Talkin' 'bout my AARP generation

By MARY JACOBY

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 3, 2000

WASHINGTON -- It's the AARP's delicate question: How does it recruit youth-worshiping baby boomers into the senior citizens lobby without reminding them that they're getting old?

After conducting extensive market research, the AARP has come up with My Generation, a magazine it will launch in the spring. Aimed at 45- to 55-year-olds, My Generation will boast a more hip and irreverent style than Modern Maturity, AARP's flagship publication.

Focus groups showed that boomers consider themselves rule-breakers and non-conformists -- nothing, in their minds, like those already in their 60s.

Boomers also "kept talking about "my generation.' As in, "Our generation is like this,' or "My generation is like that,"' said Hugh Delehanty, editorial director for AARP magazines.

"A lot of it was the music. A lot of it was the shared experience of going through the Vietnam War, the women's movement and the civil rights movement," he said. "What we're trying to create is a sense of belonging, of cohesiveness."

And so the AARP is aiming to produce a publication that will be to aging boomers what Rolling Stone was to them when they were teenagers and young adults. It will include articles on personal growth, health, finances and family issues.

Unlike Modern Maturity, the new magazine will be sold at newsstands as well as mailed to the 3.1-million AARP members age 50 to 55. The minimum individual age for joining AARP is 50, although younger spouses of AARP members are eligible to join before then.

Meanwhile, the AARP will produce two editions of Modern Maturity: one for people age 56 to 65, and another for people age 66 and older.

"When we did our research we found out there is not really any conflict among these generations. But there is a difference with how they like to process information," Delehanty said.

The older members prefer more straightforward narratives, Delehanty said, and they emphasized that they did not want "to be called boomers."

The AARP's announcement Monday of the new magazine and other initiatives to attract baby boomers is reminiscent of a much-hyped survey it released last year about the sex lives of people older than 50. In its overt bid to be associated with youth and vitality, however, the organization for the elderly finds itself faced with inevitable contradictions.

The name of the new magazine is an example. Classic rock fans recognize My Generation as the title of a 1960s youth anthem by the Who. But while the band sang, "I hope I die before I get old," the AARP clearly would prefer that boomers remain alive long enough to pay the dues that fill its coffers.

The baby boom generation comprises those now 36 to 54 years old. Over the next 15 years, an estimated 76-million Americans will turn 50 and be eligible to join the AARP, the organization says.

"We're embarked on a long-term, high-intensity program to essentially attract a new generation of AARP members: today's baby boomers who are turning 50," said Bill Novelli, the AARP's associate executive director.

Novelli said the AARP's research showed it to be a respected organization among boomers. "What we have to convince them of is we are also exciting, we are vital, and connected to them," he said.

On Monday the organization kicked off a multiyear program "to show the public an energized, vital organization for Americans 50 and older," the AARP said in a statement.

The program includes a national advertising campaign, voter education campaigns and expanded lobbying, advocacy, consumer protection and other services. The AARP is also recruiting minorities.

As a symbol of its emphasis on youth and vitality, the AARP stretched 1.25 acres of fabric around its headquarters in Washington. The material contains portraits of "active AARP members" who own small businesses or work as volunteers.

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