My mother, who would be 86 if she were alive, said something one day that meant nothing to me at the time but now haunts me. “Television makes your generation want things.” Well, duh. But the full impact of her statement didn’t hit me until I had children of my own.

My mother lived half of her life without television, but she watched her children live their whole lives with it. And she had genuine insight. We’ve changed as a species. We want what we do not need, and we now want what we do not even know about. Because in our age, everything is possible, or should be. And if it isn’t here now it will be, simply because that’s the way it is.

We expect the next miracle cure. We expect the extreme makeover. We now clamor for what doesn’t exist as if it were an inalienable right. And companies and marketers are only too willing to comply with expectations—or at least attempt to give the people what they want.

Look at the privately owned space shuttles in development. Right now they’re reserved for the rich just like horseless carriages were when they were first invented. But it won’t be long before taking a space ride will be every child’s expectation, just like going to Disney World is now.


Robert Guard is Vice President and Creative Director at Seed Strategy. Contact him at bguard@seedstrategy.com.