Did you feast with a Millennial this Thanksgiving?

According to the folks at Anheuser-Busch InBev, 50% of 21 - 27 year-olds identify themselves as foodies.  Which explains why the company, who has decided to focus future marketing efforts on Millennials, is planning on including food festival sponsorships in their media selection for 2015. 

They are also planning on sponsoring parties in college towns, and a 2-day music festival as they seek to woo the 4.6 million Americans who turned 21 in 2013, the largest number since the boomers started to come of age. (Mickle, 2014)

But back to Thanksgiving, where according to YPulse research more Millennial men were cooking and baking (55%) than napping (43%).  (2014)

If I had known, I would have invited one over. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mickle, T. (2014, November 23)  Bud Crowded Out by Craft Beer Craze.  wsj.com.  Retrieved November 28, 2014, from

http://online.wsj.com/articles/budweiser-ditches-the-clydesdales-for-jay-z-1416784086?KEYWORDS=bud+crowded+out+by+craft+beer+craze

(2014, November 25) Infographic Snapshot: Millennials and Thanksgiving.  ypulse.com, Retrieved November 28, 2014, from

http://www.ypulse.com/post/view/infographic-snapshot-millennials-and-thanksgiving

Apparently Matthew McConaughey is that hot!

Of course I did watch the Colbert Report last night, where Stephen offered up his opinion that Matthew should have been named People magazine's sexiest man alive this year.

But, I'm really referring to the fact that Lincoln sales have taken off since the campaign began -- increasing by a whopping 25%, for their best October in 7 years.  Wow.  And, according to the dealers when people come into the franchise they talk about Matthew more than the car!  (Clothier, Naughton, O'Leary, 2014)

Of course the variety of funny parodies of the spots didn't hurt, particularly with the target audience.  But I think the lesson here is that the younger your target is, the more likely they are to be influenced by celebrities. 

Here's a link to the first blog I wrote...

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2014/09/is-matthew-mcconaughey-hot-enough-to.html

And one about the Subaru ad, which was more appealing to this Baby Boomer...

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2014/09/sorry-lincoln-im-checking-out-subaru.html

Clothier, M., Naughton, K., O'Leary, M. (2014, November 4)  Lincoln Rides McConaughey Spoof to Best October in 7 Years.  bloomberg.com.  Retrieved November 4, 2014, from

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-04/lincoln-rides-mcconaughey-spoof-to-best-october-in-7-years-cars.html

McDonald's wants you to know that their food rots.

In case you haven't been following this story, in 2004 the movie "Super Size Me." was released.  In it, our hero eats nothing but McDonald's for 30 days and not surprisingly, he becomes terribly ill.  The film also includes a demo of some french fries failing to decay after 8 weeks.  While the company has tried to debunk this experiment, my nephew tells me that he repeated it in his high school class and the darn things never rotted.  So there you have it.  (Kaufman, 2014)

Anyway, McDonald's has finally awoken to the fact that they have some severe issues in terms of their quality and nutritional perceptions and that perhaps they ought to try to address them.  I think it would be easier to do that if they actually did have high quality nutritional food.  But hope springs eternal.  (Forbes, 2014)

Still I can't quite see how talking about pink slime and showing videos of meat production lines is going to work for them.   Here is one of the commercials they have been running.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRESjcxTz4M

It doesn't make me want to eat anything.  How about you?  Do you think that they are smart to try to tackle the issue head-on?  Can you think of any alternatives that might be more effective?

Kaufman, A. (2014, October 14).  Only McDonald's Would Advertise That Their Food Rots.  huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved November 14, 2014, from

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/14/mcdonalds-food-rot_n_5982704.html

Forbes, T. (2014, November 5)  McDonald's Hams It Up In Three 'Viral' Videos.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved November 14, 2014, from

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/237647/mcdonalds-hams-it-up-in-three-viral-videos.html