When Boomers Rule The World - Again
Every January, across New York City and Los Angeles, there is a flurry of lunches, dinners, special screenings, red carpets, Q&As, and celebrity meet-and-greets as studio executives court the rarified Oscar voter. An Academy Award nomination can increase a movie’s profit by tens of millions, sire new Hollywood royalty, and establish fresh templates for future generations of filmmakers to copy.
So what’s the average age of these kingmakers?
SixtyThree.
When we think of pop culture, we typically think of 20-somethings—the latest Taylor Swift breakup anthems, the naked comedy of Lena Dunham, or Drake's sensitive swagger. But when we stop to consider the invention of pop culture, the credit must go to those approaching retirement. Baby boomers made up the first consumer generation. They grew up in the television age, watching mass media emerge from their living rooms, Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, Ed Sullivan and the introduction of Beatles, and yes Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, all of it fueled by the world’s first true mass audiences. But then they grew up. They bought houses, had kids, and sent those kids to college.
Now, boomers’ kids are having kids of their own, and for the first time in decades, boomers are finding themselves dependent-free, once again able to focus on themselves. This is a generation entering its twilight years, whose primary concern is quality of life, and it controls, by some estimates, up to 75 percent of
America’s wealth.
So how are boomers spending their retirement savings?
Partially on the realities of life—health care, mortgages, millennial children—but also on living out the fantasies of their youth. Most surprisingly, they are America’s leading spenders on technology. Their invigorated spending power is helping them reshape industries from Detroit to Silicon Valley, it’s
becoming increasingly clear that boomers’ renewed influence has also allowed them to reclaim what was once rightfully theirs: pop culture.
“Boomers are the first generation on the planet to get to age 60 and still see a long runway ahead,” says Matt Thornhill, president of Generations Matter, a think tank in Richmond, Virginia.“My prediction is we will see more content built around boomer interests and what their legacy is and how they will have left the world a better place.”
“Fifty is the new thirty, and this group is a lot more active than previous generations have been, and they are a lot more involved in pop culture than previous generations have been,” says Brad Adgate, Senior Vice President of research at Horizon Media.
And so, in 2017, boomers are in the midst of a 21st-century revival of the entertainment that defined their youth: film, rock and roll, and TV. Bruce Springsteen, 65, continues to release new albums about his experiences of getting older and his refusal to be pushed aside. Rolling Stone, whose editor-in-chief Jann Wenner is 70, continues to chronicle these rockers religiously.
Meanwhile, when television networks like CBS created more boomer friendly content, their ratings shot up. “The median age of the broadcast television viewer is in their 50s, so they fish where the fish are,” says Adgate. “The people starring in TV shows are older […] Ten years ago networks were always looking for the next Friends. You are starting to see more people who the networks really wouldn’t have cast in a show 10, 15, or 20 years ago.”
Publishing is no different than music or entertainment. Penguin Random House believes creating content for the boomers is sound business. Boomers’ annual spending power of $7.1 trillion is estimated to hit $13.5
trillion by 2032.
Until recently, the business community has generally ignored seniors, according to Thornhill. “Once you turn 55 you become invisible to marketers,” he says. “It is really hard to find marketers who are interested
in someone over 55 unless they are trying to sell Geritol or a Cadillac, and that’s a mistake.”
“This idea of a massively aging population should be looked at as an opportunity rather than a liability,” says Link-Age CEO Scott Collins. “Much of the conversation is how are we going to address the needs of Medicare and Social Security, but there is a way to look at this as a vibrant force for economic growth.”
What we’re witnessing is a first-time shift in who controls the American economy, from parents to grandparents. And unlike their geriatric predecessors, baby boomers are not just using their savings on canes and denture cream—they’re using it to keep up the vibrant lifestyle of their younger years.
Baby boomers are increasingly active in their old age, traveling more and forcing transportation and urban planners to rethink the places we live. Already, cities like Arlington, Virginia, have remodeled themselves with updates like wider sidewalks to better accommodate the elderly and bus routes more tailored to have access to common senior needs, like pharmacies or medical centers. They’re also more likely to own homes and face different living needs in old age, so the way houses are designed will have to adjust accordingly. Simply by living longer and healthier lives than any generation before them, boomers are reshaping the world around them so that they can enjoy it in their old age.
Or, as Judi Dench says in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, the sequel of which stars a 65-year-old Richard Gere as the heartthrob, “This is a new and different world, the challenge is to cope with it, and not just cope, but thrive.”
Get ready for Granny and Grandpa Baby Boomer to shake things up.Boomers have the highest median household income of any age group,according to the U.S. Census; by some accounts they control as much as 70 percent of American net worth and stand to inherit another $8 trillion or more.
What could be more American boomer-esque than spending that money on the grandchildren, indulging them and exerting influence along theway? Roughly 36 percent of the grandparents surveyed by AARP said “spoiling (grand)children by buying them too much” was a part of a grandparent’s financial role.
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