It is often said that each generation has its song, three minutes that encapsulate the era. In the 1960s, many songs could lay claim to this mantle, but that tumultuous decade may have been best captured by Bob Dylan’s classic, “Blowin’ In the Wind.” With lyrics that speak to civil rights struggles and the horrors of war, the song personifies the heaviness and seriousness of the era’s engaged youth.
The song that best personifies today’s college student is the ironically titled “Very Busy People” by The Limousines. Rather than war and civil rights, the lyrics detail young people plagued with ennui. When they manage to get out of bed, they busy themselves with their voluminous digital music libraries and watch the same movie over and over again.
Despite the wealth of information made available by digital technology and the comforts afforded by modern life, many of today’s marketing students are simply bored.
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Riley Dugan is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Dayton. He is actively involved with the Fiore Talerico Center for Professional Selling at the University of Dayton. His research concerns personal selling, sales management, and issues in sales and marketing education.
Ric Sweeney is an associate professor-educator at the University of Cincinnati’s Lindner College of Business, and is the immediate past chairman of the American Marketing Association’s Board of Directors.
James Kellaris is the James S. Womack/Gemini Corporation Professor of Signage and Visual Marketing at the University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business.