“Flintstones” Reboot Proves It’s Still Yabba Dabba Doo Time

For those of you who might have spent time living under a rock or are too young to remember The Flintstones was a primetime animated series produced by HannaBarbera for ABC It debuted in 1960 and continued into 1966 It featured two neighboring families the Flintstones and the Rubbles living in the town of Bedrock circa 10000 BC The series revolved around how the characters dealt with modern 20thcentury challenges in the context of a Stone Age setting Its main character Fred Flintstone was a loveable bumbling husband and father fondly remembered for the way he would spontaneously belt out the words amp8220Yabba Dabba Dooamp8221 as an exuberant expression of his happinessContent like this was at the time created for one audience The 80 million Baby Boomers who were coming of age in the 1960s and putting the amp8220massamp8221 into what we would later label amp8220mass marketingamp8221 The birth of so many children was soon followed by the birth of electronic media plastic credit and new approaches to branding The era of modern marketing was underway and it was being fueled by television networks and Stone Age programmingThe magnitude of the Boomer audience meant that anything they got behind got big The Flintstones was the most financially successful longestrunning animated franchise for three decades until The Simpsons debuted in late 1989 In 2013 TV Guide ranked The Flintstones as the secondgreatest TV cartoon of all timeThe Boomers are sure to make the new Flintstones a blockbuster hit and if we understand why then that same level of success can be replicated for other brands Hereamp8217s whatamp8217s going onThe Power of TimelessnessIn their effort to validate their desired selfimage of being ageless the Boomers strive to associate themselves with things that are timeless The underlying psychology driving this behavior is actually pretty simple When the negative feelings of age start to creep in people offset that emotion by surrounding themselves with positive things from their youth that neutralize the relevance of age If you see a candy apple red sports car cruising down the road chances are thereamp8217s a graying Baby Boomer behind the wheel amp160Is it really about the ride or is it about proving to yourself that you still have the youthful mojo that you did when you first drove a car like that in the amp821670s If you can still drive fast with the wind in your hair then youamp8217ve got to be ageless The moral of the story is if you have something thatamp8217s timeless sell it to people who think theyamp8217re agelessThe Laws of LegacyItamp8217s human nature to want to live your life in a way that leaves something positive and enduring you can be remembered by As the Baby Boomer generation reaches an age where thoughts are shifting to legacies theyamp8217re grasping onto things that they feel they have a right to own to claim as theirs in a way that subconsciously makes them feel theyamp8217ve created a legacy Take music rock of course for example Youamp8217ve probably noticed that the Millennials have discovered the Boomersamp8217 vinyl collections and are making classics from the amp821660s and amp821670s popular all over againThe Boomers are quick to remind us that itamp8217s their music and itamp8217s merely on loan to the Millennials Is it an accident that two of the three bestselling albums of all time belong to the Eagles I think not Want to take in a show How about one of the latest theatrical hits like Meatloafamp8217s Bat out of Hell the Musical and Beautiful The Carol King Musical As their desire to leave a legacy intensifies expect more Boomers to lay claim to the cultural phenomena that they popularized in their heydayUnpredictable FuturesAs we age the future seems more unpredictable than ever so we compensate by embracing the past The past is a known commodity especially our amp8220good old daysamp8221 When we recall positive memories from the past it makes us more comfortable in the here and now As a Boomer who can forget those carefree days of our youth and simple pleasures like a visit from the Good Humor truck or a new episode of Flipper The generation of consumers who grew up in an era of unprecedented optimism is now subconsciously bolstering their positive outlook on life every time they recall the most potent memories of their lives More Flintstones please Flintstoneamp8217s fans surely remember the Great Gazoo that loveable alien who was sent back in time to share advice from the future with Fred and Barney Imagine a different Gazoo who could use his knowledge of past events to help predict the future If youamp8217re between a rock and a hard place trying to anticipate what Millennials are going to do next perhaps you should shift your focus to a generation whose past is proving to be a pretty good predictor of its futureClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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“Flintstones” Reboot Proves It’s Still Yabba Dabba Doo Time

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Peter Hubbell

FEMA and the Ad Council Encourage AANHPI Communities to Enhance Disaster Preparedness in New PSAs - Ad Council InSites

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“Flintstones” Reboot Proves It’s Still Yabba Dabba Doo Time

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Peter Hubbell

FEMA and the Ad Council Encourage AANHPI Communities to Enhance Disaster Preparedness in New PSAs - Ad Council InSites

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