Do's & Don'ts: Boomer Babes & the Silver Tsunami

Monica Bellucci

The guitar-strumming, floppy hat-wearing, flower child Joni Mitchell,71, fronts Saint Laurent's Music Project. 

Madonna, 56, has been posing for Versace. 47 years old Julia Roberts is the face of Givenchy and Italian actress Monica Bellucci, will soon be the oldest Bond girl ever at 50 years of age.

Attention all 30-40 something Marketing professionals: grab your nose plugs and boogie boards. The Silver Tsunami has landed and the 'Boomer Babe' is emerging as the face of a market segment who is social media savvy, eternally youthful, 77 million strong and getting stronger everyday. 

We control 70 percent of disposable income ($7 trillion) in the US and outspend our snot nosed counterparts online 2:1.

The Revolution is here and it will not be televised or downloaded.

So how do you get through to us? Listen up because here are the Do's and Don'ts.

THE DON'TS

• Don't talk to us about being “middle aged”,"older or active adults”, "50-plus" or living out our "Golden years". 
• Don't use words like “elderly”, “retirement”, “senior citizens”, “seniors”, “nursing home” or “assisted living” .
• Don’t take a One-Campaign-Fits-All strategy. We expect, deserve and demand nothing less than a unique approach. 
• Don't think you know us. We are notorious for knocking the norm and redefining every aspect of our lives. 
• Don't expect brand loyalty. Give us a reason and we won’t hesitate to jump ship. 
• Don't patronize us because we hate that the most of all. We are the do-it-yourself generation. We get satisfaction from getting things done and if you can't make it happen for us we will find someone that will or do it ourselves.
• And if you are not a boomer, just don't. You haven't owned the right yet to call me “baby”. 

THE DO'S

• Do create social media posts that celebrate experiences and hold hope for the future.
• Do be present. 
• Do be transparent. 
• Do be ready to make our day.
• Do provide content that helps us live the lives we want and speaks to our hopes and dreams. 
• Do enable us by providing instruction and tips, (but don’t speak down to us). 
• Do provide graphic tutorials and how-to videos to engage us and to enrich our lives.

Amber Valletta: "The 6th Annual Hollywood Style Awards" Beverly Hills, CA on Oct. 10, 2009 - Photo by Glenn Francis of www.PacificProDigital.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Even on the the catwalks of Paris, former supermodels Amber Valletta, 41, and Eva Herzigova, 42, both took to the runways in January 2015, a terrain where skinny young women still rule.

Sylvie Fabregon, who runs the Masters and Silver agencies for older models in the French capital, says she is seeing increased demand for more mature women."People are not stupid," she told AFP. "Women have had enough of seeing 20-year-old girls in adverts for cosmetics to fight wrinkles they don't have."