The term ‘Generation Jones’ was coined in 1997 by Jonathan Pontell to describe the group of people born between 1954 and 1965. It’s been used by marketers of products and politicans to help them understand us and our impact on the world.
The term Generation Jones describes a generational ‘cohort’ – a group of people that live in a certain time and place and therefore have similar shared experiences.
Let’s look at how Generation Jones has been described:
Generation Jones:
- has a name that was derived from the slang word ‘jonesin’ – a strong craving for something or someone. Children of the 60s that grew up at the high of America’s post-World War II affluence and confidence and were promised the moon. In the 70s, the nation’s mood turned from hope to fear and Generation Jones was abandoned.maintains the optimism of Generation X and the disappointment that Baby Boomers did not quite understand.
- have a good balance between idealism and cynicism resulting in a strong distrust of government institutions, but also realizing a need for them.
- rode on the lingering promises given to the Boomers and then a new world order came along with a sizable disappointment.
- was named “Jones” because it has been described as a large, unknown, invisible generation.
- has a longing for its own identity and for the world it was promised as children but never received.
- are the large, awakening generation between the Boomers and Generation X.
- spends a lot of money – $1.4 trillion
- sold out for cash along with everyone else, but were well aware of what they were doing and wanted to make sure that everyone saw that they were selling out for $$.
- came of age watching the slow sellout between the love fest of the ‘60s and the money grab of the ‘80s.
- can’t related to the Baby Boomers because many Boomers are retired or are planning to retire; many Generation Jones aren’t even thinking of retiring yet because they still have children at home.
- were children in the idealistic, childlike ‘60s, lost their innocence as they searched for identity in the ‘70s with Watergate and in early adulthood scrambled for the cash with everyone else in the ‘80s.
- are the generation that relate most closely with the Millennials because their children are Millennials and are influenced by their kids music and culture
- grew up along with America.
- inherited a good economy, but as they grew up the economy sourced and hopes were dashed.
- may have obtained success in their lives but because their ideals were so high, they still feel a seen of being cheated with the way the political environment changed while they were busy fulfilling the country’s dream.
- came in at the tail end of the hippies and then felt awkward as they had to adjust their ideology to living a mainstream life.
- long for the love and the better world they were promised.
- gets identified with either the Baby Boomers or the Generation X’ers
- are considered anonymous, but are also the largest generation in American History – 53 million members – 1 out of 4 adults in the US
- are a sort of chameleon – embodies as kind of postmodern sensibility – that swirl of irony, deconstruction and pastiche that coming of age in the 70s fueled from the margins to the malls.
- were filled with the highest hopes and then confronted with the most dramatically different reality.
- are strikingly driven and persevering and have a tendency to be noncommittal.
- relates to the theme of craving, unrequited love and perseverance
- - the name has quite a bit of hip cachet. It’s passionate, sexy, gritty. It has drama and movement, poetry and eloquence.
- have a growing awareness that we have been passed over and want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves – to be a page in a history book.
- embody John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural reference to the “passing of the torch to a new generation”.
- have moved into middle age while American has turned to materialism and security.
- live in a world that is run by Boomers. Boomers have been reluctant to let others share the spotlight.
- are in in the prime buying demographic and at the peak of their purchasing power and are being heavily marketed.
- are busy, practical and media-savvy.
- are at middle age and are at the point of taking stock of their lives.
- marketers messages need to be quick, concise and no-nonsense.
- have firmly ingrained B.S. detectors. If people try to B.S. us or exaggerate claims, we are turned off.
- are lured in by the media through nostalgia.
- starts with the year 1954 because that was the first generation of American males that could not possibly have been drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. This was the first time since 1939 that this was so.
- more than likely have the Silent Generation for parents.
- are not always considered a stand-alone generation, but are called “Late Boomers” or “Late Bloomers”.
- overlap with another demographic group called the ‘Baby Busters’ (born 1958 through 1968). This group was defined by Marvin Harris in his 1981 book ‘American Now (which was later re-released under the title Why Nothing Works: The Anthropology of Daily Life). They are called this due to a decline in birthrate as the U.S. birth rate fell for eleven consecutive years after 1957 – the longest decline in American history.
- were alluded to in 1987 by the term twenty-something. Douglas Coupland’s book in 1991 was dedicated to “the generation born in the late 1950 and 1960s” and in the following year’s Presidential election the ‘under-35 generation’ was frequently cited as supporters of third-party candidate Ross Perot.
- were alluded to in 2001 in Dean Anderson’s book The Isolation Generation which identifies a generation labeled the Pre-Lunar Space-Agers who were born between the launch of Sputnik (October 4, 1957) and the Apollo 11 moon landing (July 20, 1969).
- often get lumped in with the Generation X as a category of people who want to hop off the merry-go-round of status, money and social climbing that so often frames modern existence” – a group of flannel-wearing, alienated, over-educated, underachieving slackers with body piercing who drink Starbucks coffee and had to work at “McJobs”.
- are referred to by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book Generations as the 13th Generation because “this generation can be a little “Halloweenish” and because it is the 13th generation to know the flag of the United States counting back to the peers of Benjamin Franklin. The 13th Generation refers birth years of 1961 through 1981.
- were born during a time that spawned four decades of culture wars.
- have ascended to end the 60s tumultuous grip on politics.
- belong to the 1960s second act. The torch has been passed from the “flower children” to its actual children.
- has many leaders in Western leadership – Obama and 2/3 of current NATO and EU leaders.
- have been long under the radar and now making its full impact felt.
- filled the space between Woodstock and Lollapalooza; Paris student riots and anti-globalization protests, Dylan going electric and Nirvana going unplugged.
- are practical idealists – forged in the fires of social upheaval while too young to play a part.
- were inspired by the intense love-peace-change-the-world mentality, but when we came of age, the nation was worn out from all of the changes. We yearn to express our own voice.
- were “forced to watch from the sidelines, and passage into college and careers came only after the final gun had long since sounded”.
- has leaders that are redefining global politics – Obama, Sarkozy, Merkel.
- represent more than a quarter of all adults in many NATO and EU countries.
- are an irresistible force because of our size, age and influence.
- have non-ideological pragmatism that allows us to resolve intra-Boomer skirmishes and to bridge that volatile Boomer-GenXer divide. WE CAN LEAD.
- is clearing its throat to find their own discovery. Thomas Wolfe wrote that another generation wasn’t lost so much as undiscovered. “And the whole secret, power and knowledge of their own discovery is locked within them – they know it, feel it, have the whole thing in them – and they cannot utter it.” We are finally scratching the itch of The Jones
- For Boomers, the legacy of the 1960s was ideology. For Jonesers it is idealism. The spirit of the 60s is far from dead; its seeds were plants in us as children and are flowering now. We’re not late Boomers; we’re late bloomers.”
- feel that status is important, but value is even more important. Value doesn’t mean cheapest – it means highest quality product, best possible service at a reasonable, competitive price.
- may be someone who wants to drive a Mercedes or BMW, but doesn’t mind shopping at Target.
