How you see the world is irrelevant. How your target sees the world is critical

I did some research with British young folks a while back.

I went in wanting to find out how miserable they all were with older generations messing things up, leaving them with zero hours contracts, university fees, uncertainty and whatnot.

Of course they obliterated my misconceptions, by communicating how sorry they felt for people my age. How rubbish it all must have been with no internet, four TV channels, nothing on demand and Thatcher (they didn't mention Thatcher but in my head they did). 

Reminds of a pretty universal truth that every generation (since the 1950s anyway) thinks it's special and rejects whatever came before.

And people look at their heyday with rose tinted spectacles. 

You know, everything was brilliant in the 1970s when Star Wars came out and we played out on rally choppers. Despite the fact there was nothing on TV on Sunday, everything was beige and The Smiths hadn't formed yet.

Or everything was better before the internet in agencies when it was simple and clients loved creativity and had big budgets. Except 12 hour days were the norm, everyone had to wear suits and bullying was tolerated - or in some creative quarters encouraged. 

I was reminded by this campaign, I really like it ..

 

..because it embraces life as it looks for THEM, not old grumpy folks like me. 

Yep, one of the tricks when thinking about a 'target audience' is not to look at their lives from your frame of reference.

Look at it from their point of view. 

It's rarely the same.