Have we created an unnecessary gap in the generation gap through misconceptions?

These days when I am asked to speak about advertising and marketing, and how it’s not something that can be done by anyone, what seems to interest most is the successful launch of McDonald’s in Hong Kong.

They want to know how the Golden Arches succeeded where Burger King failed dismally, and what it was like working for over two decades with Daniel Ng, Chairman of McDonald’s Hong Kong.

To those who didn’t really know him, Daniel was “eccentric” and he played the role according to script and used this image of “eccentricity” to get his own way. 

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Daniel who was wily more than being eccentric and knew people’s strengths and weaknesses.

I was very fortunate to work so closely with him probably because I had his complete trust, and my strengths worked when it came to taking his sometimes off kilter ideas and turning them into something workable.

Sure, we made mistakes, but we learned from these and returned with better developed ideas and which appealed to McDonald’s main customer groups- adults, kids and tweens.

Of course, those were simpler times, with mobile phones almost a decade away, but this didn’t mean being any less creative.

We were probably more creative because we were working from a blank canvas and there was much that became clearer.

Onstage and Yu while making presentations is where we often learned to ad-lib and suddenly take strategies in a completely different direction because a Eureka moment had struck.

I don’t see much of this type of mental dexterity and a type of “jam session”, because there’s less and less teamwork today and where the technological tail is wagging the human dog.

Speaking to a group recently about “Gen Z”, my advice to them was that there were too many buzzwords and formulaic thinking at the buffet table which was an oversupply that didn’t meet demands.

At least to me, it showed that no one knows what the hell they want and which has resulted in half baked servings of almost everything to try and cover all bases.

The only person in the world today who can over deliver and everyone loves whatever she gives them is Taylor Swift.

Belonging to the baby boomer group, I am seeing- and this depends on who you spend time with- how much those in the Gen Z basket have and are also missing out on so much compared to my group.

Us baby boomers grew up with Beatlemania, the Sixties, the British beat boom, Bob Dylan, psychedelia, hippies, Woodstock, punk, grunge, sex, drugs and rock and roll plus a new breed of filmmakers, musicians and entrepreneurs and game changers like Steve Jobs.

Gen Z? Well, apart from the Covid and lockdown years, MAGA chaos and global turmoil fuelled by greed plus antisocial “social media” and a new app a day, there’s really nothing much else except more and more of irrelevance.

Those who know what I have achieved as a baby boomer, and why these days I am not impressed by those with “marketing” in their titles, understand it’s because I don’t think they are “marketing” anything without a good creative director.

So, who’s coming up with the creative product? Those who are going to market this? Does this even make sense? Where’s the objectivity?

As when trying to explain to someone recently and very unfamiliar with the advertising industry, this was where I learned teamwork.

It was how the heads of media, account servicing, production and creative worked separately and came together as a team to approve on objectives and strategy.

It was never a free for all. And this is what it’s become.

It’s not unlike the Trump administration where there’s no difference between the bully boys in the baby boomers camp and sycophantic Gen Zers very possibly only there to show organisations that they have young thinkers.

But do these hires have original thinking or are they only order takers bamboozled by old school power brokers?

Personally, I don’t give Gen Z much hope, because they’re running out of time.

There aren’t many opportunities out there, AI will take on existing roles plus this group never had the quality of mentors that some of us baby boomers had.

Their race is almost run before it’s even begun though there will always be a few diamonds in the rough who need some polishing.

Today’s business world requires a helluva lot of spring cleaning and rebooting, as, sorry to say, those at the top of the tree might have the names and titles, but too many are not the sharpest tools in the shed.

They’re a long way from being Don Draper.

Same with advertising agencies, social media companies, production houses etc etc and with clients usually taking their businesses in-house and where creative by committee goes to work- and comes up empty handed despite the usual round of meetings and Zoom calls.

The answer: it’s usually in the current disorganisation chart and with more oversupply and overpopulated by the superfluous.

Let’s just leave it at that.

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