Boomers had it pretty simple back in their youth. Want to connect with your friends? Write them a letter, give them a call or go and see them. Gen X-ers had a little more fun. They could’ve emailed each other over 28.8 or used their pagers to send 1-sentence messages back and forth. Here’s what [...]

Thinking back to my experience working on the sales floor of a consumer electronics retailer, I had the opportunity to see firsthand the effects of marketing and advertising. As a Marketing student, this was extremely exciting. Being exposed to consumer behaviour this close made me feel a bit like Jane Goodall, but with much much [...]

The celebrity gossip my parents grew up with talked about the love lives of their teen idols. The celebrity gossip Gen Y is hearing about involves sex tapes, paparazzi pictures and drug binges. What effect is this going to have? Antonella Barba from American Idol, Disney’s Vanessa Hudgens and “Hannah Montana” Miley Cyrus. Celebrities designed [...]

In your reading about Generation Y, you have undoubtedly seen piles and piles of publications and articles that proclaim this generation as marketing-savvy. I have also seen these articles; in fact, reading about my generation inspired me to launch this website. Unfortunately, you and I have been gravely misled. Some researcher, somewhere, decreed that since [...]

by feastoffools It’s no secret that Generation Y doesn’t blink when it comes to downloading music. The story of the day is not that teenagers and twentysomethings are loading their iPods with unpurchased music. I consider myself a veteran digital native; I remember the internet as it was through a 14.4 modem. But I was [...]

Saturday night, you’ve had some drinks with friends and you didn’t find that special someone. What do you do? EAT. You want to devour everything in the universe, as long as it’s greasy and tasty. I am always surprised by how much untapped potential there is in the after-bar food market. It seems like people [...]

We’ve all seen those ‘truth’ ads where a bunch of Generation Y-ers run around and do all sorts of hijinx to get across the message of SMOKING IS BAD! KIDS, DON’T SMOKE! They’ve done a great job in breaking away from the typical insincere PSA (I’m looking at you, The More You Know). The ‘truth’ [...]

A funny thing happens on the way to success. Why is it that when a band becomes “mainstream”, their original fans start to hate them? Let’s listen to their conversations. “They used to be great until I heard them on the radio.” “They were awesome, but they’re getting too big now.” “I used to like [...]

Spend more of your disposable income, you selfish first-world asshole.
We see personal benefit appeals, sentimental appeals and fear-based appeals all the time. But what about guilt-based appeals?
This is what guilt-based appeals look like from the consumer’s end.

A man standing on a street corner hands out flyers for a party that you probably won’t go to. You take it anyway. Why? Didn’t your parents tell you not to take candy from strangers?