They may have changed the ages of the key demographic. For years, it was 18-49 not 25-54.
“Adults ages 18-49 are known as the key demographic because advertisers believe they have the most disposable income and least brand loyalty, which may make them more susceptible to advertising. Rating is the percentage of total TV households tuned into a program at a given time.”
Decades ago shortly after we moved to California, my wife was recommended to be a key group person for a really big tv monitoring company.
She was paid to watch and submit the shows she/we watched and participated in on line focus groups.
We moved two time while she was in that group. The group also was interested in what shows our young guys watched.
Then when she turned fifty, they stopped using her and sending reports to be filled by her.
They explained that their key group re age was 18-49, and they didn’t survey 50 year old women. They sent her a $50 check and a thank you note.
She was crushed, and of course our sons, her bros and my siblings added to her loss as real person with remarks about
being over the hill at age 50.
Less than a decade later, she was able to laugh at that decision. We had more disposable income, and she was making good money with great a 401k.
I told my MBA Stat Prof about what I thought was a dumb decision re the surveys and prime audiences.
His reply was very astute and predictive: He said, “The Ivy League elites in tv in east coast were seldom if ever correct re any marketing decisions. The west coast Follywood elites were proof of how abusing drugs negated any common sense.”
Reminds me of a pastor I had at a church. Some people asked why their was quite a bit of effort put into senior citizen programs
His reply was, “They have all the money, and lots of time.” It’s true.
Part of the reasons advertising is not heavily directed at senior citizens is because they pretty much had everything they want or need.
I once read that a major reason advertisers focus on the younger demographics is to catch them at a time when they’ll choose brand-names that they’ll stick with for a lifetime.
They still have the 18-49 demographic, it's just the article chose not to use it.
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But you must put in an SSD @2.5” or NVMe as a boot drive. Been there/done this.