Popping Up 80s and 90s (Is Nothing Sacred?!)

So I've been contemplating the use of 80s and 90s guilty pleasures in 2011 commercials for a while now. I think it all started when Old Navy and Target launched these campaigns around late summer/early fall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFz4pCl5CE4&noredirect=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp3COgnacmE&feature=related

I took notice because FACT: I may or may not have owned a Billy Ocean 45 AND/or Debbie Gibson piano book as an eight year old. I did, in fact, want to BE Debbie Gibson, so I found Old Navy's "Only in My Jeans" commercial blasphemy. You can't mess with Debbie! She's sacred!
Here's the REAL video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IivGqwQvdCI&feature=related

I mean, she was only 16! And wrote all her own lyrics! Which is probably most evident in the song "Electric Youth" (which inspired the 90s perfume by the same name....LONG before J Lo's Glo or Spears' Curious...):

Zappin it to ya...the pressure's everywhere! Goin' right through ya...the fever's in the air! Oh, yeah! It's there! Don't underestimate the power, of a lifetime ahead....


I mean, any song that can start with the phrase "Zappin' it to ya" is nothing short of lyrical genius. Please.

Then there were M&Ms and State Farm respectively:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucHCgc48Z1s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjO1AQZu2g0

And I started to take notice. Why the sudden interest in all my 80s and 90s pop music guilty pleasures?! Is nothing truly sacred anymore? Dirty Dancing? (Patrick Swayze, RIP) TLC? (Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopez, RIP).

And, sadly, it took my mother to point out to me: Julia, YOU are the demographic marketers are marketing towards now.

So, in other words: I'm 30 and I'm old.

These marketers- particularly the State Farm TLC commercial- assume that my peer group a.) has the money and b.) the power to use it. They also apparently assume we are all married with children which- if they were to even consult with my 89 year old grandmother, she would all to eagerly point out this is NOT the case for all of us, namely yours truly (and this pains her greatly. She would "just like to see a wedding before she dies, already/" Ahem.)

I actually feel a little insulted that a.) I am now old enough to be the market target for these companies and b.) that they feel the need to distort my favorite pop memories and pull on my nostalgic pop heartstrings.

I suppose these campaigns are effective and that some of my peers actually do have the money to be their target focus group. Me, however? I just have a pop blog and a deep affinity for all things 80s and pop. Which  is enough, I guess.

ps- Who's ready for the Grammys, huh?!?! It's that time of year again! Yeah!

Peace,
Julia