For Those Who Sell Young

As the father of six young consumers, aged nine to 18, Chicago's Paul C. Harper Jr. is personally interested in that age group. As the president of Needham, Harper & Steers, Inc., an advertising agency with annual billings of about $90 million, he has a stake in the remarkable market made up of the nation's 25 million teenagers, who have an annual disposable income of $13 billion, buy 24% of the nation's wristwatches, 30% of its low-priced cameras, 45% of its soft drinks, and have a significant say in another $30 billion in family purchases. Last week, in a speech to Chicago businessmen, Adman Harper, 45, gave some avuncular advice on how--and how not--to woo the teen market.

Two basic points have to be kept in mind, he said. One is that there is no typical teenager. "To try to ascribe rigid characteristics to 25 million people in an open society that talks a lot about individual achievement is playing a dangerous game." The other is that young Americans are "more thoughtful than they have ever been before," and they can also be mercurial. "The surest way for an advertiser to assure being turned off or tuned out is for him to portray an obsolete fad, dance or mode of dress. Since these things can change overnight, or at least much faster than advertisers want to change commercials, it's best to avoid these transitory aspects of teen existence."

It is also best" to avoid attempts to talk teen slanguage. "It won't work for parents--and it might be disastrous for advertisers--to try to get chummy with teen-agers by telling them that their products are 'boss, tough, out of sight, fab or dyno.' Those of us who are required to establish some form of communication with teen-agers had better stick to our particular idiom of American English, or risk making damn fools of ourselves."

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