As American Middle Class Vanishes, Advertisers Focus Only On Richest 10%

Here's something with a plus and a minus: Most Americans will soon be free of endless advertising and marketing campaigns, because the advertising industry has decided the only money to be made is in marketing things to the last people with money, the richest 10%.

The "minus," in this case, is that only the richest 10% have any money to spend on crap anymore, so that probably means you're among the 90% now without money and also without any aspirations of ever making money. Too Muchmagazine assesses the situation:  

“Mass affluence,” as a new white paper from Ad Age , the advertising industry’s top trade journal, has just declared, “is over.”

The top 10 percent of American households, the trade journal adds, now account for nearly half of all consumer spending, and a disproportionate share of that spending comes from the top 10’s upper reaches. “Simply put,” sums up Ad Age ’s David Hirschman, “a small plutocracy of wealthy elites drives a larger and larger share of total consumer spending and has outsize purchasing influence — particularly in categories such as technology, financial services, travel, automotive, apparel, and personal care.”

If you're wondering where the cutoff is,Ad Agesays people not making household incomes of at least $200,000 are of no interest, and people not making at least $100,000 in household income by the time they're 35 are also of no interest because they're never going to become wealthy regardless of their aspirations. [ Too Much via Metafilter ]