer, who is now the Executive Director of CARP (Canada’s Association for the 50Plus) and the founder of ZoomerMedia. Znaimer’s new vision of aging for Canada incorporates a variety of media ventures that encompass radio, print, social media and events tailored to the 45+ or 50+ crowd. And it’s interesting to see why he would target this market.

Quick Zoomer facts*
Zoomers purchased 58% of all cars in the past year. They represent 73% of households with $100,000 income and enjoyed 55% of all vacations in the past year. Zoomers purchased 80% of health care products, and they represent 83% of households with savings or securities over $500,000.
*Statistics Canada Census Data, 2007

Gee, I wonder how many of these Zoomers will be purchasing new cars, going on vacations, will be gainfully employed and still have savings or securities over $500,000, since the economy has gone down the toilet. Putting all cynicism aside, the Zoomer is still the largest demographic with disposable cash and will continue defining era after era.

The baby boom generation (1946-1964) is the largest age demographic in North America, and the primary reason why advertisers started to create and target youth audiences. Because they are the largest demographic, they will always be marketed and targeted. We are already bombarded with ads for health insurance, health care and health & beauty products. Just think of all the ads for skin care – and the creation of Dove – real beauty ads. As the boomers are aging, aging is being projected in a different light, and as the oldest of the boomers are creeeping toward senior citizenship – watch and see – ads on funeral planning, wills and estate planning, retirement planning, cancer treatments, travel and leisure, and cosmetic surgery will take over the airwaves.

The definition of zoomer does not fit everybody in the 45+ age bracket. What a lot of people keep forgetting is that the boomers born from 1960-1964 did not have the same advantages as the boomers born from 1946-1959. The late boomers are actually “Generation X” and the subject of Douglas Coupland’s novel of the same name, which dealt with their collective angst at not being able to achieve the same things as those who came before them. This group is so overlooked that the original Gen X moniker has been displaced and shifted to the group that was born after them from 1965-1979.

What advertisers have to do is take a good look at the baby boom generation and not lump them into one group package like Znaimer’s Zoomers. All demographics based on age have to be overhauled to reflect a new reality – Do you honestly think that 40+ men and women are like 40+ men and women from the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s? I turned 45 this year, and panicked when I realized that I would be shifting from the 25-44 demographic and lumped in with the 45-59 or 45-64 set and thought no way – when did this happen? In the last year and half, I finally got my degree and completed a graduate program – I am not your typical 45 year-old. That being said, in this topsy-turvy economic climate, spending will be curtailed and many people who have lost their jobs will be starting fresh career paths or going back to college or university. The face of a post-secondary student will continue to shift and not fit the conventions of advertisers. Age lines are definitely blurry and demographics should reflect this.