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Popular Culture Review
accepted by the public, especially marketers. Coca-Cola test marketed a drink for
teens called “OK” soda. The gray cans featured grim designs, including one of a
doleful youth slumped outside two idle factories. Slogans on the cans read, “Don’t
be fooled into thinking there has to be a reason for everything,” and “What’s the
point of OK soda? Well, what’s the point of anything?” The nine-city campaign
fizzled (Homblower 58).
Some of this portrayal is the typical generational frustration that the older
inherently feels for the younger. Boomers see the unwillingness of Xers to commit
to anything too quickly as a signal of apathy. This interpretation is based upon
facts such as Xers registering as Independents and deciding they were much better
at deciding their spirituality than some figure up in the pulpit. Boomers like Christina
Hoff Sommers express frustration at what they see as “moral nihilism.” In one
speech Sommers marvels at the fact that Xers are so likable — much more hkable
than the Boomers. Sommers says, “This is a generation of kids that despite relatively
little moral guidance or religious training, is putting compassion into practice,”
(Sommers 477). After these comments, Sommers bemoans the lack of absolutism
among Xers. “The same person who works weekends for Meals on Wheels, who
volunteers for a suicide prevention hotline or a domestic violence shelter might
tell you "Well, there is no such thing as right or wrong’” (477). Sommers suggests
that such beliefs are no better than those of a common sociopath. She is wrong.
She fails to see the consistency in a philosophy that suggests personal responsibihty
and lack of an absolute authority. This is not “cognitive moral confusion”as
Sonuners calls it, but a manifestation of the self-reliance Xers have grown up with.
Many analysts and pundits are acknowledging that the first X rays of the new
generation were distorted. “The baby boomers of the media and marketing world
were desperate to explain a generation they didn’t understand, so they reduced
Xers to a cartoon,” claims Adam Morgan, managing partner at TBWA Chiat/Day.
“It may be the most expensive marketing mistake i n the history” (Homblower 58).
A generation is forged through a common experience. It is tme that much of
what defines Xers is negative input, but Xers have not used this to become negative
themselves. The generation described as “matures,” bom from 1909-1945 was
shaped by the Depression and World War II. “Boomers,” bom from 1946 to 1964,
grew up in affluence: economic progress was assumed, freeing them to focus on
ideahsm and personal growth. Young Xers, however, lurched through the recession
of the early ‘80s, only to see the mid-decade ghtz dissipate in the 1987 stock market
crash and the recession of 1990-91. Gen X could never presume success. In their
book Rocking the Ages, Yankelovich, Smith and Clurman blame Xers’ woes on
their parents:
Forget what the idealistic boomers intended, Xers say, and look instead
at what they actually did: divorce. Latchkey kids. Homelessness. Soaring