On an internet wander the other day, I happened upon a blog called "Time Goes By". Among the comments following 28 October's post, "The Essence of Elders", was one which brought up a point I'd never even considered before.
The blog post itself had addressed the issue of advertising aimed at elders (those generally labelled "seniors") in a way which is quite often not appealing to them. Ronni Bennet, the blogger, points our that
The really bad Sun sign columns, such as appear in our local newspaper, syndicated stuff which the paper probably buys for a few dollars a week, are dreadful and ought to be outlawed. It could be such columns to which "Pete" referred, or perhaps he had been borrowing some women's magazines, or reading 'em in the dentist's waiting room. These do tend to carry content slanted for younger women, who make up their readership.
I've given the subject some more thought, and even chatted to my husband about it, wondering whether I could possibly stretch myself and write an Elder Horoscope as part of this blog. Unfortunately our conversation descended into some rather dark humour and giggling when considering the type of content I might include. I shall say no more! You know, I reckon we don't take our elder status seriously enough for me to to be of any real use in this context. Most of the time we're not even aware that we are indeed elders; if others find that a problem - then it's their problem.
We did go on to wonder at the amazing talent of daily and weekly Sun sign writers though - how they can come up with so much material day in, day out, week in, week out. It's a special and rare talent. I could probably write one day's worth of content, then I'd be done!
However, should a stray astrologer pass by here, read this post, and fancy the idea of writing an Elder Horoscope column, please leave your URL and I'll pass it on to "Pete" and others.
I'm going to think longer on this topic myself, perhaps I'm missing something!
The blog post itself had addressed the issue of advertising aimed at elders (those generally labelled "seniors") in a way which is quite often not appealing to them. Ronni Bennet, the blogger, points our that
"....... advertising aimed at elders almost always feels irrelevant to me – they are trying to appeal to old people with the memes of youth. This also applies to just about every aspect of the culture in relation to elders: television, movies, clothing, technology, vacations, etc., soaked with sexual innuendo and status seeking."Commenter "Pete" had this to say:
"I always get such a laugh out of horoscopes. All they talk about is love life. Someone who wrote horoscopes for elders could do very well!"Hmmm. You know, after I'd thought on this for a while I decided that the best Sun sign column writers do actually write in a non-age-specific style. Jonathan Cainer at Cainer.com and Rob Brezsny at Free Will Astrology are my own two favourites. I don't ever recall feeling alienated by their writings, as one of their readers who passed her first flush of youth when they, probably, were still in diapers.
The really bad Sun sign columns, such as appear in our local newspaper, syndicated stuff which the paper probably buys for a few dollars a week, are dreadful and ought to be outlawed. It could be such columns to which "Pete" referred, or perhaps he had been borrowing some women's magazines, or reading 'em in the dentist's waiting room. These do tend to carry content slanted for younger women, who make up their readership.
I've given the subject some more thought, and even chatted to my husband about it, wondering whether I could possibly stretch myself and write an Elder Horoscope as part of this blog. Unfortunately our conversation descended into some rather dark humour and giggling when considering the type of content I might include. I shall say no more! You know, I reckon we don't take our elder status seriously enough for me to to be of any real use in this context. Most of the time we're not even aware that we are indeed elders; if others find that a problem - then it's their problem.
We did go on to wonder at the amazing talent of daily and weekly Sun sign writers though - how they can come up with so much material day in, day out, week in, week out. It's a special and rare talent. I could probably write one day's worth of content, then I'd be done!
However, should a stray astrologer pass by here, read this post, and fancy the idea of writing an Elder Horoscope column, please leave your URL and I'll pass it on to "Pete" and others.
I'm going to think longer on this topic myself, perhaps I'm missing something!
i know one woman who wrote monthly columns for the mountain astrologer, and she told me that it is very difficult to come up with something different all of the time. she gave up this gig when she found that she was repeating herself a lot
ReplyDeleteShawn Carson ~~~ Hi Shawn!
ReplyDeleteI can imagine her difficulty. If one tried to write for a specific segment of readers that would just add to the problems too, because material would be more limited.
I've been thinking too, that until recently the older generation wasn't much interested in astrology, I think I'm the exception. But with the "Baby Boom" generation coming up to seniorhood things might change a bit. It'll be interesting to watch points. :-)