Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Generation Y is done, dusted and dead... (someone shoot it down please)


Generation Y is old. Not in the terms of actual age (we're still giving the up and coming tweens a run for their money) but in terms of a label, frankly darling it's dated.

Practically anyone could could write a 25,000 word thesis on the sizzling habits on the Gen Y demographic, what they like, how they shop, love, eat, don't fly the nest and generally sail through the world unimpeded by a hard work ethic. Since the world got hold of the term Gen Y the everything has been analysed from the free wheeling perspective of a 20 something year old. And it's boring. It's done, it's dusted and it's time to think of something new. Blah, blah, blah. As a member of the infamous sons and daughters of the baby boomers demographic I'm well and truly over the hype of the young bloods.

As soon as marketers and journos got hold of the Gen Y idea and started analysing the world from a Gen Y perspective in order to lasoo the elusive youth market into their profit margins it was over. When it becomes mainstream and chewed over by academics and media alike a concept may as well roll over a die. It's like cud - chewed, digested, churned up, chewed again, digested, churned up and the story goes on until Gen Y become, frankly, a very unappealing, unappetising label to live by.

I should confess that my own passion for the tatilising but frankly over-publicised age group I belong too has been waning ever since mentioning Gen Y as a segment became imperiative to getting high marks in a university marketing assignment.

But here's the news... Gen Y officially don't care about being labled Gen Y. So if you're a marketing guru, journo, entreprenurial business person or Generation X citizen who's spouting Gen Y effusions the chances are you'll not be connecting with them.


Note: the author of this article will still be using Gen Y as a target market in her uni marketing plans, (despite obvious self-hypocrisy) as a bit of generational name dropping usually guarantees high marks.