Canuck grandparents want sex videos, iPods, and DS Lites
According to a survey ran conjointly with Nintendo of Canada and Decima, Canadian grandparents are hip to trying to be adventurous in bed, listening to music on an MP3 player, and playing video games.
The survey was issued to measure “Canadian grandparents’ interest in traditionally younger generation activities.” Looks like video games, music and sex all belong to the younger crowd. Which goes to show how much I know.
The numbers went like this:
“[The survey] found that nearly half (46 per cent) would try more ‘adventurous intimacy with their partner’ if they knew how or could. About 40 per cent said they would listen to a portable MP3 player, and one in four would be interested in playing video games.”
Why does this kind of stuff remind me of those old Pepsi commercials where old folks instantly became hip by drinking soda? Seems like we’re so obsessed about youth we won’t even leave our grandparents grow old gracefully without feeling the pressure of being part of current trends.
Via GoNintendo.
I disagree that it is obsession with youth. I also think you are thinking about grandparents in a somewhat stereotypical manner. People who are in their 40s are often grandparents, and certainly in their 50s.
People currently in their 40s and 50s aren’t interested in in adventurous sex? As a guy in his 40s whose mind was blown by early pong and space invaders, I’m the one who bought the game units for my house when I had kids. I own an MP3 player - less batteries and smaller than a portable CD player. I use it when exercising and as an auxiliary music input for my car stereo.
I was buying $2000 car stereos long before I had kids… (not that I can afford one like that now, though)
Potentially you might need to re-think your sterotype of how old or what cohort your vision of grandparents really belongs to.
Oh, remember that lots of those grandparents grew up in the late 1960s and even in the “free sex/pre-AIDS” disco era - not a lot of music, adventurous sex, or pot smoking/drug use there, eh? If you were 20 in 1978 you are 48 now. Easily old enough to have a 24 or 25 years old child with their own children.
Eh?
(sorry if this sounds like a flame - its meant to be a strident critique of your underlying assumptions about “grandparents”)
Heya Bruno…
Not taken as a flame at all. Funny how sometimes people take a contrary opinion as an immediate attack. I’m good for it and appreciate your thoughts.
I think mostly my point is when do we stop being peddled with merchandising and the pressing need to buy buy buy, stay hip, and be cool. It’s terribly hard for teenagers to keep up with, and some of us never grow out of that feeling of peer pressure.
And yes, I do believe that it has everything to do with our youth-obsessed culture. If we weren’t so obsessed with staying young, hand cremes would disappear from the market and spas would shut down. Plastic surgeons would be about a third of the number they are now. People wouldn’t feel awkward about not being able to wear XL T-shirts. This kind of knowledge is unecessary and continues to force the idea that this is what you need to do to be hip, and hip is something you are when you’re young. Hey old folks! Look! You can own an iPod too! It’s not just for kids! And maybe your grandchildren will even think you’re cool!
Don’t get me started on marketing sex, though. Sure, have all the adventerous sex you want, I’m all for healthy sex lives. Those are words which go great together. But making it so banal as to put it as an aside for corporate market research itches me the wrong way. Like anything else, all this talk about sex can pressure and alienate people. I think it’s possible to live a fulfilling life without an emphasis on sex. Sex is a part of life, and shouldn’t be the end-all.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Nintendo fan. I even have my Wii reserved for launch day, so this isn’t something born out of techno-hate. I’ll grant you that maybe I’ve oversimplified my view of grandparenthood. Putting it in perspective, I’m 32 and have an eight year-old boy, so I could be likely to be in my late forties/early fifties if he decides to have kids. But with everything which is bombarded at us when “we’re in our prime” to buy and consume, I kind of hope that it relents a little when you reach a certain stage in your life.
Your points are well taken - and agreed with for the most part. I think the marketeers [sic] have it wrong when they say that grandparents are doing it just to be hip.
People who are hitting 80 years old right now were buying the book “The Joy of Sex” when it came out in the ’70s - most of the kids in my school - their parents all bought copies. Most or all would be over 75 years old now.
Because they are some of the “squarest” people I know:
My Dad has a USB memory plug for his laptop - they use it to show pictures of their grandkids at their friends houses. And they email pics of their grandkids all over the world.
My mom won’t buy a personal music device because it screws up her hearing aid. But otherwise she would have one for her daily walk - and listen Rita McNeill (sp?)
Video games… well… my Dad was interested in playing Sim City but hasn’t found time to do it in the last 20 years.
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For the record - I’ve had a day spa. Foot massages are great. I don’t care what the f*** I look like coming out, but my feet feel great.
And I buy hemp hand creme from the Body Shop ™. It doesn’t smell girly and it actually keeps my knuckles from cracking and bleeding during 40 below winters with no humidity.
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I think that many of the things the marketers are tapping into are real needs and urges, they are just twisting it into a sick and perverted version of what it should be - for profit - rather than the serving of human need.