Presidential Politics and PR

I stand by my evaluation of the presidential candidates from a PR perspective. But for another, more recent, take, check out Advertising Age. I found this passage especially interesting, which draws a distinction between my generation and the current generation of young consumers:

…Gen Xers required niche marketing: “If too many people liked something, it wasn’t cool.” But mass brand experiences, from the iPod to Harry Potter, appeal strongly to millennials, who have been shown to be a more communal, pro-social generation than their predecessors.

This psychology helps to explain why viral marketing and social networking sites are all the rage these days. But I do remember a time not too long when, if everyone liked one thing, it was cool to not like it. Like, when all the non-conformists all listened to the same non-conformist bands, ironically.