Yeah yeah, another old git going on about Generation Zzzzzz

Fucking kids, on my lawn, telling me how to do my job. And a picture Ben Hampson said you didn't want to see.

Generation Z’s having a moment in marketing at the minute. There’s a collective of “Generation Z copywriters” explaining that you don’t need 15 years’ experience, or to spend a year making the brews to write compelling copy.

All power to them.

I wish someone would’ve told me that when I was a 21 year old junior writing the tea order on a post-it. Would’ve stopped me spending seven years taking shit because I “didn’t have the experience” to go it alone.

Might have given me the confidence to ask Chrissy to stop tying my fucking shoelaces to things.

I’m all in favour of all confidence. But that’s not what I was going to write about.

I was going to write about the other side. The articles and chats explaining how to market to Generation Z.

Because Gen Z as writers I fucking love.

Gen Z as a super-special audience segment, notsomuch.

Look at these hip young kids that definitely weren’t just the first stock photo result I found for Gen Z. I bet they don’t say “oof” every time they sit down. Bastards.

I was going to harrumph. Explain that you sell to 22 year olds the same way you sell to everyone else.

Find a tone of voice that connects with them, find the emotional triggers that push their buttons, and treat them the exact fucking way you treat 32 or 82 year old customers.

And don’t treat generations as a morass - instead, find personas that span generations and share concerns. Concerns your product or service can address.

My grand finale would be that what was true ten years ago, or twenty years ago, or whenever they made The Breakfast Club about that super-special generation, still holds true today. That there’s no point distracting yourself with unique attempts to grab the attention of the cool kids.

If this was Gen Z, Brian would be massively into Andrew Tate and Bender would be massively into a prison for similar reasons to Andrew Tate.

God, you’d have read it and thrown me a parade if you’ve passed your thirtieth birthday.

Then I remembered that Gen X hero The Copyranter wrote that exact same cocking post like ten years ago taking the piss out of the idea that you needed flash new tactics to appeal to MY generation, and decided not to waste your time.

Talk about making my point for me.

Something mint - this van wrapper Ben Hampson described as bizarre and advised me not to share

He’s not having a nice time at all, bless him

There’s new houses being built on some scrubland near me. So it’s ground zero for shit ads, with NIMBYs putting up badly laminated homemade signage screeching about new homes being worse than wasteland because reasons.

But there’s also this company. Japanese Knotweed Solutions. They’re doing some work or other. Probably knotweed related. And I love them. They have five or six vans like this on site, all with similar lines. All hammering home the message that invasive weeds really screw up more than your garden.

And the visual? Perfect.

It’s eye-catching, genuinely distressing to the point that your nostril ain’t going anywhere near anything green ever again, and it’s starring a Boomer because they’re the people with money to buy houses with gardens that might have a Triffid lying in wait.

So much for Gen Z and the green agenda being your marketing priority.

Finally, on a personal level, I had a different invasive weed removal company knock back some work with a similar tone I did for them about five years ago, and you can be damn sure nobody’s taking pictures of their van wrappers.

Vindication!