So I recently read an article about how the big thing in child-rearing in the 1980s was self-esteem; the thought was that creating good self-esteem in kids seemed linked to higher achievement, so there was a huge emphasis in the 80s and 90s, continuing into today, to build self-esteem in kids (we are now finding this is correlation but not causation, per the article). And it occurs to me that a lot of the shit Millennials get is the result of good self-esteem. I know we all hate ourselves and this seems like bullshit, just, bear with me.
This occurred to me because I was thinking about how colas are advertised now versus how they were advertised in my childhood in the 80s – now there’s stuff like the emojis on Pepsi bottles and the names on Coke bottles, whereas when I was a kid the big thing was athletes and movie stars drinking cola. And they were marketed in that way in the 80s because the idea was “You could be as cool as this dude if you drank Coca Cola.”
This marketing doesn’t work on the younger generation, because we don’t give a fuck about being as cool as That Dude. Because we were raised with this weird emphasis on self-esteem. Boomer style marketing doesn’t work on Millennials (or on a significant portion of GenX) because Millennials can’t be courted by the idea that consuming something will change their self image or their image in other peoples’ eyes. I mean yeah we’re all broke, but we understand that buying something won’t make us feel less broke. The idea of “Treat Yo Self” works because it’s based on the idea of buying something that will give you pleasure rather than status. We don’t need status. We make our own, or we find it irrelevant. Because: self-esteem. (Older generations tend to mistake this for self-absorption, because they don’t have it and thus believe it cannot be a virtue.)
BUT SAM, THEN WHY DO I HAVE SUCH ANXIETY? you ask. WHY AM I SO OBSESSED WITH MY FAILINGS?
Well, because you are conscious of them in a way that previous generations aren’t. You’re aware of your self-esteem issues because self-esteem as a concept is so familiar to you. Someone raised without that emphasis on self-esteem in schools and childhood media buys a status-maker because they’re not aware that’s what they’re doing. It’s an unconscious connection. They don’t understand why they feel inadequate, so they can only turn to the media to guide them towards a feeling of adequacy. Millennials know why they feel inadequate, and they know buying something won’t solve that.
Buying something may bring pleasure, but we know it won’t bring a permanent solution to our feelings of inner turmoil, and so our spending habits are radically different and our interaction with advertising is conditional in a way our parents’ isn’t. We want it proven that what’s being sold to us will either solve a real problem or bring a real pleasure, and if you can’t do either of those things, go fuck yourself. Because we have self-esteem.
Of course also we’re broke. But that didn’t stop previous generations, who just invented the credit card and kept going.
This is all just a theory, but it feels sound. That said, I’m open to information that supports or contradicts. I honestly don’t interact much with television advertising, so perhaps my view is skewed.
