03-20-2026ASK THE EXPERTS

Your stereotypes about Gen Z aren’t just inaccurate. They’re hurting your business

There’s a better way to sell to the coveted audience.

[Source Photo: Maskot/Getty Images]

Are you sick of hearing about Gen Z yet? For more than a decade, they’ve been the premier target audience for brands and entertainment. They’ve dominated trend reporting, research, and the cultural zeitgeist. But, despite all of those studies, what have we actually learned? Is there really any connective tissue that unites everyone born between 1997 and 2010?

The truth is, there is no Gen Z—not how we’ve come to define it. We’ve painted the generation as more socially conscious and purpose-driven, more addicted to technology, and credited (or blamed) them for new slang. We’ve complained that they don’t take life seriously and use humor as coping mechanisms, and that they don’t want to work or go to college. But these are the same stereotypes that have been articulated about young people for generations.

The reality is more nuanced. And unfortunately, when it comes to how brands categorize and engage different generations, nuance is not generally welcome. That disconnect has led to some pretty tone-deaf brand moments.

Take 2017’s infamous “Live for Now” Pepsi campaign—an early example of the pitfalls of broadly gesturing toward supposed Gen Z tropes and expecting it to land. On paper, Kendall Jenner heading into the streets to participate in a vague protest of some kind might seem like a great way to fulfill all of the Gen Z stereotypes. Instead, it missed the mark completely, turning Pepsi into a punchline.

Driven by radical shifts in politics, culture, economics and more, members of Gen Z are less likely to share as many commonalities as you might think. In a way, there is no Gen Z. Or, at least, brands will need to act that way if they want to stop misrepresenting one of the industry’s most coveted demographics.

Forget relying on some vague understanding of their overlapping interests. By all accounts, Gen Z is the first solocultural generation. Their practically unlimited access to information and culture from such a young age has created an incredibly individualistic view of the world, one where they all perceive the world around them differently. This then shapes how they engage with the world through algorithms and other choices, which feeds back to them an even more personalized perspective of the world. The result is a cycle where individual Gen Zers become less and less connected by shared realities.

No previous generation has dealt with such a shift—from broad, connected understandings of the world around them to complete schisms in reality—and while every generation is dealing with the impact of soloculture, Gen Z has felt the brunt of its impact the most in their pivotal developmental years.

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