For decades, advertisers have pitched their ads toward Baby Boomers, the great demographic bubble of affluent individuals born between 1946 and 1964. As Boomers became advertising and media executives themselves, this trend was reinforced. But this emphasis on Baby Boomers to the exclusion of all others marginalized a group whos purchasing dollar is becoming more powerful every year -- Generation X. Advertisers and marketers can no longer afford to ignore this group, nor to appeal to Xers with warmed-over Boomer campaigns. Sixty-five million adult "Xers" came of age in a world radically different from the one that Boomers inherited. The decline of the economy and upsurge of divorce have made Xers more sober and cynical, yet more flexible and less ideological, about the definition of "family." Although jaded by the materialistic '80's, they are on the whole much more comfortable with interactivity and other sophisticated technology than Boomers. Although disillusioned by the Boomer...
