Older Doesn’t Mean Wiser is An Important Lesson for PR Pros
On June 22, the lede of an article in the New York Times read, “The median age in the United States reached a record high of 38.9 in 2022, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau.”
That’s not surprising to followers of the political and sports scene, where “elder statesmen” have thus far dominated the news in the first half of 2023.
Thus far this year, depending upon what you think is important, there have been four occurrences associated with the aging process – two regarding politics, the others divided between baseball and football.
The two that I think are the most important were the announcements by two old-timers, President Biden and former President Trump to run for re-election, even though actuarial tables suggest that both might not be able to serve a full four year term.
The two sports-associated happenings involved two athletes who are considered old only by professional sports norms. They are quarterback Aaron Rodgers and pitcher Justin Verlander.
According to Wikipedia, the year 2023 began “on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2023rd year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations, the 23rd year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 4th year of the 2020s decade.”
The above definition is widely accepted in the U.S. and other countries, But many Chinese also consider 2023 the Year of the Water Rabbit. People born in a year of the Rabbit are called "Rabbits" and are believed to be vigilant, witty, quick-minded, and ingenious.
If Americans would follow the Chinese tradition by giving years names, the year 2023 would known as the “Year of the Old Men.” But unlike the Chinese “Rabbits,” “Old Men” in the U.S. are not necessarily believed to be vigilant, witty, quick-minded, and ingenious. (Just ask your spouses, children or grandchildren, and unless you’re leaving them a fortune, you’ll see that I’m correct.)
“Old men” have dominated the U.S. political scene for many years.
Infoglactic.com, which lists the ages of U.S. Senators says:
As of April 25, 2023, 5 senators are in their 80s, 18 are in their 70s, 32 are in their 60s, 30 are in their 50s, 14 are in their 40s, and 1 is in his 30s.
The median age of currently serving Senators is 69 years, 213 days.
The median age of taking office for currently serving Senators is 51 years, 75 days.
The median length of their Senate terms to date is 14 years, 112 days.
The “official” designation that 2023 is the “Year of the Old Men” was declared during the week of April 23, because of two announcements – one on the political scene, the other regarding sports.
First the more important of the two announcements – the one on the political scene:
On April 25, President Joe Biden announced he would run for another four year term.
Biden, now 80, will be 86 when he finishes another four year term if he is re-elected. Thus far the leading Republican candidate for president is another “oldie,” the twice-impeached and criminally indicted former President Donald Trump. No spring chicken himself, Mr. Trump is 76.
According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) the average age for a male in the U.S. is 73.5 years. (Good luck to both of them and to many readers of this column.)
(A billion dollars worth of free advice to who ever is elected: Under no circumstances do not – ever – eat any food brought to you by your vice president before having it tasted by someone else. Perhaps Tucker Carlson or Don Lemon, both of whom lost their less than scintillating cable news gigs are available for the job as “official tasters.” And then wait for a half-hour before indulging.)
Now for the less important of the two announcements – the one on the sports scene that gave the official stamp of approval to naming 2023 the “Year of the Old Men,” at least for New York teams.
On April 24, the New York Jets football team announced that Aaron Rodgers would be its starting quarterback in the 2023 season. Rodgers will turn 40 before the end of this year, not old for a normal male, according to the CDC stats, but very old by football standards.
An Associated Press story on April 25, reported that “Rodgers was the league MVP in 2020 and 2021, but didn’t perform as well last season while playing with a broken right thumb and dealing with the absence of star wideout Davante Adams, who was traded to Las Vegas. He had his lowest passer rating as a starter (91.1) and threw 12 interceptions, his highest total since 2008. The Packers went 8-9 and missed the playoffs to end a string of three straight NFC North titles.
Was the future Hall of Famer Rodgers just having a bad season? Or was his age the problem? We’ll know soon enough.
Assuming that Tom Brady doesn’t decide to ditch his retirement plans again, Rodgers will be the oldest starting quarterback in the National Football League this season.
The Jets acquired Rodgers in the hopes of him leading the team to the promised land – the Super Bowl. But research shows that while older quarterbacks – all except Brady are younger than Rodgers – have won Super Bowls, the great majority of winning teams were piloted by much younger QBs.
There is a really ancient saying, obviously coined by an old person, “The older a person gets, the wiser a person is.” It’s an adage that I’ve never agreed with because during my lifetime I’ve seen that as people get older most get more set in their ways and refuse to change with the times.
In my opinion, the “good old days” never existed, unless you like barbers filling the role of surgeons, people being burned at the stake, ancient diseases that are now easily cured by antibiotics, the U.S. Civil War, the stock market crash of 1929, the Great Depression, and more recently, 9/11 and the four years of the Donald Trump presidency, to name just a few of the “good old days” that really weren’t.
And a few words from an old-timer to Jet fans who are doing back flips since the team acquired Rodgers: Just look at the New York Mets, another team that acquired old by professional athlete standards players to lead them to a World Series title.
They’ll see that aches and pains are more important than hits and runs in determining the outcome of games when the age of the athlete is an issue.
Examples: Max Scherzer will be 39 years old before the end of this season, not old for us non-professional baseball players. But since Scherzer has joined the Mets, he has spent almost as much time recovering from aches and pains as he has pitched. Another baseball oldie, 40 years old Justin Verlander, who was on the injured list, was not able to make his first start for the Mets until May 4, five weeks after the season’s start. As with Scherzer, it appears that wear and tear on their bodies will determine the efficacy of their fast and curve balls and how many innings they can pitch without being sidelined. Thus far they haven’t shown that they can delay the aging process. Another Met pitcher, Carlos Carrasco, is 36 years old. (An article in the June 6 edition of The Athletic said, “the last team to receive 100 innings from four starters 34 or older was the 2006 Mets — whose rotation was in shambles by October.”) As it is now.
Published medical reports show that the average career length of a Major League pitcher is 10.97 years. Scherzer’s minor and Major League career is currently 16 years. Verlander is now in his 18th season as a Major League pitcher.
Depended on how it is skewed, the average career length of an NFL quarterback is between 3 and 4.44 years. This will be Rodgers 19th year as a NFL quarterback.
Even after discounting the age factor of Scherzer, Verlander and Rodgers, that’s an awful lot of wear and tear on their throwing arms. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, that past performance is no guarantee of this season's results.
In certain businesses where experience is needed being older can be an advantage. But that is not necessarily so in the sports and political businesses, or definitely in our business, where being old can be just as detrimental as being too young and inexperienced.
Hopefully, for Rodgers, Scherzer, Verlander, and all the Jet and Mets fans, Farther Time will go on vacation and the aging process will cease and permit them to play like when they were younger. But if the aging process limits their abilities the affect on our country will be de minimis.
Not so when it comes to electing a president. As an American, I fear that both President Biden and former President Trump are too old to seek the presidency again and hope they might change their minds before the nominating conventions. As President John F. Kennedy said,
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
In 2007, there was a hit movie titled “No Country for Old Men.”
If I had the funds I would produce a sequel to “No Country for Old Men,” featuring Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
The Important Lesson For PR People
Advice from older high-level management PR people regarding crafting PR plans is usually not better than what you have in mind. During my long PR career, many higher-level senior PR people, who really didn’t know much about clients’ wants because they weren’t on account teams, believed that they had to give advice to the account teams to show that they were interested. The advice was almost always sub-par, and I always ignored the uncalled for advice, because no one knows client needs better than the daily day-to-day account handlers. If you believe that your original plans are superior, say so and explain why. Because if an account turns sour, you’ll be blamed by management. Forgotten will be that you followed the uncalled for advice from people with higher titles than you who had scant knowledge about the account because they had been so busy looking at profit and loss spread sheets that they were unfamiliar with individual clients and don’t have the time to keep up with the changes occurring in the media. Also, remember that getting older doesn’t mean you’re getting wiser or more proficient at your job. It often means you’re reluctant to try new approaches.
