•      Shonkey Romnesia
•       Youngblood for Olds
•        More memory fade
•        400 $+ > 150 million $-
•        Fix it - not

Paul Smith

It’s  fun, sort of, to see the dated economic ideology of Business New Zealand, running smack bang into commonsense from the Equal Opportunities Trust. Even better when the  opposition to its daft claims are opposed by a key Auckland business leader, Michael Barnett, chairman of the Trust – and CEO of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.

Last week BNZ’s Paul Mackay sparked outrage after telling a select committee that new mothers might lose their workplace "edge" if paid parental leave is extended from 14 to 26 weeks.

Watch Felix Baumgartner’s amazing highest-ever skydive on http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-19943590

• TV and grandchildren
• Alcoholism and baby boomers
• UFO
• The Claw is back…
• Ever-optimistic baby boomers
• The Presidential Debate fallout
• Light and bright

Paul Smith

Sometimes a conversation with a stranger can in one sentence, sum up a country. So it was in the late 80s when we took a coach tour down Germany’s Romantic Road.

I sat next to a middle-aged Israeli and when one castle began to look like another, we began chatting. She confessed she’d taken the trip because she had to get out of Israel from time to time. Such a neurotic place she said, knowing though that she would return to the Holy Land and all its tensions...

• To believe or not to believe
• Blow a raspberry
• No view at all
• Speed is not of the essence

Nancy Shonka Padberg

I was in Phoenix recently for meetings with advertising agencies and had lunch with my father and his friends. The conversation turned to travel - from adventure, to cruises to golf. Now is a good time to mention the majority of people at lunch were in their 60's and 70's - one dynamic couple had gone sky diving on multiple occasions! Many had enjoyed cruising to the Mediterranean, Panama Canal, Greece and Italy.

As marketers, we know that consumers ages 45 + have the desire and resources to travel. Boomer consumers purchase 80% of the luxury travel and over 60% have their passports. There is a pent up demand for travel from years of our recession. Confidence is growing and travel planning is beginning to rise.

Here are several categories of travel that are hot among baby boomers:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-shonka-padberg/consumers-ages-45-love-to-travel_b_1609870.html#slide=1116565