By Amy Van Veen (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 17, 2012
“Hipster is not a full-time job.”
Interesting marketing campaign, BC government. It really brings together the older generation of dads, moms and government employees who aren’t entirely sure what a hipster is. The over-40 crowd sit on the Skytrain and open the newspaper to see these massive colour block ads and nod appreciatively, while the target demographic—those dirty “hipsters” too lazy to find work—see these adverts and feel less than motivated to do as the government says.
It seems like a lesson from Marketing 101 would be to avoid offending the audience you’re trying to reach, but maybe these government employees with a so-called sense of humour didn’t take that course in university.
There is a whole series of advertisements aimed at motivating the 15 to 24 crowd to find a job, specifically a job in the employment deficit area of trades. An example is one that The Cascade ran last week on page 13: “Because marrying rich may not pan out.” It’s a good thing they told me, because I was really hoping to jump on board that train. It’s actually why I’m taking out student loans to get a university degree in order to push me to the front of the job queue. Thanks, BC government, for reminding me of the faith you have in my generation.
It’s difficult to see where the government is coming from in these ads without seeing them as ignorant about the actual job market – not the job market they see with graphs, pie charts and figures, but the one where people are sitting in retail positions to make rent while also attempting to send out dozens of resumes or complete their diploma or degree programs for the employment light at the end of the tunnel.
A recent study by Skills Canada, as covered in the Financial Post, revealed that despite the fact that 40 per cent of new jobs will be in trades, only 26 per cent of this hipster youth generation (13-24) are considering a skilled trade position and a whopping 59 per cent admit they have never been directed to a career in trades by their parents.
It’s almost as if the government feels painted into a corner with the “you can do anything” attitude of parents. All they see is an upcoming demographic of workers who are nothing more than Daniel Radcliffe in the SNL skit “You Can Do Anything.” The skit parodies the idea that you really can do anything, like Irish dance while doing Chinese calligraphy, while holding majors in poetry and clowning. Maybe the BC government should have partnered with SNL to appeal to the current and future voters they’re currently insulting.
If they want to get it out of people’s heads that not everyone can own a coffee shop, be a singer-songwriter and self-promote their blog to fame, then maybe they shouldn’t break the code by calling hipsters “hipster.” Some hipsters are too cool to admit that they’re hipsters, which is the very essence of being hipster, and other hipsters aren’t even aware they’re hipster. So why, might I ask, would the BC government feel the need to laugh at rather than with the generation they’re trying to motivate?
Maybe those who are skilled in the trades shouldn’t be attempting to become writers or professors and maybe students need to focus their studies to more than just a major in General Studies, but maybe the problem isn’t the 15- to 24-year-olds, maybe the problem is the system.
Maybe post-secondary education is failing us. Maybe parents are too encouraging and enthusiastic about every crappy picture we draw or terrible poem we write. And maybe giving participation ribbons to all the kids makes for some skewed ratios of self-esteem to work ethic, but maybe that’s not all the fault of the kids. Take a step closer to the data, government, and figure out the dozens of additional factors that contribute to the fact that there is an unemployment rate of 14.7 per cent in the “hipster” generation.
