If I think of visuals that were common during my salad days, what pops into my head are things like Grateful Dead graphics or shots of the campanile at UCB, but I don't want to bring back the Woodstock days per se; I'd like to capture the gist of our whole head-spinning boundary-bending crazy-making trajectory from Viet Nam to Iraq. But how to be emblematic of that?
Book-Ended by War
It's ironic and sad that both ends of the bookshelf of our time together as adults are tagged with emblems of war. That's no small irony since so much of our coming of age as a group was embedded in the hope that all war could end. I just hope we don't let that define our whole collective sense of self.
So what might work to convey the sense and sensibility of a generation that helped to launch so many ships?
How would you convey the impact of, say, a phrase like "Not Your Daddy's Oldsmobile" with only a graphic? Part of the problem is that we've been a wordy bunch, better known in popular terms for our lyrics, slogans and humor than for our visual footprints.
Meta-Tags for the Mosh Pit
If you are seeking some meta-tags to represent our experience, I suppose you could go for irony, since it's certainly been one of our uber-themes. How could we not spawn a bunch of idealistic cynics after being weaned on a cultural cocktail laced with Mickey Mouse, Tricky Dick and White Rabbits?
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Mascots MIA
A lack of iconic Boomer symbols seems to have stumped the folks at Microsoft too. While searching for clip art that others have tagged with something relating to Boomers, I checked an MS clip art library online. It's been full of handy little newsletter-quality icons and 'toons in the past, but when I typed in "Boomer," nada came back. Exactly zip.
Not that I entirely blame them. It's hard to come up with any "meta-toon" for an entire Gen that will play equally well in California and Kansas.
After the tepid golfers, there is one picture of a beach (is the allusion there to the Beach Boys or the notion that masses of us are already kicking back surfside with our pina coladas? Dream on. Most of us don't have our Daddy's pensions either.)
Among the last few graphics on the Boomer page are a couple of cartoon firecrackers. Go figure. Because we symbolize explosive change? Yeah, well, kinda maybe sorta. Oh, she said belatedly. Now I see. It's because they go "boom." Silly me. (Search bots are only as smart as their tags.)
Surfing Upstream
Let's surf upstream to a venue that's more Madison Avenue than Main Street. How about Getty Images where I get some of my classier clips for a fee?
This time "Boomer" yields 82 hits. Now we are cooking. Maybe. Let's see what is the creative class is offering to the trade.
People in groups smiling as if it's a great reunion (so the only good times left for us are remembering when?). A guy in a baseball cap shooting hoops (mixed metaphor; that part fits cleverly). Another darn golfer, but a bit classier one in black and white. A kangaroo (!). More sports pics, lots of them (why do I feel like I'm back in high school?) There's that darn kangaroo again (still stumped why it's there, probably another silly synonym).
Then we have several shots of a grizzled, but trendy, grayhaired guy with a surfboard (getting closer). Same grizzled-but-trendy guy kissing a much younger girl in a swimsuit on the top of her head (no comment). Several more surfing and sand pics with other guys.
This yields 20 fewer hits than "Boomer" alone, but with a change in emphasis. Now there is a black couple too. Over a series of shots, they laugh together at the beach (again, a beach), he golfs (of course) with a smile at the camera, she tunes her IPod with interest, then they both, still smiling, stroll the sand looking for seashells before he is back in some other pics hitting the links (again) with his buds.
I guess it's time to quit asking how Madison Avenue sees us, and do what Boomers have always done: ask how we see ourselves.
Here's a short list of the first several icons that came to the front of my brain:
Beach Boys
Beatles
Big Chill
Laugh In
sunglasses
psychedelic fractals
pop art graphics (a la Peter Max or Austin Powers)
flower children
peaceniks and Beyond War
Black Power
Dennis Hopper
Jack Nicholson in Cuckoo's Nest
Saturday Night Live
any character played by Robin Williams
Kermit the Frog (even if we were 20-somethings by then, he still made us grin)
symbols from Berkeley or San Francisco
madras & Indian prints
But enough about what comes off the top of my own head. How does it seem to you? Nominate your own Boomer emblems here and let's see what crops up on the DIY list we define for ourselves. If this list gets growing, I suspect we can get a few eyes from Madison Avenue to dial in to it too.