Media Beat: August 11, 2022

By David Farrell

Bob Hoffman at his best

Degeneration Z

Believe it or not there's still someone who subscribes to the print edition of Ad Age. Don't ask me why. It's probably because I'm too lazy to unsubscribe. Anyway, it paid off this week.

Right there on the front page was an article of enormous interest: "20 Brands Getting Gen Z Attention Right Now." The article referenced some kind of research that analyzed how much attention brands got from Gen Z's in Q2 of 2022 compared to Q1. I don't know what the significance of this nonsense is, but since it's on the front page of Ad Age I'm sure it's terribly important.

Gen Z are people between the ages of 10 and 25. They have become the obsession of the advertising industry ever since the industry ran out of idiotic PowerPoints about millennials. 

As you know, the marketing industry loves to pretend that it is data driven. It is anything but. It is obsession driven. It only uses data to support its obsessions. Would a data driven industry waste front page real estate on a group of people who represent about 2% of spending power in the US and ignore the other 98%? The correct answer is no.

I scoured the magazine for information on which brands were "getting attention" from the other 98%, but sadly, nada.

By the way, if you're interested in what brands got "increased attention" from these precious Gen Z's, here are a few of the top 20:
   - Truly Hard Seltzer
   - JetBlue,
   - Allstate Insurance
   - Tupperware
   - Casamigos Tequila
   - Caesar's Casino and Sportsbook
   - Pedialyte.
Apparently these 10-year-olds are some hard-drinking, jet-settin', insurance packin', leftover-freezin', ramblin' gamblin', dehydrated muthafuckas.

Meanwhile, back in the real world...

I hate to waste marketers' time but, just for laughs, let's have a look at the other 98%. Here's a quick peek at some facts about reality, mostly from Derek Thompson at The Atlantic...

"In practically every field of human endeavor, the average age of achievement and power is rising."

     - Joe Biden is the oldest president in history. But he's younger than Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The average age of a U.S. senator rose from 59.8 in 2001 to 64.3 in 2021. The U.S. Senate is the oldest in history.
     - Between 1995 and 2010 the number of tenured university professors over 60 about doubled.
     - Since 2005, the average age of a new CEO at a Fortune 500 or S&P 500 company increased from 46 to 55.
     - Since 2001, the average age of a leading actor in a feature film went from 38 to 50.
     - Excellence in athletics has traditionally been the realm of the young. But...
      ...Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers, both over 36, have won 3 of the last 5 NFL MVP awards.
       ...LeBron James, 37, is the oldest NBA player to average over 30 points per game in a season.
       ...Justin Verlander is baseball's winningest pitcher. He's 39.
       ...Tennis superstars Novak Djokovic, 35, and Rafael Nadal, 36, have won 15 of the last 17 Grand Slam men’s tournaments.
     - In the first half of the 20th century the average age of a Nobel Laureate was 56. In 2016 all the winners in physics, medicine and chemistry were over 65 and most were over 72.
     - Music consumption by album sales, streaming, and track downloads are rising in all areas except one -- new music. "The entire growth in music is happening in so-called catalog music, or older songs." And music publishers are paying hundreds of millions for the catalogs of Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and other musical antiques.

The more that mature people dominate our culture, the more the preposterous marketing industry ignores them. But please don't bother them with any of this. They're too busy hawking Tupperware to teenagers.                                                 
– h/t George Tannenbaum and John Anderson

Did John Derringer get a big payout from Corus?

On Tuesday, Corus Entertainment announced on Twitter that Q-107 and Derringer had parted ways, stating in part:

“The independent investigation initiated by Corus remains ongoing. Corus remains committed to having a full, fair investigation that enables all relevant concerns under Corus’ Code of Conduct to be raised and treats all participants equally regardless of their current employment status with Corus.”

q_statement.jpg

Former Derringer co-host Jacqui Delaney immediately tweeted in response,

“How big was his payout? How many millions did he get for the years of abuse he inflicted on others? Absolutely disgusting.”

Questions about a payout were deemed “speculative and uninformed” by Corus Entertainment.

Since May, the Derringer in the Morning show has been silenced because accusations of workplace harassment and abuse prompted Corus to put his radio show on hiatus with the proviso that the host would remain off the air until an external investigation, launched by Corus, had been completed.

Well, it’s not…completed but Derringer has left the building without murmuring a single word in public.

When Jennifer Valentyne, who worked on the show, posted a video to Twitter in May that listed the sort of abuse she and other women allegedly took over many years from an unnamed personality, social media lit up with people happy to identify Derringer.

Staffers who were on the receiving end of his anger and harassment have attested to being moved around, paid off or laid off over the years. 

So perhaps Derringer walks with a bundle of cash to thank him for his time at Q-107.

The Toronto Star has been riding this story hard and on Tuesday the team of four reporters contacted Derringer by email with the former top jock stating that he is “cooperating fully with the independent investigation initiated by Corus” and that he wouldn’t be making any public comment until the investigation is completed.

Is this a case of Classic Rot? – h/t Liz Braun, Toronto Sun