EDITORIALFEATURE
3 Myths About the
Young Adult Demographic:
DEBUNKED
By Aimee Woodall
W
e’re an agency of young adults, so
thinking about how to appeal to
Generations X, Y, and Z comes
pretty naturally. We don’t have to
wonder why this target demographic isn’t
buying stuff or attending things or going to
websites. We just sort of…know.
But the rest of the world seems to
struggle with how to reach us. They’re
wrapped up in stereotypes of what young
people are and they’re failing as marketers
because of it. If you’ve watched the news
in the past six months, you’ve probably
heard about our nation’s attempt to get
people enrolled in health insurance and
the importance of garnering the “young
invincible” market (hint: don’t talk about us
like we can’t hear you). You may have also
heard about the terrible advertising campaigns launched by different states in this
effort. But even if politics aren’t your thing,
you’ve almost certainly seen big-brand
commercials (cough, cough Quizno’s…
cough, Honda) that reduce every person under 40 to a caricature of American
youth. It’s downright embarrassing.
And it’s making us angry.
So, at the risk of sounding like “Thought
Catalog” drivel, we’re going to set the record straight about young adults. Here
are three things the world seems to think
about young adults, why they’re totally
wrong, and how this new perspective can
help anyone market to us:
1. MYTH: We can’t communicate, and
when we do, we speak in abbreviations. A
few years ago, a bunch of blue-hairs decided that kids were losing the ability to
communicate because they were spend-
But the rest of the world
seems to struggle with
how to reach us. They’re
wrapped up in stereotypes
of what young people
are and they’re failing as
marketers because of it.
ing a lot of time on the Inte