Echo Boomers

Boomer Rising We’ve been hearing a lot about boomers lately. At a Media Institute lunch in DC last week, Cox pres Pat Esser talked up his plan to target "Echo Boomers," those tech-savvy, multi-taskers, aged15-25. This week in NY, TV Land’s presentation for media buyers and advertisers highlighted Echo Boomers’ elders-the 40-60 crowd shunned on Madison Ave and on TV sets across America. It wasn’t the TVL’s breakfast that made us pay attention to the overlooked Baby Boomer segment. It was demographer Ken Dychtwald’s 5-pt plea to ad execs to stop chasing youths and place more value (and dollars) on a swath of the population that collectively wields $2.1 trillion in spending power. Whether you call them zoomers, empty nesters or Dychtwald’s term, "middlescents"-their ranks are expanding. They’re affluent, available and grossly underserved by media. Why? "I can appreciate how a decade or two ago it would have made enormous sense to focus on young people and disregard people in their 40’s and 50’s," he told us later. "At that moment, the enormous swell in the population was the youthful demographic and there was still a dynamic where people reached their 40th or 50th birthdays and they were pretty set in their ways. But that’s not the case anymore." That’s why TV Land wants to start super-serving Baby Boomers (now 70% of its audience) and hired Dychtwald’s firm to poll 2,000 or so of them on entertainment/media, including DVRs, broadband and HD. The results should be ready by September. Dychtwald’s message stood out during an upfront season where, yet again, a slew of networks (Lifetime, Spike TV, BBC A…) are skewing younger and chasing a demographic break, 18-49, which dates to an era when you pitched to "the lady of the house." Sure, kids under 25 are changing the way media is consumed. But they also prefer iPods to TV sets. Meanwhile, the 40+ crowd is starved for great TV and marketing that reflects their lives, Dychtwald says. And they’re open to brands and networks that try to understand them. As he quipped, 20% of boomers have changed their religion, "you think they’re not going to change toothpaste?" SB Highlights "Liza with a Z," tomorrow night, 8, Showtime. This restored ’72 concert is a piece of history, with Minnelli in her prime and great Bob Fosse choreography. — "Huff," season 2 premiere, Sun, 10pm, Showtime. Again, protagonist Huff (Hank Azaria) is of no interest, but some of the support is excellent, including sexaholic Oliver Platt, sexy Sharon Stone and Blythe Danner as Huff’s outrageous mother. — "Transplant," Tues, 10pm, Discovery Health. Terrific doc about transplants. SA Worth a Look "Assume the Position With Mr Wuhl," tomorrow night, 10, HBO. A 30-min hoot if you loved Wuhl as "Arli$$;" here he revises history for NYU students, plus show & tell. — "Henry Rollins," tomorrow night, 10, IFC. For Dems only—Rollins and Oliver Stone blast Pres Bush with gusto. – "Penn & Teller’s Bullshit!" season 4 premiere, Mon, 10pm, Showtime. We particularly liked ep 2 on prostitution, where Penn tells us that legalizing the world’s oldest profession would mean the end of pimps and the likely destruction of the oversized-hat market. SA