Lesson I Learned from a 21st Century Podcast

How many of you are old enough to remember the TV show “The Jetsons”?

It was a cartoon that premiered in 1962 based on a futuristic family that lived in the 21st century. Now that we have actually reached that point in time, I would like to share with you a few things I learned from listening to a podcast on the subject recently.

A great marketing show that I like to listened to is Terry O’Reilly’s “Under the Influence” on CBC radio. You can check it out here:

Under the Influence home page

One of the past episodes talked about brands that have come out since the start of the 21st century and compared them to what the old TV show “The Jetsons” envisioned our lives to be like now.

Here are some of the innovations the writers of the show predicted we would have back in 1962:

•  Flatscreen 3D TV (many people have these now)
•  Video newspapers (iPads and smart phones)
•  Video chatting (Skype and others)
•  A robot vacuum cleaner (iRobot Roomba)
•  A tanning bed (these came out before 1970)
•  A moving sidewalk (in many airport terminals)

Nowadays, most of these products are taken for granted, but back in 1962 (just 55 years ago), they were things that people only dreamed about.

Some of the things, like flying cars, we are still waiting for, but it is uncanny how many of the futuristic items we already have.

Ideas