anachronism alert! (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

But on the other hand, if the term had been lurking about in a specific
field, waiting to spread generally, the advertising industry would be
that field.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Ben Zimmer
> Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 8:33 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: anachronism alert!
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: anachronism alert!
>
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------
> -
>
> Good catch, Larry. The scene takes place on June 1, 1966 (the 40th
> birthday of Don Draper -- or rather "Don Draper," alter ego of Dick
> Whitman, whose actual 40th birthday was some months before that).
>
> --bgz
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 8:32 PM, Laurence Horn
<laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> >
> > On Sunday's season premiere of "Mad Men", set at some point in I
believe
> > the late 1968s (there was a reference to the escalating Vietnam War
> > following an earlier civil rights picket line, and another to riots,
so
> > I'm thinking maybe '67 or '68 at this point in the DVR), ad man
Harry
> > Crane looks over to a three-person group by the sofa during a
surprise
> > birthday party for Don Draper to check out the source of laughter
and
> > comments sardonically to the other ad guys he's talking to: "Oooh, a
> > Negro homosexual, Canadian sexpot, and unattached redhead--this may
be
> > my key demographic".  "Negro" and "homosexual" are of course right
for
> > the era, but "demographic" in this sense struck me as off by a
decade or
> > two, and checking the OED entry I find:
> >
> > demographic
> >
> > Draft additions December 2005
> > As a count noun: a particular section of a population, typically
defined
> > in terms of factors such as age, income, ethnic origin, etc., esp.
> > regarded as a target audience for marketing or broadcasting.
> >
> > 1984   Frederick (Maryland) Post 8 Mar. b2/3   The CBS Radio Network
> > gained in its target demographic, 25=9654 year-olds.
> >
> > --which strikes me as about right, although someone might could push
it
> > back a year or two.  But not into the Vietnam War era, much less
when
> > "the conflict" was still escalating.
>
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