Turning the ‘Me Generation’ Into the ‘We Generation’

Few people think more about the aging of America than William D. Novelli. As chief executive of AARP,

the mammoth membership and advocacy group for older Americans, Mr. Novelli grapples daily with the political and social implications of the country’s changing demographics.

That might seem like a daunting job, given the proliferation of gloomy warnings that the swelling number of older people could bankrupt the Social Security system, strain the health-care system to the breaking point, and drain the pocketbooks and energy of the children who take care of them.

But where others see a looming doomsday, Mr. Novelli, 65, sees a budding revolution. In fact, he believes the social changes that will be ushered in by what he calls the “50+ generation” — especially the huge wave of baby boomers that are beginning to enter their 60s — will rival those of the Industrial Revolution and the digital revolution.

“With increased longevity adding vital and productive years to our extended lives, we have come to an important crossroads,” he writes in his new book, 50+: Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America (St. Martin’s Press). “In front of us is an unprecedented opportunity to make changes that will not only improve our own lives but also make our country stronger.”

And that, he writes, could make a big difference to charities and advocacy groups as baby boomers, healthier and better educated than their parents, decide they want to serve society in their later years.

“Everybody says, Well, they’re very selfish, boomers are the ‘me generation,’” Mr. Novelli said during an interview in his office here. But, he added, many boomers begin to think differently once they reach the age where they are called on to care for ailing parents or other relatives.

“One of the most important change moments is caregiving,” he said. “Our thesis is the ‘me generation’ becomes the ‘we generation.’ People give to charity more, people are more conscious of giving back, and now we’ve got all these boomers coming into that period of their lives.”

Mr. Novelli’s book, written with Randall (Boe) Workman, Mr. Novelli’s speechwriter at AARP, is peppered with stories about people who reached traditional retirement age and decided to devote their skills to doing good, like a man who started an organization to provide specially designed wheelchairs to poor people overseas and a woman who created a group to help Nepalese children.

In fact, AARP got its start from a woman in her 60s — Ethel Andrus, who founded the group’s predecessor, the National Retired Teachers Association, in 1947.

The book also chronicles Mr. Novelli’s own transformation from business executive (he co-founded Porter Novelli, a public-relations agency) to executive vice president of CARE, the international relief organization, to president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a group that works to limit tobacco marketing to children (where he still serves as chairman of the board).

Mr. Novelli, who joined AARP in 2000 as a public-affairs official and became CEO in mid-2001, said he always had a desire to do socially relevant work — one that crystallized after the Public Broadcasting Service became one of his clients and he met a creator of the children’s educational program Sesame Street.

“The thought struck me that marketing tools and practices could be applied to ideas, issues, and causes just as effectively as to the laundry detergents, toothpastes, and pet foods I had been promoting,” he writes in his book.

That “light bulb” moment eventually brought Mr. Novelli to AARP, which has almost 38 million members, a budget of more than $900-million, more than 2,000 employees, and 2,200 chapters nationwide.

But while Mr. Novelli’s book radiates optimism about the future, it also warns that people 50 and older will thrive only if all older people are financially secure — and that will require political fixes, such as shoring up Social Security and reining in health-care costs while providing health insurance to everyone.

AARP recently started a campaign with the Business Roundtable, an association of corporate chief executives, and the Service Employees International Union, a labor union representing public employees and others, to put pressure on policy makers to tackle those issues.

“We want to get the public to demand change, get the revolutionaries to work,” Mr. Novelli says.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Novelli discussed the themes of his book.

People don’t necessarily want to be called “seniors” anymore. How did you come up with “50+”?

We call them 50+ because that is the lowest age of membership for AARP, so these are the people we’re talking to. But also, our research suggests that when you hit that age — of course, some people are going to be 49, some people are going to be 51 — you begin to think forward. You begin to think about your parents and caregiving. You begin to think about your retirement security. You begin to think about giving back. It is almost like a watershed moment. We don’t care to call people fiftysomethings, or eightysomethings, or seniors, or Silver Surfers or whatever. So we talk about 50+ as just the best label we could come up with.

You write that the 50+ generation will lead social change on a par with the Industrial Revolution or digital revolution. Can you expand on that?

This is a demographic revolution, but it’s unique in world history. There’s not going to be another boomer cohort, at least there’s not any on the horizon. These are not people who are steelworkers and ditch diggers. These are people who are knowledge workers. Ninety percent of our population are people who are working with their heads. If you add all these different things up, what you have is a time of real profound change. Now we’re always going to be attracted to youth. But the truth of the matter is, where the bulk of the population is tends to be where the fulcrum is in society. And the bulk of the population is moving into its older years. So this is a revolutionary time.

When you look ahead 20 years, or 30 years, what do you see?

You can draw two scenarios, and I’ll tell you which one I prefer. Scenario number one is, for the first time in American history, the coming generation could be worse off than their parents. That’s never happened before. If the gridlock continues on Capitol Hill, obesity gets worse, we just don’t make the changes we have to make as society, we’re eclipsed. This could happen. I don’t think it’s going to. I think the scenario is, like all other moments in American history, we have risen to the occasion.

How do you reach out to younger people who are sick of hearing about boomers?

We are very conscious of that. Our members are 50 and older. But we don’t just care about those people. We care about their families, because that’s who they care about. Right now younger people are worried, there’s a certain disillusionment out there. They’re worried that Social Security won’t be there, they can’t afford a house, they’re changing jobs to get a $2,000 raise, there’s no portability to their pensions or their health coverage. When we do our research about messages, about issues, we don’t do just 50 and older. We used to, but we don’t anymore.

What kind of adjustments did you have to make to move into the nonprofit world?

I didn’t have to make many adjustments because I was very comfortable and familiar with the public sector. But I have seen a lot of people moving from the private sector into the public sector, and it’s not that easy a transition. There’s a certain amount of smugness that goes with it. It’s like, I’ve made some money, or I’ve been able to sell widgets, and now I’m going to teach these nonprofit people how to do it.

It’s actually harder to do social change than it is to do commercial business because you oftentimes have less of a budget, the behaviors you’re dealing with are tougher behaviors. Getting somebody to buy a low-interest product like toilet paper or cereal or something is a hell of a lot easier than trying to get them to quit smoking or vote for a certain issue or do something that’s high involvement.

When I first came here, if somebody wanted to challenge me, they’d say, “You’re making this place too corporate.” And I’d say, “What do you mean by that?” And finally, after a bunch of groping and probing, what they were saying is, “We don’t want to lose our soul.”

Of course, I bleed over this mission. There’s no greater mission in the world than AARP’s. And I say, “Don’t worry, we’re not going to lose our soul, that’s who we are, that’s what we do.”