On the way back from Vancouver after the conclusion of the ICANN meeting, I made the mistake of either leaving behind or putting at the bottom of my luggage my copy of the excellent Ambient Findability by Peter Morville (and check out this interesting article on design and findability hacks). So I read American Way, the American Airlines in-flight magazine, cover to cover. Did the crossword even.

I’m not new to American Way. I’m inured to moronic celebrities going on about where they had dinner in a particular city (”Mark Ruffalo Hits the Streets of San Francisco”), and self-serving editorials from the CEO (”Operation Hero Miles”), but I was surprised to find an article on marketing, in this case Billion Dollar Babies by Jenna Schnuer, who is something of a house writer for American Airlines.

The breathless piece about teens and tweens — “It’s not easy being a teen (or tween) these days” — is about how much money they indirectly control, and how therefore marketers will do almost anything to get into their heads. It includes this priceless quote:

“If you want to understand consumer culture, [the growth in youth marketing] is the most important major consumer development of this era — even more profound than the Internet,” says Juliet Schor, author of Born to Buy: The Commercialized Academic Child and the New Consumer Culture.

Julia Schor was a professor at Harvard and Boston College and has an impressive speaking schedule, so she must know. Internet = Bug Fart. Tweeniness = the Next Big Thing. I’ve spent ten years in the wrong field! What to do?

Ever since I heard Elliot Noss announce his shocking revolutionary new idea at the ICANN’s Public Forum that ICANN ought to introduce lots of new TLDs (after all, it’s only the main impetus for forming ICANN in the first place), I’ve been wondering what TLD I want to run.

Now I know. I’ll combine the two major developments of the late twentieth century into — .TWEEN! Thank you, Julia Schor. Thank you, American Way.

Posted by Antony in: Domains, Media + Marketing