Content area
Full Text
Abstract. This article explores the macro-environmental (external business environment) factors of the Ok Boomer generation and their use of TikTok, based on the PESTEL model. The six key factors of the model (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) guide this article to analyze the overnight popularity of the term Ok Boomer and the integration of millennials and Generation Z into the Ok Boomer generation. This article also demonstrates why and how TikTok has risen to a powerful social media platform for brands in association with Ok Boomers. Finally, this article provides public relations practitioners with the comprehensive information on the Ok Boomer generation and their alliance with TikTok, so they can plan strategic operations to capture the interest of young consumers.
Keywords: Ok Boomers; TikTok; PESTEL model; Macro-environmental factors; Public relations strategy.
Introduction
The Gen Z-generated phrase "Ok Boomer" originated on social media platform TikTok to mock condescendingly closed-old mindedness. The phrase went viral and was acknowledged by the American public in October 2019 when the New York Times, the Washington Post, and major television outlets such as NBC, CBS, and CNN picked up the Ok Boomer virality in the national news (see sources from references). As social media plays the dominant role in communication for young people, new words and phrases created in the social media community are characterized by online dictionaries at a rapid pace. For example, Dictionary.com defines "Ok Boomer" as "a viral internet slang phrase used, often in a humorous or ironic manner, to call out or dismiss out-of-touch or close-minded opinions associated with the Baby Boomer generation and older people more generally" (2020). The phrase had been discussed in the public sphere during late 2019, and it has become popularized as the conceptual term, which introduces the Ok Boomer generation, as opposed to the Baby Boomer generation. According to Dimock (2019), the term OK Boomer as a noun cluster embraces two specific group of people: millennials (born 1981-1996) and Generation Z (born 1997-2012).
Young people use the term Ok Boomer to encounter old people who offer judgmental and narrow-minded condescension dressed up as wisdom (Roberts, 2019). As a result, the Ok Boomer generation represents those who express their disappointment and frustration against baby boomers who have taken advantage...