Where is a 25-year-old woman a 54-year-old man?

Hint... this is not about sex change operations.

A young woman is the same as an old man only in the mind of advertisers.

I was just reading this news item from The New York Times online: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/business/media/60-minutes-gets-younger-and-its-viewers-do-too.html and was struck by how antiquated we still are in the U.S.

Everywhere outside of the U.S. we target by way narrower demographics and have done for 20 years now.

In dozens of countries, ranging from Mexico and Brazil to England, Spain, China, Japan and many others we would target slices such as "18-24 year old women in the D SEL (Socio Economic Level)" or "35-50 year old men in the ABC+ SEL"

Three factors contributed to the change:

1. The creation of a people meter base. We have that.
2. The acceptance by advertisers and agencies that this was a better way to target consumers. Evidently, we don't have that.
3. The acceptance by many TV networks to guarantee audiences in narrower demos. This can go either way here.

We now have dozens of media channels that we didn't even dream about 20 years ago and can probably target "young women, 18-21, who like mountain biking".

Isn't it about time we move away from equating young women with old men?

Has JCP found its groove?

I admire the latest campaign by JCP (JC Penney for the rest of us), I really do:

• It is courageous: a million other stores like Sear's, Kmart, Kohls and others, still believe in the two basic pillars of American catalog retailing: schlock and discounts. The new JCP does away with both in a single, clean swoop
• It works! My wife and I haven't been to a JCP store in maybe 2 years. The last time, really, about 2 years ago, I bought a pair of Nike shoes because it was the only place where I could find 8E. But... that's it. Yet, I buy a huge amount of T-shirts and running shorts at Target, which is essentially the same price point. It just never occured to either of us to set foot in a JCP Store. Today, after looking at the catalog, my wife all of a sudden said she would definitely go next time we are in Dadeland. So the campaign took her from a decidedly negative attitude to a decidedly positive attitude in a bit less than 2 months.
• And it engages: the main attractions of the catalog --and my wife read the entire thing cover to cover-- are the stories of real people.
• Personally, I like the switch to clean bold graphics, clean bold photographs and the decidedly different square logo.
• It can work in any media: I've already seen the TV spots, of course, and while I find them a bit too close to the Target ones for comfort, at least they are engaging and make me look. My wife even commented "Wow... did they just redo Penney?" and now notices most of them.

All in all, a welcome change from the usual schlock we see in retail and I'm very glad quality is working. A blow against naysayers everywhere.

Is this the best-ever campaign for a college?

MDC - Miami Dade College grew out of its original --and humble-- beginnings as "Miami Dade Community College" into an educational powerhouse.

I've been following this campaign since it started and, in my mind, this is the best college ad campaign I've ever seen, period.

1. It appeals directly to the community: all of these people are part of the fabric of Miami Dade
2. Absolutely recognizable: the same format appears over and over and over: a 3/4 shot of the person, same background, same pose, same style: name and company
3. Appealing to our intelligence: no one did the obvious dumb thing, which would have been telling us what each person did. We know some (e.g., Willy Chirino) and we don't know many. But, in every case, we realize that the person (1) graduated from MDC (or MDCC) and (2) must be someone
4. Can be adapted to everything (except radio): small format ads, web, mobile... you name it, the campaign works in that medium

I know it is customary for bloggers --especially those of us who are in the ad business-- to criticize (oops, I mean "critique" of course) ad campaigns and, boy, I've done that with some. But this campaign for Miami Dade College (www.mdc.edu) is absolutely outstanding. Kudos.

And I happen to think that Willy Chirino is an outstanding person and musician