Manipulating Millennials [INSIGHT]

  By Gonzalo Lopez Marti / Atkins López Martí

Boomers were changing the world while dancing in the mud in Woodstock, expanding the doors of perception in SanFran and contracting an awful lot of STDs.

Look at what became of them.

A cohort of suburban overweight post yuppies swimming in a haze of Prozac and debt.

It doesn’t get any more bourgeois than this picture.

Not to mention their Euro counterparts who took to vandalize the streets of Paris and the halls of the Sorbonne in 68.

As an adman & marketer who has played cat & mouse & mouse & cat with Millennials (aka Generation Y, EcoBoomers, Trophy Kids) for quite some time, my humble opinion is as follows:

Millennials are accomplished manipulators.

Chameleons.

Extremely savvy to create multiple personae and project their image accordingly.

This is the generation that grew up manipulating and playing their immature, scattered, guilt ridden divorced parents like Eddie Van Halen his guitar.

They are highly adaptable but certainly not immune to loneliness and anxiety.

Big pharma will make trillions with this generation.

They have a cozy and somewhat disturbing relationship with drugs, legal &/or otherwise.

They saw many a celebrity apologize for their drug use on TV and get away with it with a slap in the wrist.

#Livestrong

For them, drugs are a legitimate shortcut.

They use the words “health” and “appearance” interchangeably.

Being healthy is being attractive.

And viceversa.

They embrace organic food, rooftop farming, yoga, vegetarianism, veganism, Buddhism, meditation, pole dancing, pornography, cross fit training, liposuction, botox, breast augmentation butt and calf silicone implants with the same fervor and a straight face.

Males grow a handlebar mustache while laser-removing their chest hair.

Females want to be moms, cougars and CEOs.

It might not be too romantic to say it, but it is a fact: they are selfish, narcissistic, hedonistic and extremely jaded.

They are wildly materialistic, they love new and improved shiny objects.

They are reckless with a credit card in their wallets.

This will be the most consumerist generation in history, albeit with less cash in their pockets.

Which doesn’t mean they are easy prey for marketers: they’ve been exposed to the full repertoire of Madison Avenue’s tricks since the cradle.

They are not as environmentally or socially responsible as they want us to believe.

It just so happens that this is good for their personal brands.

Their weak spot: they don’t just expect attention, validation and approval, they flat out demand it, they live for it.

For these folk fame inspires way more respect than rank &/or authority.

It is the ultimate social stature.

They worship it.

They are groupies to a fault.

Fame opens doors.

Fame is power.

Fame is pleasure.

Not that they are sociopaths, mind you.

To their credit, they are indeed way more tolerant, more open minded, more inclusive and less violent than previous generations.

They are way less racist and misogynistic.

They are less prone to testosterone outbursts.

They don’t go about their lives wasting their time with pissing contests.

They tend not to be coercive or confrontational.

With them you either take it or leave it.

In their minds there’s little to win from the use of force.

It is true that few things are sacred for them.

They are ambivalent about traditions and social mandates.

They have a very low sense of duty, authority and obedience.

They have an extremely low attention span.

They are pragmatists, they live for the moment and they will avoid distractions or bottlenecks that could go in detriment of life’s full enjoyment.

A little on the decadent side if you look at them from a moralistic, judgemental perspective.

Women, minorities and LGBT will gain a lot of ground throughout this generation.

From straight white males.