Getting the who part right

This is a story of how I am a hypocrite. Or can be.

Every baby boomer knows the tagline of the titanically weepy flick “Love Story” — “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” It’s so nauseatingly cloying that you would think the Onion invented it, but in 1970 the Onion staff wasn’t even a gleam in their parents’ eyes.

So it is with intended irony that whenever a client apologizes for something I tend to respond “Being the client means never having to say you’re sorry.” At least I did until Alia confided that she hates it every time i say it. Then I realized there is no reason Alia, who is way way south of 40 would have any reason to know the reference. So to Alia’s – and possibly a fair number of clients’ – ears the response just seems smarmy.

Busted – wrong audience.

The flip side happens too — most online donors are boomers (with some seniors and Gen-X mixed in) but most of the marketers doing the fundraising are 20 and 30-something. So I might not get your sly cultural references either.

Knowing the who part is incredibly important and easily muffed. As I learn every day.