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The Meaning of Obama, Los Angeles Times, by Gregory Rodriguez, November 10, 2008

There's little doubt that Barack Obama's redemptive message of change grabbed Americans by the throat. After all, it's in times full of fear and despair that people are hungry for hope. Obama's triumph and victory speech were moving not only because they reminded us that this country is based on the idea of possibilities but because, for at least a moment, much of the nation believed that hope was reborn. And that raises a question: Why are Americans so obsessed with hope?

The American dream—anyone can succeed, second chances abound, we are what we make ourselves—is one way to define "hope." An October survey by J. Walter Thompson revealed that 77% of Americans think the American dream is part of what makes this country so dynamic. That helps explain why 78% also agreed that the next president "needs to breathe new life" into that dream. So hope is an inextricable part of our national identity. Without it, most agree, America wouldn't be America.

The American Dream Lives On—Just Out of Reach, The Star-Ledger, by Tom Johnson, October 30, 2008

Times may be tough, but even the threat of a recession has not killed the American Dream, or some new variant of it.

At least that is what a new online survey by advertising giant JWT found. But the survey, conducted last month, also found the American Dream means different things for different people.

For instance, money may not buy happiness, but those two elements are core to younger Americans' definition of the American dream.

American Dream is in Need of a Wakeup Call, St. Petersburg Times, by Robert Trigaux, October 26, 2008

Increasingly, older folks, aging boomers, Generations X and Y, the wealthy and wanna-be wealthy all aspire to different takes of the American Dream.

That, at least, is one of the conclusions of Ann Mack, who at 33 enjoys the, uh, trendy title of "director of trendspotting" at J. Walter Thompson. The New York advertising giant conducted a survey last month of 2,112 adults asking what the American Dream means today and how it's changed over the decades.

"This is a complex time for the American Dream, and it is being both affirmed and challenged," Mack says. "At the same time that the nation is guaranteed to make history with either the first African-American president or the first female vice president, the crisis in the financial system is threatening many millions with hardship."

The American Dream Is Now About Security, U.S. News & World Report, by Liz Wolgemuth, October 24, 2008

The term "American dream" was coined by James Truslow Adams in 1931. Adams wrote: "The American Dream" is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement."

He also detailed what the dream was not: "It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."

Fast forward nearly eight decades, and Americans are dreaming about security rather than opportunity.

A new survey of 2,112 Americans by ad agency JWT (formerly J Walter Thompson) reflects significant changes in that vision.

Americans Still Hold Out for the Proverbial Dream, The Washington Times, October 22, 2008

It's changed over the decades. And it's been beaten up and "bastardized" by opportunists.

Still, the proverbial American dream of self-made success and well-being is intact and remains important to most of us—we're downright protective of it, in fact.

More than three-fourths of Americans "personally believe" in the American dream and insist it's what makes the nation dynamic, according to a survey of 2,112 adults released Wednesday by J. Walter Thompson, a Manhattan-based marketing group.

Eight out of 10 want the next president to "breathe new life" into the concept, with more respondents citing Republican hopefuls than Democrats in such a lofty endeavor.

Millennial Generation Misunderstood in the Office, Incentive Magazine, by Jeanie Casison, June 18, 2008

While older employees often call out their 21- to 29-year-old Millennial colleagues for not showing respect, lacking a strong work ethic and being impatient on the job, new research by New York-based ad agency JWT reveal that these negative perceptions may be off the mark.

According to the U.S. study, "Millennials at Work: Myths vs. Reality," the younger generation is more serious than people think. When asked about the statement "I think a formal appearance at the workplace is important for career success," 67 percent of Millennial respondents agreed compared to 65 percent of respondents in their thirties, 54 percent of forty-somethings and 56 percent of the 50-plus set. Additionally more than half of Millennials (56 percent) agreed that having a job is a privilege, not a right. On a positive note, the study did reveal that older workers recognized their Millennial co-workers for being tech-savvy and flexible.

Millennials Usher in New Kind of Work Life Omaha World-Herald, by Stefanie Monge, June 16, 2008

It's no longer business as usual, as young professionals change the way American companies operate and redefine expectations in the workplace.

Millennials, also referred to as members of Generation Y, are generally defined as those born in the 1980s and '90s. A recent survey conducted by JWT Worldwide, a New York-based advertising firm that specializes in trend spotting, identified several differences between today's young professionals and previous generations.

Millennials want more flexibility and fun in the workplace, and they value work-life balance more than previous generations, according to the survey. This generation also relies on technology, such as text messaging and social networking Web sites, to communicate internally and externally while at work.

Study dashes stereotypes about 'Millennials' in the workplace, The Press-Enterprise, by Jack Katzanek, June 14, 2008

They usually come to work with better technology skills than their bosses. Their lives growing up in a gadget-filled society has made them experts in the art of communicating. On the other hand, Millennials — the generation born after 1980 now coming into its own in American workplaces — were raised in an era where children were placed on pedestals. There are some employers who, accurately or not, believe their 20-something workers have not shaken their self-centeredness.

Some of these hypotheses were tackled recently, and some assumptions were effectively shot down, by an online study of some 1,250 Millennials commissioned by the advertising firm J. Walter Thompson.

Grasping Young Crowd, Investor's Business Daily, by Sonja Carberry, April 28, 2008

The 20-somethings dubbed millennials aren't just slackers living in their parents' basements. They're part of a highly coveted employment and marketing demographic. Get the facts about these up-and-comers and hints on how to reach them.

On their own. According to a research study by advertising giant JWT, just 15% of millennials live with their parents. Ann Mack, JWT director of trendspotting, says the study helped separate myth from reality. "The media has certainly perpetuated some of these misconceptions," Mack told IBD. "We want to bring our clients a full picture of who this customer is."

Debunking Negative Ideas about the Next Crop of Workers, The Baltimore Sun (MCT), by Susan Reimer, April 20, 2008

My generation of parents considers this job to be open-ended, and the gainful employment of our children is no longer the finish line.

There are all sorts of horror stories of parents sitting in on their children's job interviews, calling an employer to say that the entry-level salary offered was not sufficient. I have even heard of parents calling to complain that junior's annual bonus was not high enough.

Those are extremes, but there is an honest concern among us that our children might not find jobs in this uncertain economy—and if they do, we are worried that they might not make very good employees, that they might not demonstrate any more of a work ethic in the office than they do at home, when it comes to loading the dishwasher or cleaning the bathroom.

We should give them more credit, and a survey of 21- to 29-year-olds by advertising giant JWT proves that point. These young people—often called Millennials—are certainly very different workers from any previous generation, and they are changing the definition of work. But they aren't the spoiled, know-it-all slackers that we feared they might grow up to be. (No thanks to us, their parents.)

"The survey revealed that American Millennials ... may have a slightly looser attitude toward the workplace, but they also respect the way corporate America works," said the report. ...

Work-life balance is more important to this generation than to any previous generation, the survey found. Perhaps they learned from us the value of a flexible schedule and ample time off.

But Ann Mack, who is JWT's director of trendspotting and who wrote the report, said that's because technology has melted the divisions between work and the rest of life.

"This generation is so technologically savvy, they are constantly connected," she said. "They check e-mails the way they brush their teeth—first thing in the morning and the last thing at night."

Generation of Workers in Their 20s Can Be a Challenge to Manage, The Fresno Bee (MCT), by Robert Rodriguez, April 19, 2008

A recent study by JWT, a New York-based advertising agency, found that millennials, compared with other generations, place a higher value on work-life balance, expect their employers to adapt to them and are more likely to rank fun and stimulation as one of their top five ideal job requirements.

Ann Mack, director of trendspotting for JWT, said millennials aren't the type to run out of the office when the clock strikes 5 p.m.

"They are equipped through technology to be on all the time," Mack said. "They can be checking their e-mail and responding to someone in Shanghai as soon as they get up in the morning."

As a result, millennials demand work schedules that provide flexibility.

Those Generation Labels Are Fleeting at Best, The Providence Journal, by Mark Patinkin, April 15, 2008

I just came across a study about the Millennials. Those are people age 21 to 29.

I hadn't known that's what they're called.

There were some unexpected findings. For example, they do care about dressing well at work, but aren't loyal employees. They change jobs every 1.6 years as opposed to people my age, who change every 4.1. I apparently missed the memo on that, having last switched when Gerald Ford was president. ...

But the Millennial study, done by the JWT ad agency, has determined we are now lumps who wouldn't play ping-pong at work if our company had a game room.

Even in a Downturn, Young Adults Don't Always Return Home after College, Ventura County Star (MCT), by Stephanie Hoops, April 8, 2008

Rob Reich admitted that in this lousy economy, he was tempted when his parents invited him to move back home. ...

But he's not about to go home to mom and dad. "I couldn't do that," he said. "That's not the point."

Reich is an example of what New York-based advertising giant JWT found in its study of Generation Y: "Millennials at Work." The firm is seeking to dispel the idea that today's young people, ages 21 to 29, are "boomerang kids" who return home to live with their parents after graduating from college.

It's a wrong idea because only 15 percent return home to live with their parents, according to JWT. ...

Millennials: Myth vs. Reality, 24 Hours (Toronto, Canada), April 7, 2008

A survey conducted by JWT, the fourth largest agency network in the world, dispelled similar myths, including a perception that Millennials are "boomerang kids" who return home to live with their parents after graduating from college or university. ...

The survey did, however, confirm the perception that Millennials want to play at work. They were far more likely to put "fun and stimulation" in their top five ideal job requirements than thirty-somethings.

"They are the products of boomer parents and two-career households. They have seen parents try to juggle so much, especially women who bought into the notion that they can have it all ... They see their mothers prematurely exhausted," Ann Mack of JWT says from New York. "Technology is another important influence. These are workers who check their e-mail before they go to bed and as soon as they get up in the morning. Because they are so flexible, they want their employer to be flexible," Mack says.

Nation's 'Millennials' Reveal Respect for Traditions, Values, The Washington Times, by Jennifer Harper, March 30, 2008

Popular culture would have us believe that anyone under 30 is a cynical brat or a self-absorbed sluggard, intent on hedonistic impulses alone.

But that's a myth, at least according to JWT, the nation's largest advertising agency.

JWT has plumbed the consciousness of the so-called "millennials" — those between 21 and 29 — to reveal a generation brimming with adultlike respect for American institutions, family values and work ethics, despite a few quirks.

Survey Finds Those in Their 20s Work Hard but Seek Flexibility, The Post Standard/Herald-Journal, by Charley Hannagan, March 23, 2008

The media have done a good job of stereotyping 20-something workers as a bunch of crazily dressed wild things who live with their parents and have no loyalty to their employers.

Advertising agency JWT on Thursday released a survey that debunks those myths, and suggests that the group aged 30 to 49 might actually be more disenchanted with their employers than their younger co-workers.

"They actually do have a strong work ethic," Ann Mack, director of trendspotting for JWT said of the Millennials, as those aged 21 to 29 are called. "They're just as loyal as other generations, in terms of how long they intend to stay at their current employer. They're willing to be flexible in their schedules and they expect the same flexibility in return. That's where their youth and tech savvy weighs in."

The "Millennials" Are Coming, CBS News, November 11, 2007

The workplace has become a psychological battlefield and the millennials have the upper hand, because they are tech savvy, with every gadget imaginable almost becoming an extension of their bodies. They multitask, talk, walk, listen and type, and text. And their priorities are simple: they come first.

Just ask Marian Salzman, an ad agency executive at J. Walter Thompson, who has been managing and tracking millennials since they entered the workforce.

"Some of them are the greatest generation. They're more hardworking. They have these tools to get things done," she explains. "They are enormously clever and resourceful. Some of the others are absolutely incorrigible. It's their way or the highway. The rest of us are old, redundant, should be retired. How dare we come in, anyone over 30. Not only can't be trusted, can't be counted upon to be, sort of, coherent."

Hearing the Buzz before It's Buzz, portfolio.com, by Andrea Chalupa, September 4, 2007

As the executive vice president and chief marketing officer of J. Walter Thompson, the world's largest advertising company, [Marian] Salzman has been watching cultural trends for the past 20 years and anticipating how they translate into consumer demands. In 2005, she predicted that the link between obesity and lack of sleep discovered by researchers at Bristol University would lead to an increased number of beds offered by airlines, which certainly seems to be the case with the rise of the all-business-class airline like Silverjet and Eos and with Lufthansa's even considering including beds in coach.

Lately, Salzman sees a shift toward doing good. "We're all getting off on being Bill and Melinda Gates in some small way," she says. "Selflessness is in. And so are smaller communities where we feel like we're really a part of something."

This has translated into companies hopping on the goodwill bandwagon by including donations in their products' sticker prices. Apple, for example, donates $10 to Global Fund for every red-branded iPod sold. So next holiday season, Salzman predicts, Christmas campaigns about decadence will be passé.

Selling Planet Islamic, The Independent, by Julia Stuart, July 9, 2007

Marian Salzman is one of the world's foremost trendspotters, a woman who can see something coming before others have even raised their heads above the parapet. And the next big thing in marketing, she reckons, is the Muslim pound. ...

"It's a unique market with a unique set of needs, for example in the banking area," says Salzman, the executive vice president and chief marketing officer of consultancy JWT. "Under sharia law, different kinds of mortgages need to be written in order for someone who is Muslim to acquire a home. There is banking law which impacts financial transactions. There is Islamic law which impacts investment portfolios. And there's halal law which impacts consumption of food, beauty and healthcare products."

There has been a huge surge in marketing to Muslims this year, according to Salzman. "I think it is a recognition of the size of the market," she says. "Another thing I believe has been driving it is all the coverage of whether Turkey will be part of the EU, which has also raised the visibility of the question about the sheer percentage of the European population that is Muslim."

Muslim Revelations for Marketers, The Guardian, by James Silver, May 22, 2007

When MediaGuardian spoke to leading New York trendspotter Marian Salzman in January, she revealed that she was overseeing the first ever marketing survey of Muslim consumers in the U.K. and the U.S. "This is the biggest single issue we face as marketers," the JWT executive vice president and chief marketing officer said. "Muslims comprise 3.5 percent of Americans. We know there are things they want [to buy]. But we don't really understand them yet at all."

... The resulting JWT report, "Marketing to Muslims," which included interviews with 350 British Muslim "influencers," sets out to address this "gaping void in the marketing industry's knowledge of Muslims," in order to create "a body of insights and knowledge that will allow [JWT] to foster stronger connections between corporations and the world's Muslims."

Business Is Urged to See Opportunity in Muslim Community,The Times, by Tosin Sulaiman, May 21, 2007

JWT Worldwide claims to be the first global agency to identify Muslims as a consumer group and compares it to the Hispanic market in America. Marian Salzman, the chief marketing officer of JWT, Worldwide said: "Twenty years ago, if you said 'Hispanic' I'm not sure people would even know what you meant. Today it makes up about 15 percent of American consumerism."

Ms. Salzman, a New York-based trendspotter ... said that some companies were wary of targeting Muslims or including them in their advertising campaigns for fear of being labelled "Muslim brands" or offending the mainstream population, especially after the September 11 and July 7 attacks. Yet many others were showing greater interest in Muslim consumers, and JWT is encouraging clients, including Unilever, Nestlé, HSBC, Estée Lauder and Johnson & Johnson, to develop strategies to reach them.

Advertisers Rewrite the Rules for Reaching Muslims,The New York Times, by Louise Story, April 28, 2007

For years, few advertisers in the United States have dared to reach out to Muslims. ... That is beginning to change. Consumer companies and advertising executives are focusing on ways to use the cultural aspects of the Muslim religion to help sell their products.

"I think Muslims have had to draw into themselves," said Marian Salzman, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of JWT Worldwide, a large advertising agency in the WPP Group that plans to encourage clients like Johnson & Johnson and Unilever to market to American Muslims. "It puts an increased burden on a marketer post-9/11 to say, 'Look, we understand.'"

Partiers No More: New Study Finds Most College-Aged Women Prefer to Stay Home Rather Than Go Clubbing, College Times, by Dana Khraiche, March 29, 2007

"Today's strong-willed single twentysomething is a contemporary Atalanta," says Ann Mack, director of trendspotting at JWT Worldwide. "Atalanta" refers to a Greek mythological figure known for breaking conformity and living by her own rules. "She's a huntress—especially when it comes to her personal, professional and sexual pursuits—and an adventurer, experimental and exploratory in nature."

"Technology has created the ability to be always on and constantly connected," Mack said. "As a result, it's increasingly hard to find downtime, so much so that sometimes young people resort to 'binge chilling.'"

Mack believes that brands should provide products and services that would help "turn the home into a sanctuary and a place to relax with friends."

Atalanta Sania, Her New Avatar, The Indian Express, February 6, 2007

Sania Mirza has been elevated to a place among the top 25 global figures named by JWT—the largest advertising agency in the U.S. and the fourth largest in the world.

These top women are described as "Atalantas" who, according to the Greeks, [broke] with convention and refused to settle down until she finished her education and saw the world. And when she finally did marry, it was on her own terms.

In an e-mail communique to The Indian Express, JWT Worldwide's director of trendspotting Ann Mack informed: "Today's strong-willed single twentysomethings are the contemporary Atalanta. Sania is the only woman born in India to make the list."

As Ann explains, JWT expects those named to make an impact on the world in the coming years. "Essentially, these women embody who the modern-day Atalanta is—a bolder, braver woman who asserts her sense of style and power more aggressively than those of earlier generations."

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