I’ve been thinking about age this week because it seems I’m too old to be considered relevant in today’s society.
Two weeks ago, A&E, owned by Walt Disney Co. and Hearst, canceled Longmire. It was a crime drama based upon the Walt Longmire mystery series written by best-selling author Craig Johnson. It just finished its third season and was the second most popular show on cable television.
Why was it cancelled? The fans are too old. The advertisers are only interested in marketing to the 18-49 demographic.
Apparently they forgot that those of us now over 60 were the ones who purchased the first cell phones, computers, game systems, music players, cars and paid for college tuition, weddings, and thousands of holiday gifts for those 18-49 year olds and their families.
They must have also not read some of the points Nancy Shonka Padberg covered in an August 2012 article for MediaPost about marketing to Baby Boomers.
- Baby Boomers number close to 80 million
- They control 70% of the disposable income in the United States
- Those over 50 spend $7 billion on-line annually
- Women ages 45+ make 80% of the household decisions
I find this topic especially interesting since I spent my professional career in Human Resources fighting all types of discrimination. Now I find myself on the other side of the table because so much of society is obsessed with those under 49.
Will they be successful shopping Longmire to another network? I don’t know. But in the meantime, I want to make sure my dissatisfaction is duly noted. After all no one would expect any less of someone of my advanced age. 🙂
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I know you have addressed this topic before and so have other astute bloggers. I’m not sure how companies overlook this obvious opportunity, but it’s to their disadvantage.
I am not familiar with the Longmire series. Best wishes getting it renewed. I’ve had favorite shows canceled and despite hearty protests from fans, no decisions were ever reversed. Hope it is different for this effort!
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I don’t know if ‘we the people’ will be able to do anything about Longmire, but I kept reading the articles and just couldn’t help myself and had to say something. If you have Netflix, you can watch Longmire there. Good show. 🙂
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Amen.. loved Longmire. Twittered my finger sore last Tues. Have left comments on WSJ,USA, and some TV reviewers blogs. I may be older than their target audience( Who do you imagine that is for”love prison” !) But I’m starting to feel like a teenage girl again with her first hopeless crush. Sent a&e message I was done, not that I see anything to watch. Wasn’t bad enough I started to get the honey and sweetie from clerks now I’ve got the entertainment industry blowing
me off.
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Thank you for the chuckle. I’m guessing I know what we’ll both be doing Tuesday night. 🙂
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Well said, you old fart, ha ha ha ha ha ha
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LOL
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As a fellow Boomer, I totally agree with you. Also, how many of us have boomerang children living with us because they don’t even have enough income to live on their own, let alone disposable income? I think the media is very short-sighted in many, many ways. Many of us will live well into our 80s and 90s! What an opportunity they are missing by NOT targeting our demographic!
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Now I just wish I had a list of advertisers so we could all keep from spending any of our money with them. 🙂
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Live into our 80s and 90s. Good point.
I wonder if it may be 90’s and 100’s. Boomer PARENTS are living surprisingly long. If it were not for medical technology developed within their latter years, both of my parents would have died ten or twenty years ago.
We face the challenges of our aging generation and theirs at the same time. I doubt any earlier generation had such old parents on one side, and “boomerang kids” on the other.
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The Sandwich Generation.
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You are NOT too old my friend.
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That is a bummer, Seems so many good shows are cancelled for something that promises to be bigger and better.. I feel for you honey…
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Judy, I agree with you. That is awful. But hey, on the brighter side, you can find the Kardashians on just about anytime of day – or even better- any zombie movie or the new “Dating Naked”.
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So true. I grew up in an era where TV watching was part of daily life, and I can remember having basically four channels. Now we have so many you can’t count, but there is hardly anything on that is what I’d call interesting content. I’m not into reality shows and that is what has taken over. Good thing I like to read. 🙂
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LOL! I guess that’s a way to put the porn industry out of business. Keep putting so many sleazy shows on “regular” tv that no one needs to go to special sites to see it!
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I agree with you completely — we are now invisible. We don’t count. With that said I will definitely check this out on Netflix because as Bruce would say “57 channels and nothing on”.
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They need to attract advertising in order to stay on the air. Unfortunately rather than pure numbers, I’m pretty sure it has more to do with the fact the us older folks are not easy for advertisers to influence.
We have too much life experience. We know what we like, know what we want, and we are much more set in our ways than the typical 18-35 year-old.
If that advertiser has a you as a customer already, they’re probably not going to lose you. And if they don’t have you as a Customer, they probably won’t get you to switch, so why bother spending the money?
But yes I agree, it’s still frustrating.
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I was having so much fun ranting and you had to bring up so many common sense issues. LOL You are, of course, absolutely right but it still irritates me. I was able be adult about it and use a nice word like irritate instead of what I really wanted to say. 🙂
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So true…the really good shows seem to be fewer and fewer.
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Well said! I’m just the wrong side of 50 and don’t like the thought of being side-lined for the rest of my life!
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Appropriate word – side-lined. 🙂
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Well said!!!
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It seems normal for youth to be the main target of The Market, but you make the point that there is a new normal: an aging population. For The Market to miss this just shows how nonsensical it can be, another reason our cultural, political, and legal issues should not be left to The Market to decide. AARP has not missed the point in their marketing (not that I have any use for them). But don’t worry, The Market will catch up. As we grow into “The New Elderly,” it will target us with vicious zeal. Maybe we’ll be smart enough to take back control, since elders vote more than youth.
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