Rupert Murdoch impresses me, but not for being hip and cool enough to get MySpace and what it represents, but for the simple fact that he is my father’s age. While my father is yelling at the local skateboarders to “get off my lawn!” Mr. Murdoch seems to embrace these teens without hesitation. No one else seems to understand the teen demographic better except Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee.

When I was 11, I built a tree house with my best friend Dieter Hauer. It became a sanctuary. It was our place to read comic books, check out baseball cards and tell jokes. It was our own private domain where adults couldn’t venture. There was no marketing company peering over my shoulder trying to figure out where I was about to spend my parent’s allowance money. There was no Internet, at least not the one we work on today. Dieter and another buddy, Frank Workman, would ride our bicycles to the local Turkey Hill, get Coke Slushies and upon our return disappear into the leafy canopy of the treetops. It was our way of telling the world to go to hell.

No girls allowed (at least not until we turned 16). Pong wasn’t even invented yet.

MySpace is the new tree house. A sanctuary that is closely watched for trends. Eventually today’s youth will grow up and get mortgages, and have children of their own. And like us, the tree house will eventually be abandoned, replaced with a den, or a garage where I can get away from it all. MySpace will hopefully have changed into something more robust. But, as we all figure out, time for fun becomes rare.

I’m still impressed by Rupert Murdoch. After all, he is anticipating that those teenagers will grow up to be consumers. He may not live long enough to see it to fruition, but you have to admire him for that. I suddenly realize that I would like to be this hip and cool at 75. My wife got to see the tree house before we tore it down. It lasted for 25 years because we built it to last.

It just dawned on me that I am the same age as George Clooney. Maybe I am as hip and cool as George is now, and don’t have to wait until I turn 75, but that is another blog. Let’s hope that in the not too distant future we will return to a day when marketers let kids be kids.

Thanks for reading,

Brad