What is the balm for a youth-obsessed culture?

      We live in a youth-obsessed culture here in the United States.  It wasn't always this way.  In the 1950's, advertisers realized that if they targeted the young, they could possibly have life-long customers.  The younger the consumer, the longer the company would be able to sell their product.  Television, which had just arrived in everyone's homes, was the perfect platform for this new marketing strategy.  But showing young, beautiful people buying their products they could influence the entire tv-watching public.  It is a strategy that has been ubiquitous ever since.  Now as television is slowly dying to subscription services and the Internet, advertising corporations haven't missed a beat targeting young consumers, especially the millennial generation.  They are actually having a bit of trouble doing this, I have heard, because millennials see right through shallow attempts to convince them of the need for products so they have switched to marketing through humor and outlandish themes.  I call it to the "we're your buddy: we're cheeky just like you, and we need such and such. Don't you?" marketing approach.

        So we have been awash in commercials portraying beautiful young people for more than 65 years.  This has left an indelible mark on our culture.  A mark that will not easily be erased.  But what is the alternative, and is it any better?  Yes.  By far.  The alternative is a culture that respects and cherishes the generations that have gone before, living and not living.  It values the wisdom of age and the structure of teacher-pupil relationship. This is a good reminder for me to seek out people with more experience in life than I and really listen to them.  I have a lot to learn.  Conversely, I have a lot to give.  As always, the more you receive, the more you will give.  Receiving the wisdom from those older than you, and you will soon find yourself giving to those younger than you.