Boomer Branded
Fri, Mar 5, 2010
I make my living in the marketing profession and recently saw an article penned (probably not actually penned, but that’s such a great verb) by one of Advertising Age’s boomer-aged writers who had been asked to name the top 15 boomer brands. Here’s her list:
Levi’s
Harley Davidson
Volkswagen (Beetle)
Slinky
Noxzema
The Beatles
L’eggs
Pepsi
Absolut Vodka
Saturday Night Live
Facebook
Frye boots
Coach bags
Club Med
Clairol
Whoa!
Frye boots? Club Med?
Where are Corvettes, Coke and Tab, Chuck Taylors, Disneyland? Clearasil, Marlboros, McDonald’s, Elvis and Campbell’s tomato soup?
A lot of ad and marketing types commented on the article … many echoing my own thoughts. Of course, it is pretty much impossible to speak on behalf of an entire generation. For instance, if you graduated from high school in 1964, you might have rolled up your Levi’s and slipped on your Bass Weejuns. But if you graduated in 1982, you were more likely to be lying on your bed, sucking in your breath and doing an early version of ‘the worm’ as you struggled into your Calvin’s.
It is also likely that geography played its part, too. Remember how East Coast girls had hip styles, California girls were tanned and Hawaiian girls wore french bikinis? It took a little longer for trends and brands to ripple back and forth across America.
One of the issues brought up about the Ad Age article is that the author’s selection criteria weren’t uniform. Facebook? Yes, the fastest growing user group is women 55+, but Facebook isn’t a brand made iconic by boomers. It isn’t a brand that survived from our childhood or youth until today. As one commenter said, “This is what happens when you look at a window instead of through it.”
So let’s turn back the clock to 1952-1982 and identify the top brands of the first half of the boomer generation. Down the road, we can look at our grown-up favorites.
Here are my own thoughts that, hmmmm, seem to represent a rather girly point of view … what can I say:
Breck shampoo – who didn’t want to be a Breck girl immortalized on the back cover of national magazines?
Coppertone suntan lotion – when I moved to Maryland from Florida, I kept a bottle of Coppertone on my dresser because one sniff transported me back to Daytona Beach
Pampers – definitely a revolution by boomer moms cause “we didn’t need no stinkin’ cloth diapers”
Mustang – the ultimate chick car (I’ve owned three)
Fashion brands … right now, I’m limiting my choices to high school and our central Florida preppy styles … Villager dresses and sweaters, Capezio flats, Ladybug dresses (remember they came with those cute little ladybug stick pins?), Bass Weejuns for guys and girls, Pappagallo flats and Etienne Aigner purses and sandals (pronounced AGG-ner where I came from). The guys were wearing Coach belts and Gant shirts (the ones with the loops on the back), Canoe and English Leather colognes (sigh).
Now it’s your turn to reminisce. Tell me what brands define the first three decades of the baby boom generation for you.
I look forward to hearing from you.
(Trademarks used in this article are property of their respective companies.)
Ha, your article totally takes me back..i couldn’t agree more on Mustang.. Sister had one too ; )
haha i think the boomers contribution to pampers and getting rid of cloth diapers is more than enough if that’s all we ever did.
also – agreed on the facebook argument. I loose any faith on the credibility of anyone who jumps on the fb wagon (not fully understanding anything about what it really is)
to me, i would add harley davidson to the list. i’ve owned 2 myself in the more recent years and i’ve always attributed it to growing up.
Good morning, Cold Angel — re Pampers … I agree that not all boomer trends were good ones … just that they were trends. I cried when I had to give up my weekly diaper service because the daycare provider for my son wanted to use disposables.
And re Harleys, I had a discussion with several people over the weekend about the part boomers played in the resurgence of the Harley brand. Apparently Harleys were the ride of choice for Hell’s Angels and other “bad boys” in the ’50s. Boomers definitely gave the brand new life and cachet. For myself, I’m holding out for one of those cute Vespas. : )
coldangel – might want to read closer next time…harley is already on the list…and to me its a little more 1980s but i guess i could see it making sense for the latter year boomers…
i would add keds and coca-cola (over pepsi)!!
Hi BurgerLifter — my family and friends also offered up Keds. I’m wondering if the soft drink brand preference may be regional. Coca-Cola was our drink of choice in Florida.
Does anyone remember betting on whose Coke bottle came from farthest away? (Each bottle’s original birthplace was stamped around the bottom of the bottle.)
its hard for me to remember the exact years and such but from my memory as sad as it is to say and admit marlboro had a pretty good marketing campaign…what guy didn’t want to be rough gruff and mysterious??
Does anyone remember the Steer Inn? It was the first fast food burger joint in my neighborhood (Trenton, NJ). It appeared around 1968/69. I don’t know if it was nationwide. I think that it disappeared as McDonalds appeared.
Hey All,
What about Calvin Klein jeans, underwear etc. “Remember the slogan with Brooke Shields, nothing gets between me and my Calvin’s.”
Brute cologne was another one, all of us guys wore it.
Cars, what about the 1969 Comaro?
Nobody has mentioned Disco music?? To this day who does not get up and dance at a wedding when they play The Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.”
Well we could all keep coming up with other brands. We are a nostalgic generation!
Great fun!
Mark
To me Boomer’s will always mean Disney and McDonald’s. Both were established in the early years of the baby boomers and grew up with us. Disney films had been around before we came on the scene but Disneyland was a boomer rite of passage. I remember lots of fast food places…Dairy Queen, A & W Root Beer, Shakey’s Pizza but none has had the impact on this country as McDonald’s. And we were the first generation to grow up with fast food. Thinking about food, how about Swanson’s TV dinners? We were the first generation with the supermarket and the large frozen food section. Coke has been around for over a 110 years, and the U.S. Army bought Harleys during WWI. I don’t know how many of us remember the Brando movie “The Wild One” but Harley’s were the brand of choice for the post-WWII motorcycle club member. Of course Disney brought us the Davey Crocker coon skin caps but where is Mattel on the list. A lot of my toys were Mattel, and my sister, also a boomer, still has a large collection of Barbies. Velveeta, Cheese Whiz, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, I’m not sure how far some of these go back but we were brought up on a lot of new brands of foods. How about Lay’s potato chips? Bet you can’t eat just one! And of course Tang, made for boomers and astronauts alike. Levi’s jeans originated in the century before the last one so I think of them being before our time. Now as we got older, we were the first generation to truly embrace Dell, Microsoft, Gateway, the Baby Bell phone companies. And weren’t we on the forefront of making names like Nokia and Blackberry (Research in Motion) and Palm famous. The Mustang was introduced about the same time as the last boomer was born. And I’m part of the generation, I think this probably just about splits us in half, who still remembers the Marlboro man on TV. I can still see him riding across that black and white western background. I think several of the brands mentioned in the original article may have appealed to us but were first made popular by our parents. Some by our parent’s parents. But I’d throw in Cocoa Puffs, Captain Crunch and a bunch of other sweet breakfast cereals along with Pop Tarts. We were on the cutting edge of a new consumer society. Some of the post war items were designed to appeal to our parents but a lot of them were made to appeal to us! It was our constant nagging that brought fortunes to the companies that could make us think their products so desirable. We still have the driving power of the wallet but now I think we don’t make the trends so much as follow them. I don’t see Apple as a boomer company so much as the generations after us. Oh and if the author of the original article is going to put the Beatles in there, why not just throw in Rock and Roll? Rock is what defined us as a generation. It may have been Elvis, it may have been the Beatles or the Stones, or even the Beach Boys or the Allman Brothers but one way or another one thing that was definitely not our parent’s generation was rock and roll!
Ladies we have to remember Heaven Scent Cologne and Yardley lipstick.