In Sunday's Boston Globe, Chris Reidy's article, Experienced Musician for Hire, addressed the growing phenomenon of famous-name music acts pitching products via songs or even TV ad appearances....


In Reidy's words, "The trend comes as advertisers avidly woo the 18-to-25 market, a coveted group to win over because people this age make brand choices that can influence their buying decisions for life."
This is old and familiar reasoning. It's why advertisers are willing to pay more ad dollars for shows that target the young, even if the overall Nielson ratings are unimpressive. It's why, when I went to college, I was greeted with a free "care package" of branded personal grooming products on my first day in the dorms.
But is this familiar wisdom still true -- if it was ever true? Personally, I can't think of a single consumer product (deodorant, soap, laundry detergent, shaving cream, after shave, etc.) that I used in my twenties and still buy today. And if anything, today's consumers seem more, not less, fickle. It seems like only yesterday that the "impregnable" Alta Vista was set on its ear by an upstart named Google.
So I throw it out to this group: Is capturing the brand loyalty of the 18-to-25 set as important as it once appeared to be? Or is this another example of just how clueless the big ad agencies continue to be?