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Welcome to the delightfully nonsensical world of targeted advertising, where reaching a young demographic is the dream of every marketing exec on Madison Ave. But considering most teenagers aren't exactly flush with cash, why are advertisers obsessed with reaching them? Predictably, the answer depends on who you ask. Advertisers go after 18- to 49-year-olds because they're desperate to reach consumers before they become brand loyal. The older a consumer is, the less likely they are to switch
from Coke to Pepsi. If you get 'em while they're young and don't give them a reason to leave, their wallets are yours forever. Or so the theory goes. One study suggests that people between the ages of 25 and 54 are actually the crème de la crème of disposable income because they typically have more money to burn. Of course, most of these "studies" are conducted by TV networks eager to show that their audience is the one advertisers should be targeting. So while CBS (which has a more mature audience) believes in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic, NBC
(which boasts a younger audience) claims youth is where it's at. To quote Homer Simpson, "People can come up with statistics to prove anything. Fourteen percent of people know that."
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