Empax

I worked in advertising for a few years so every now and again I peruse an industry pub to see what shop got what client some incredible ROI on some incredibly expensive campaign (I am not a geek I just play one on this blog). The other day a story caught my eye in AdWeek titled, “Depression Chic“. It was about how consumers are showing an interest in the Great Depression and how this trend is being leveraged as a successful marketing theme. Huh, so Black Tuesday is the new pink. Admittedly, I have gotten an Evite or two featuring a picture of a very sad looking breadline and even felt some goose bumps the first time I watched the latest , but when Andrew Shaffer was quoted in the article as saying, “Every other decade of the 20th century has been plundered. The Great Depression is actually something fresh”, I was, well, for lack of a better term, depressed. No longer able to stomach reading about fashion designers titling this seasons line, “American Gothic” or finding their inspiration from “a weather-beaten farmer’s hat” I sought solace from our friends at trendwatching.com. They told me all about “Generation G”. That is G for generosity. People are giving back. People want to pay it forward. Now this is a trend I can follow. Corporations are letting consumers decide where they should put their big donation dollars, some are even offering incentives to get involved in their community (think Starbucks). Open source code is hip, people are giving their stuff away and Marketwatch recently advised its readers to volunteer (ok, so it was for the sake of staying professionally relevant while taking time off from work but still). I’m still pretty drunk on Obama’s cool aid, maybe even feeling a wee bit brazen. So, dare I say that I will see their trend and raise them a movement. That’s right, I think we got a movement on our hands. What do you think?