NEWSWIRE: 9/24/18

  • According to a new study, if you can recognize the AIG logo, odds are you’re over 40. When asked to identify the world’s 200 most successful companies by logo, recognition was nearly universal for everyday brands like Apple, Toyota, and Exxon, but most Millennials couldn’t identify insurers like AIG, manufacturers like Dow Chemical, and (unlike nearly every other computer company) tech giant Dell. (GraphicSprings)
    • NH: In general, logo recognition declines with age. Many big logos belong to financial companies, health insurance carriers, hospitals, and big pharma companies that Millennials (with few assets, few health problems, and few kids) just aren't encountering very often. Thus, Millennials are less likely to recognize (all in the global top 100) Pfizer (40), Johnson & Johnson (46), Bank of America (59), UnitedHealth Group (74), Allianz (80), HCA (90), Metlife (91), and Aetna (100). Incredibly, Berkshire Hathaway (81) was recognized by 85% of Boomers but only 15% of Millennials. Then there are the once-famous firms whose product line (or industry) just doesn't seem as important anymore. Recognition of Bayer (15) is beginning to flag among Millennials--along with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Cisco, GE, Siemens, Dow, and nearly all of the big auto and energy brands, from GM to Shell. BP? Most Millennials have never heard of it. (They are more likely to know Kia.) Maybe Millennials pay more attention to the brands and less to the firms that sell them--which explains why they are less likely to know of P&G and Unilever. Yet Boomers also have a recognition edge in electronic and media firms, like Verizon, AT&T, Foxconn, and Microsoft (OK, that last one is understandable). 
  • Some U.S. schools have an overcrowding problem: Half of schools in Montgomery County, Maryland exceed 100% capacity, with some hovering around 150%. Why weren’t school planners prepared? One possible culprit is rising average household size, which can boost the number of children in a given school district far above forecasted levels. (The Washington Post)
    • NH: With birth cohort size after 1991 in monotonic decline, most U.S. schools clearly do not have a capacity problem. Many districts in rural and exurban America are shutting down schools. Yet in the inner suburbs of booming coastal cities, building new capacity to keep up with climbing numbers is a big challenge. One problem--pointed out in the article--is that lots of Xer and (now) Millennial professionals are not making the full out-of-the-city transition as soon as they have kids. They want to stay near the city and cut their commute time, and they are willing to give up the backyard and the single-family home in order to do that. The share of young families starting out in apartments and townhouses is certainly growing. Also, because parents today feel terrific pressure to get their kids into the best public schools, they will sometimes actually share residences to get into the best districts (like Montgomery in MD and Fairfax in VA). Both school systems are hiring officials that carefully vet parents to make sure they "officially" reside in the district. Think of these as truant officers for parents. Yes, a lot of Xers are that desperate.
  • Fully 6.7% of 55- to 64-year-olds use marijuana on a monthly basis, higher than the share of 12- to 17-year-olds who do so (6.4%). As risk-taking Xers and Boomers continue to move into older age brackets, they are undermining the long-observed notion that drug use declines with age. (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
    • NH: Back in the late '60s and '70s, there were virtually no illegal substances that junior- and high-school students were not using at much higher rates than their "square" Greatest Generation parents pushing age 60. (For those too young to recall: Imagine a slightly older and less flappable version of Red in "That Seventies Show.") Today, we see the reverse. There are very few illegal substances that school-age teens are not using at lower rates than their first-wave Xer parents--everything from cocaine and meth to tranquilizers and opioids. And, yes, that includes marijuana, the use of which among teens in school has been declining over the past decade. (See: "Annual Demographics Outlook.") Older generations may be ready to turn pot into a booming legal industry, but apparently they're stricter about preventing their kids from sampling before leaving home.

Don't Recognize That Logo? You Must Be a Millennial. NewsWire - marijuana use by age

  • In an effort to increase public trust in autonomous vehicles, Jaguar added big googly eyes to the front of its prototypes. Though the tracking movement of the eyes does help provide signals to pedestrians, a “friendly” exterior is hardly going to assuage Americans’ fears about autonomous cars going rogue. (Fast Company)
    • NH: It's a cute idea. And anyone who has seen Pixar's "Cars" knows how effortless it is to anthropomorphize an automobile. But Pixar's--and Jaguar's--choice to show the car's eyes in the windshield (rather than, say, in the headlights) points to our assumption that the soul of a car must somehow reside in the human who is looking through that windshield. That's how humans instinctively see cars. And that's how tort law has come to adjudicate injuries involving cars. These deep cultural inclinations may not be easy to change, even if and when all the formidable technological challenges are overcome. (See: "Self-Driving Vehicle Companies Hit the Brakes.")
  • Gen-X columnist and parent Mary Elizabeth Williams says today’s kids have no individual idols—but believes that’s a good thing. Unlike Xers, who got burned when their political and cultural icons let them down, today’s kids are instead putting stock in “the power of community.” (Salon)
    • NH: This essay, which starts from the jaundiced premise that every generation gets duped by powerful leaders who then turn around and betray us, comes to the startling conclusion that today's post-Millennials are actually better off putting "the power of the community" before great leaders. That way they won't get duped. Come again? Have we ever witnessed a moment in history when the power of the community actually does something important without great leaders acting on its behalf? Indeed, it is fair to say that a public that yearns for more community is actually in the mood to empower even greater leaders--leaders powerful enough to smash all of the smaller fry that keep disappointing us. That is the track record of populism, for good or ill--from Julius Caesar to the present day.
  • Fully 10% of U.K. Millennial employees say they would delegate face-to-face customer interactions to robots if they could, compared with just 4% of the 55+. This tech-loving, interaction-avoiding generation would willingly employ robots to kill two birds with one stone. (ABBYY)
    • NH: Makes sense. The same generation that would rather avoid face-to-face interactions as customers (see: "Restaurateurs Struggle to Find Key Millennial Ingredient") would also rather avoid them as employees. Interestingly, the survey shows that Millennials understand that humans do better than machines at interacting with humans. They just prefer not to do the interacting themselves.
  • Teens are campaigning against in-class presentations on the grounds that they’re unfair to students with anxiety. Some sympathetic teachers have begun offering alternative options, but for others, the claim that public speaking is too uncomfortable is more fodder for the “snowflake generation” file. (The Atlantic)
    • NH: Sounds like these are marginalized and oppressed teens that need to find, within their ranks, a charismatic spokesperson to rise up and rally them all to the barricades! Oh wait, hmm... never mind! Like so many emerging Homeland movements, this is less a battle-cry for youth to revolt--and more like an earnest plea for older generations to treat them with greater sensitivity.
  • Retail experts say Amazon has kicked off an arms race in the world of free two-day shipping. In a twist, firms like Walmart have been forced to invest heavily in physical infrastructure (think fulfillment warehouses) to stay competitive online—which may further squeeze mom-and-pop retailers. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • The average Millennial parent has posted 107 pictures of their child online before they can even walk, more than double the number Gen-X parents posted (51). As more tech companies have been pressed to safeguard children’s privacy, the biggest threat may be coming from inside the house. (GoDaddy)
    • NH: OK, sure, GoDaddy has a vested interest in making parental for-my-child websites grow like wildfire. Still, this report has the ring of authenticity. Amazingly, 20% of Millennial parents have already created a website for their child--and, of these, 79% actually considered the URL availability when deciding what name to give their child. Is this a smart, far-sighted personal "branding" move? Or is this just profoundly sad? Seth Stevens-Davidowitz, in his new book Everybody Lies, concludes that the recent surge in idiosyncratic baby names is negatively correlated with parental income and education. But that could soon change, if names like "Idalia" and "Krithik" come to be regarded as a sign of brilliant parenting in a world devoid of privacy.
  • In a new op-ed column, 30-year-old Courtney Sender bares the details of her ill-fated relationship with a Millennial man six years her junior. The personal account illustrates the difficulties of trying to find love in the age of #MeToo, Tinder, and “ghosting.” (The New York Times)

                DID YOU KNOW?

                Retail Banks Cash In on Millennials. Traditional retail banks face an onslaught of competition from the likes of mobile-only banks and P2P apps. (See: “Life Without Banks.”) This threat is particularly dire when it comes to Millennial consumers, who largely see the neighborhood bank as a relic of a bygone era. But banks aren’t giving up just yet. Chase recently announced a premier checking account that offers perks such as a generous rewards program and access to pre-sale tickets. (To qualify, however, members must maintain a minimum account balance of $75,000.) Additionally, Chase and Wells Fargo have each introduced mobile accounts that don’t charge overdraft fees. One thing most traditional banks don’t offer, though, is a meaningful return on savings. That’s where online-only banks come in: Empower offers a standard savings rate of 1.85 percent, far above the industry average, while competitor Varo offers 1.5 percent. Rather than a challenge, Empower CEO Warren Hogarth sees the current state of banking as an opportunity: “There’s an amazing opportunity to rethink what a bank is in the U.S.”