There’s an unmistakable youth bias in brand communications, and it’s not a new problem. It deals with the unabashed over-representation of younger-looking (and acting) people in the marketing messages that we see and hear each day. Curmudgeons have been complaining about this for decades. Once upon a time, it made good sense to be biased towards youth, but this blind obsession for using young, alluring twenty-somethings flies in the face of the plain facts of today’s marketplace.

Why have brand marketers overlooked the “older” age group as “not important.” The main reason? They WEREN’T important. Think about it. Back in the 1970s for example, “older” meant someone as young as 50. These were the people who lived through the depression, World War II and Korea. They had a completely different outlook on thrift, consumption, saving and quality of life. While their numbers were large, they just didn’t act in a way that made them attractive to marketers. In fact, they looked, and acted, OLD. As a result, they weren’t considered “vital” so marketers wrote them off. The sweet spot was youth, and plenty big enough to feed brand growth.

There’s a huge, untapped potential market for upmarket brands out there

There are 76 million baby boomers in the United States, representing 40% of total consumer demand, and 48% of discretionary income. These statistics may not look attractive on a creative brief, but they should clue us in as to where a big chunk of potential business can be found. Ken Dychtwald, a notable authority on the topic of baby boomers called it a “pig moving through a python.”

This potential market is much bigger than Generation X (a generation that’s well represented in the advertising world) and even bigger than the Millennials (or Generation Y, or the Echo Boom, insert your own moniker here).

If you’re responsible for marketing an upmarket brand, you can’t just target 18-34 year-olds with your advertising and expect to thrive. Every study we’ve seen recently (and this is EVERYWHERE, from Newsweek to Business Week to the nightly news) predicts that the boomer market is going to remain VITAL, in every sense of the word.

They’ll remain employed longer, to keep sharp, earn money, and give back. Due to the changing landscape of economics, labor markets, and what’s important to them, we’ll see them right next to Generation X and the Millennials in the workplace for quite some time.

Beyond economics, this is a group that doesn’t want to be left out of the action

Their bones may creak a bit more, but these are the people who just might have been at the cutting edge of many of the pursuits so popular today (from yoga and nutrition to many of the extreme sports) with a purity and passion that’s hard to ignore. They may be riding recumbent “comfort” bikes instead of a new carbon-fiber roadie, but they’re willing to drop $3,000 for a better experience.

How are the creators of advertising responding to this unmistakable trend? A recent article in Advertising & Marketing Review noted that, while people over 50 have half the discretionary income in the US, they are the target of only 10% of ad messages. The Boomer Project notes that 66% of boomers agree with the notion that “advertisers target people younger than I am.” It makes you think that those young upstarts in the creative department have absolutely no respect for their elders. This spells HUGE OPPORTUNITY for marketers of distinctive, aspirational brands who appreciate the potential a mature audience offers.

Boomers are a widely divergent group of people

If you were to describe an audience with words like experience, experimentation, reinvention, renewal, spiritual, fulfillment, and wellness, more than a few marketers would trip over each other to get at them. It sounds like a great target for almost any upmarket brand. But you need to do more than pander to this group to engage them. They have a heightened awareness of how they are being marketed to, so you need to understand them.

Consider that the youngest boomer is 40, while the oldest is just turning 60. Some of the most fit, hip or active people in the world are boomers (people like Goldie Hawn, Mick Jagger and Kenneth Cole). It’s not unusual to see a grey-haired couple dust a few young ones on their way up a mountain, down a stretch of single track, or under the ropes to make fresh tracks. However, for this group, “extreme” was cool 15 years ago. Now it’s just not that relevant. In fact, it’s counterproductive and demonstrates to boomers a complete lack of understanding.

Enlightened companies are figuring this out. Ski areas are hiring older instructors. Equipment manufacturers are making sports easier to enjoy. Clothing brands are making their designs and cuts more suitable for the boomer audience. The people creating advertising for these brands need to be more sensitive to boomer needs and sensibilities if they want to engage them.

It’s time for the people creating marketing communications to grow up

All too often, agency folks can be accused of being myopic. They stand in a circle facing inward, throwing tech-talk, jargon and other coded communications back and forth to one another, all in an effort to look and sound more credible, authentic and innovative than the person next to them. Meanwhile, standing outside the circle is a 47-year-old consumer, with his 52-year-old buddy and four of their kids, and THEY WANT IN!

They may not look like the core audience, especially to the people standing in the circle, but their money is green and their motivations are different than what ad people think they are. By ignoring them, marketers risk creating an ever-shrinking exclusive group of buyers, and recruiting absolutely no one new to their party.