Style and Focus Lifestyle PR
We live in a youth obsessed culture where everything and everyone has to be young and fresh. Look at some of the new and returning fall shows, that are aimed at teens and early twenty-somethings including the revamped 90's shows like 90210 and Melrose Place. The main cast of both shows are at least 10 years younger than the actors were when the original 90's series aired.
Flip through any glossy fashion and beauty magazine and you will notice there are numerous ads for anti-aging products and not just for your face but for your hair, nails and body. There's big business in anti-aging products and treatments all to make you look younger. Even teenagers are starting to purchase these products. Which is the last thing they should be worrying about is their skin starting to age. I wrote another post on this "Are Anti-Aging Products being over Marketed?"
Take a look at Hollywood, the current hottest celebrities are Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. Yes, they are talented but I feel as though they are be over marketed and are being promoted to the wrong target audience (more so with Miley Cyrus than with the Jonas Brothers). Hollywood has always had an obsession with youth but it seems that must be the current pre-requisite now because you don't really need to have any talent just youth. This is included with the number of complaints that I hear from teens about the lack of quality shows for them to watch. Some feel that there's nothing to watch if you're too old for Hannah Montana and not into the Gossip Girl type shows. So, what's left for them to watch?
As a marketer and publicist, I think overly promoting youth is not a good thing because constantly pushing youth places a negative connotation towards aging and suggest that you're only of some worth or value if you're in your teens and early twenties. It gives off a fear of once you step out of that age bracket you're useless and your life will no longer be any fun. Which is certainly not true. Now there are a group of people out there trying to chase youth and that's kind of like running on a treadmill trying to reach the finish line.
By only concentrating on youth, you decrease the value and experiences that we gain as we age. I think more attention should be focused on one's talent and experiences and instead of on looks and aging. Yes, it's pipe dream but maybe it'll happen one day.
1 comment:
I completely agree that overly promoting youth is not a good thing.
Although it is good for the youth of North America to have a young role model they can look up to, what happens when that role model starts behaving as any other North American teenager? The teen idol is no longer a positive role model for young fans and is given a bad reputation. It seems that as long as the youth of Hollywood are behaving like the 'perfect poster child,' they are considered positive role models, but the minute they attend the wrong party or consume the wrong beverage, they are dubbed unacceptable role models.
Teenagers will forever explore their boundaries to help themselves realize who they are as a person. That is why it is important that we do not focus on them as much as we have in the past. Lets face it, the drinking and partying is not abnormal, all teenagers do it whether we choose to accept it or not. So why is it such a crime when teenagers who are in the Hollywood spot light such as Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers get negative headlines in entertainment news or gossip magazines because they have committed these acts?
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