Ads, by their very nature, are almost inescapable. We can make a conscious decision to “tune them out,” but ultimately we’re sucked back into the ad vortex by some visual or messaging. And it’s here we find Boomers staring at ads increasingly targeting Millennials that they are unable to see themselves in. Perhaps that’s the point. 
 
Millennials are at a life stage when they are earning more and spending more as they start families, gradually buying more houses and generally aspiring to the “American dream” lifestyle. They may have a better understanding that these aspirations may not match the positive economic realities that Boomers enjoyed when they were Millennial-aged back in the 1970s and 1980s. 
 
Boomers’ economic realities today differ widely from those of Millennials. Boomers have more set pensions, larger retirement pools and established houses. They’ve been where Millennials are now in life and are blazing new trails in what it means to age. 
 
We don’t believe it is necessarily a question of where marketers should be placing their ads and even which media channels (streaming online, traditional network or cable television) should be deployed in marketing to Boomers, but more a question of tone — finding creative ways for products to appeal to a wider spectrum of ages may be necessary.