AARP Aims to Deliver Message to Marketers (pictures of body bags)

[kysrsoze]

ITH ads that show older consumers who have been body-bagged or toe-tagged while still living, breathing and trying to shop, AARP today began its latest attempt to convince marketers not to write off consumers over 50 years old. "These days, doctors don't pronounce you dead," one ad says. "Marketers do."

The campaign is the latest effort to attract new advertisers to the pages of AARP Magazine, which is mailed to 22 million households, and other AARP publications. While it is not the first bid to sweeten Madison Avenue on people it considers seniors - Reader's Digest magazine and CBS have long pointed out that their many older readers and viewers have higher incomes and spend more than younger consumers - it may be the most confrontational.

The AARP campaign argues that focused, attentive marketing to older Americans is more important than before. Four million Americans turn 50 each year, while last year consumers over 50 spent nearly $400 billion, said Jim Fishman, group publisher at AARP Publications in New York, the division behind the new campaign. "The time is right," he said.

(snip)

Ken Dychtwald, president at Age Wave in San Francisco, said, "If that notion were real, I would be sitting here in Thom McCann shoes, have a Chevy Impala parked in my garage, be wearing a Timex watch, have brushed my teeth with Crest and, for a little arthritis in my shoulder, I would have taken St. Joseph aspirin." "All of which is ridiculous," Mr. Dychtwald said, noting that he drives an Aston Martin and wears a Cartier watch. "There's not one product that I use today that I was using in my late teens."


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/12/business/media/12adco.1.html

That last paragraph was a gem. Soooo.... the AARP is very concerned about marketing to seniors who can afford to buy Aston Martins and Cartier watches. Well, we already knew that. Wonder if they should really be using pictures of body bags after supporting the medicare prescription drug bill?

[veganwitch]

1. flipping christ!!!

im so pissed off im at a loss for words.

[catmandu57]

2. Fuck AARP

The sooner this organization dies the better.

[silverweb]

3. When I got my renewal notice...

I tore it in half and sent it back in their postage-paid envelope with some rather irritated remarks, along with copies of articles about their sellout of seniors on the Medicare bill.

AARP used to be an advocacy group for seniors. Now they dupe the gullible with their slick marketing and betrayal.

:grr:

[reprobate]

7. I did too, sukverweb. Do you know how they make their money?

In a recent statement the head of AARP said that last year they grossed 300 million. Half from insurance policies and half from memberships.

Just shows where their priorities lie.

[SoCalDem]

4. It seems like they should have a lot of other things to aim their

faux rage towards..

Like the bait & switch medicare plan...or the scheduled demise of social security..

I am glad I never joined this organization..

The rich elders can certainly fend for themselves, aarp. I doubt that they are clamoring to get help figuring out ways to spend their money on trinkets...:grr:

[sendero]

5. eff the AARP....

... older people can do better.

[virgdem]

6. Yes they can - there's another organization -

Alliance for Retired Americans (www.retiredamericans.org) that is a much better organization. Only $10.00/year dues to join. I dumped AARP last month after they knifed their membership in the back by supporting that monstrosity of a "Medicare prescription bill." I'm still getting mail from them, which I promptly sh*tcan.

[madrchsod]

8. don`t throw it away-

mail it back to them like silverweb did. i`m going to start doing this with alot of mail i don`t want