Don't Box Me In

It seems to me that ever since demographers and marketers identified the “Baby Boomers” as a distinctive grouping to be forever lumped together, other age groups also have became targets of opportunity for sales pitches.

Nowadays if you are not between the ages of 18-34 you are undesirable. You are barely tolerated if you are in the 35-55 group. Heaven help you if you are over 55 because although you might have more disposable income that the younger set, advertisers just don't see it that way, with the exception of the geniuses at AARP.

Marketers think they are building brand loyalty from childhood upward. Does it work? Who knows.

Why am I belaboring this point? I am annoyed at the many attempts to stick a demographic label on me. I am 80. So call me 80. I don't like being called a “senior citizen,” although I always take the discounts available to that cohort.

Some other categories I abhor are: “Junior Senior,” “Vital Elder,” or “old old,” a relatively new designation I saw in the paper recently. I may be an “Active Adult,” as used in pitches for retirement compounds, but I find the appellation self-serving and offensive.

I am an 80-year-old man, glad of it, and if you want to reach me just use the number not a category.