There it was: the umpteenth TV commercial featuring a woman doing the housework. You fill in the brand: PAM, Tide, McCormick’s, or even hip Target — all relegate women to that subsidiary role of “happy homemaker.” You would think the Renaissance thinkers in advertising could come up with something more enlightening.

That enlightenment might include reviewing “A Woman’s Nation” — a recent report authored by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, whose first paragraph is telling:

“Earlier this year, the Center for American Progress decided to closely examine the consequences of what we thought was a major tipping point in our nation’s social and economic history: the emergence of working women as primary breadwinners for millions of families at the same time that their presence on America’s payrolls grew to comprise fully half the nation’s workforce.”

This whirlwind of change is being propelled by the growing power of women, which traces its roots to the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y. in 1848, but which got a big shot in the arm when Lucy Stone became the first woman to keep her own name after marriage in 1855 (see Timeline at end of story).

That the role of women has changed materially since the days so well-portrayed in such movies as Revolutionary Road is crystal clear. Yet, as The Shriver report duly notes, “What today’s 8-to-19-year-olds are taking in about the role of men and women in the workplace and society through the lens of various media…could affect the life and career choices of our next generation.”

Those career choices are multiplying daily. In India, the navy has now stationed its first female airborne tacticians, a move that places women squarely in combat roles. In the U.S., Kayla Kelly wants to be among the first women to serve on a U.S. Navy submarine.

In her concession speech, U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton used a pointed analogy to describe the ascent of women: “Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it has about 18 million cracks in it and the light is shining through like never before.”

The rising clout of the female gender is being propelled by an Ubertrend we’ve dubbed the “Woman’s Acceptance’s Factor” — a play on “WAF” — a 90s online phenomenon that’s a subtrend of this female uprising. The Woman’s Acceptance Factor is reshaping society in a number of ways:

• Education — At colleges nationwide, women are walking off with a disproportionate share of honors degrees. That’s due to the fact that women now make up 58% of those enrolled in two- and four-year colleges and are, overall, the majority in graduate schools and professional schools too. Moreover, in two national studies, college men reported they studied less and socialized more than their female classmates. As a result, women now receive 52% of all high school diplomas, 62% of associate’s degrees, 57% of bachelor’s degrees and 50% of doctoral degrees and professional degrees.
• Workforce — Women, for the first time, make up half (49.9% as of July 2009) of all workers on U.S. payrolls, reports The Shriver Report. This is a major shift from just over a generation ago. In 1969, women made up only a third of the workforce (35.3%), based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
• Breadwinners — Only one in five families with children (20.7%) is made up of a traditional male breadwinner and female homemaker, compared to 44.7% in 1975, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. In 1975, 4 in 10 mothers with a child under age 6 (39.6%) worked outside the home, but by 2008, that share had risen to two-thirds (64.3%), according to an analysis by the Minnesota Population Center. A study, released in 2006, suggests that a full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work.
• Work equality — While the typical full-time woman worker brings home 77 cents on the dollar compared to her male colleagues, the gender gap has narrowed – it was 59 cents on the dollar in the early 70s. Yet according a 2008 census by Catalyst, only 15.7% of Fortune 500 officers and 15.2 percent of directors were women. Unfortunately, the rising power of women has also fostered a negative side effect. Fully 40% of workplace bullies are now women, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute. And while male bullies intimidate men and women equally, women choose other women as targets more than 70% of the time.
• Home life — Nearly all U.S. women, or 94%, are satisfied with their lives and ability to balance multiple roles and responsibilities, but only half of married/partnered women, or 51%, are satisfied with their sex lives, while 49% are satisfied with the division of labor at home, according to a Meredith/NBC Universal survey.
• Purchase influence — Boston Consulting Group estimates that women control $4.3 trillion of the $5.9 trillion in U.S. consumer spending, or 73% of household spending. In his book “Re-imagine!” Tom Peters suggests that U.S. women also control about $1.5 trillion more in business outlays. And that influence extends substantially outside of traditional “housekeeping” items, judging from the number of “WAF” online discussion threads. WAF was popularized by the Home Theater Spot, which provided men with a discussion forum for obtaining advice on how to obtain their better half’s approval before, or heaven forbid after, acquiring new gear. Humorously entitled “The Wife Acceptance Factor — Not in my house,” these online discussions provide an unusually intimate glimpse into the changing consumer landscape. The WAF phenomenon cogently illustrates just how much decision-making power women have gained at home.

The Woman’s Acceptance’s Factor is spreading globally. NPR reports that in many Asian countries husbands hand their earnings to women who give them a small allowance. The phenomenon even has its own saying: “A woman is a slave before marriage, but a general after.”

Yet the world of TV commercials, and Hollywood movies to a lesser extent, continue to subjugate women as “housekeepers.” Never mind that the new president of Chile is Michelle Bachelet, or that Oprah is media’s most powerful figure, or that female high-school teachers are zeroing in on their young, male targets with a zeal characteristic of men. And what about the parallel “cougar” trend?

The media frenzy accompanying the cougar phenomenon, which is a role reversal of sorts that has older women chasing younger men, has significantly reshaped the opinions of the sexuality of older women in society. Why there’s even a Cougar Convention planned for the fourth quarter of 2010 in Las Vegas.

“Heading South,” a tale about older single women visiting 1970’s Haiti in a female version of sex tourism, drew big crowds to theaters in 2006, and preceded society’s current fascination with “cougars.”

From the look of things, the Woman’s Acceptance Factor is truly shattering the glass ceiling. Now if only Madison Avenue would revisit this shifting landscape and begin casting men in home-keeping roles, we could all enjoy more pleasurable pursuits.

Woman’s Acceptance Factor Trend Gallery
Below are more phenomena that emanate from the WAF Ubertrend.

No one rose to national prominence faster than Debra LaFave, a Florida school teacher who was convicted of sleeping with a young high school student. A woman acting like a man? A sure sign of the times.

In the 60s the “Rat Pack” ruled Las Vegas. Today’s pack is four young women: Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie. And don’t let outward appearances deceive you, because these women have already created far more havoc than Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and crew ever did.

The consumer electronics industry is finally taking notice of the growing purchasing power of women and their concomitant WAF influence. Makers of electronics gadgets are designing products that appeal more to women, relying on sculpted designs that are less boxy and feature a broader color selection than the “I want to have it in black” male atmosphere that usually rules this marketplace.

Women are infiltrating all kinds of sports formerly reserved for men. Danica Patrick won the Indianapolis 500 “Rookie of the Year” award in 2005, when she burst onto the car racing scene.

Woman’s Acceptance Factor Time Line

Source: Dec. 2009 Ubercool Inc.

They stand in long lines eager to gain entry into one of the city’s celebrated nightclubs. Once they slip by those over-sized 350-pound doormen, they line up again at the bar, where they usually wait three-deep for a chance to scream orders at bartenders who make hundreds of $10 cocktails hourly. Welcome to Tao Las Vegas. Welcome to Generation X-tasy.

It could have been any city. Just fill in your favorite DJ-hosted affair. Clubbing has replaced traditional watering holes. In Chicago, the number of taverns plummeted from 7,000 in 1947 to just 1,321 today, as nightclubs redefined the entertainment experience.

And how could they possibly compete with Tao? Its 60,000-square-foot interior features a 20-foot golden Buddha, and enough stylish, scantily clad people gyrating on the dance floor to provide copious eye candy for any of the 600,000 annual diners who spend $70 on average per meal.

Immersive experiences have become de rigueur for attracting thrill-seeking patrons. In fact, Tao Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel, is the highest grossing independent restaurant in the U.S., according to Restaurants & Institutions magazine, which has been ranking the top 100 for 24 years. In 2006, its first full year of operation, Tao netted $55.2 million, or $16 million more than its closest competitor, New York’s Tavern on the Green.

The experiential restaurant trend began in Amsterdam, where in 1990 supperclub began combining dining with exotic theatrical performances — the serving staff are accomplished artists — plus art, all enjoyed from the comfort of your own bed, ushering in two dining trends that would spread globally.

In September 2005, San Francisco became first U.S. outpost of Amsterdam’s supperclub, featuring performers like “Fauxnique,” who add spice to the dining experience. (Photo courtesy: Colin Vincent for supperclub S.F.)

Generation X-tasy can be traced as far back as the bible, but a modern-day milestone was Nevada’s 1931 legalization of gambling. Gambling revenues boosted Las Vegas’ status as America’s Mecca of adult entertainment — reinforced by its telling tagline, “What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas,” a motto that has become a pop culture icon of sorts.

If Las Vegas is the capital of Generation X-tasy then Steve Wynn is surely its chairman. When Wynn opened the Mirage in 1987, he single-handedly put Las Vegas on its current course of palatial excess. The crown title now belongs to The Venetian, which with its 3,025-room The Palazzo wing is the world’s largest hotel with a jaw-dropping 7,074 rooms.

“Moderation is a fatal thing,” Oscar Wilde wrote in an 1893 play. “Nothing succeeds like excess.” Were Wilde alive today, he would find plenty of evidence to support his prescient observation, and would be highly amused by that annual American ritual of Spring Break.

Each year, Cancun welcomes more than 100,000 visitors for Spring Break, which has transformed Cancun’s nightlife. In many U.S. seaside communities, Spring Break has actually become a legal specialty as lawyers help bail out the many arrested “party animals.” That party culture even spilled over to the apparel business in 2005 when Ted Baker introduced the “Party Animal Tuxedo,” a spill-resistant tux for dressy imbibers.

The term “party animal” was elevated to a new cultural stature when apparel maker Ted Baker in 2005 launched the “Party Animal Tuxedo” — a spill-resistant tux lined with Teflon.

But Generation X-tasy rules far more than wanton excess. The cruise-line business has also experienced a sea-change shift, so to speak. Today, it’s not merely enough to provide passengers with comfortable sleeping quarters. Ships have become floating cities, replete with such eclectic attractions as a football-field-size version of Central Park, containing a town square with dining and entertainment, occupying five stories of the 16-deck “Project Genesis” ship, which is set to launch in 2010.

Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas will feature an amphitheater, called the AquaTheater, and a rock-climbing wall, able to provide outdoor entertainment to some of the ship’s 6,300 passengers, when it sets sail on December 12.

While the entertainment, travel and hospitality markets are most influenced by Generation X-tasy, the real estate market is also showing signs of adopting the trend. Joining such global gambling playgrounds as Las Vegas and Macau, the middle east is redefining itself through Dubai and up-and-coming Abu Dhabi.

Dubai’s man-made Palm Island, an island resembling a palm, quickly sold out, as home buyers fan around the globe in search for new experiences. Palm Island was able to draw such high-profile home buyers as David Beckham and Simon Cowell, who are part of a British contingent that makes up about 25% of the island’s 120,000 residents.

The Generation X-tasy Ubertrend is encouraging consumers to venture further away from home in search of new experiences, which explains why groundbreaking projects like Dubai’s Palm Island quickly sold out, mostly to foreigners.

Palm Island is but one real-estate project that has its eyes set on luxury buyers. The Generation X-tasy Ubertrend is chiefly responsible for propelling a global luxury market that reached $270 billion in 2008, according to Bain & Co., and is spurring a “price is no object” trend that has led to $2 million automobiles like the Bugatti Veyron or $62,000 lipstick from Guerlain.

The luxury set likes to stay in opulent quarters and it has found a ready supply of hoteliers who cater to them. The Ritz-Carlton Moscow opened its doors in July 2007 featuring the three-Michelin-star Jeroboam restaurant, which boasts a private wine room offering a $68,000 bottle of ’61 Grand Cru. A mere $600 gets you a “nightlife butler,” who helps guests avoid velvet ropes while exploring Moscow’s electric nightclub scene.

The overdoing it trend has also led to a peculiar new phenomenon: eating contests. Who could have ever imagined that someone might be able to consume 66 hot dogs, or more than 20,000 calories, in 12 minutes flat? Nathan’s International Hot Dog Eating Contest, which draws participants from all over the world who vie for its gluttony title, is perhaps one of the best barometers for societal excess.

Experiential can also be harrowing, like when it arrives in the form of “Parkour” — an acrobatic sport that originated in the streets of Paris and that was featured in Madonna’s “Jump” music video. Participants run and vault through an urban jungle equipped with nothing more than a pair of running shoes, bouncing off walls, jumping over roofs and using any human-built obstacle as part of their parcours (circuit).

Parkour is an urban sport designed for Generation X-tasy: it involves racing through the urban landscape and using any obstacle as a springboard.

Dangerous sports, and we won’t even delve into the extreme fighting trend, are expressive elements of the Generation X-tasy Ubertrend. From the startling edifices of Dubai to the cavernous castles of Las Vegas to the “Fantasy Island” flavor of today’s theme parties, Generation X-tasy is driven by a need to stand out.

And the need to stand out gets greater with each introduction of something even more remarkable, something more extraordinary. It’s a trend that’s best illustrated every time someone sighs, with classic signs of ennui, “been there, done that.”

At defense contractor Raytheon, engineer Percy Spencer notices something peculiar. While testing a new vacuum tube, called a magnetron, a candy bar melts in his pocket. Intrigued, Spencer places some popcorn near the tube and watches in awe as kernels begin popping all over his lab counter.

Raytheon engineers quickly refine Spencer’s discovery and, in late 1946, file for a patent covering the use of microwaves to cook food. And so the microwave oven is born.

Across town in Cambridge, Mass. that same year, three-year-old Jennifer tugs at her dad’s pants and whispers, “daddy it takes so long to see pictures.” Jennifer’s father happens to be Edwin Land and on November 26, 1948, the Polaroid Land Camera goes on sale in New York for $89.95.

Both devices are destined to accustom America to the idea of instant gratification, thereby ushering in a whole new lifestyle aspect: the compression of time and the attendant acceleration of life.

But perhaps the most significant development in this quickly developing trend had yet to occur. While operating their first restaurant, the Airdome, in San Bernardino, California, brothers Dick and Maurice (“Mac”) McDonald come to the conclusion that the future of consumer restaurants lays in mass production and speed of service.

So, on December 12, 1948, at 14th and E Street, they open their first McDonald’s restaurant, which sells 15¢ burgers and 10¢ fries, using a new “Speedee Service System.”

The most significant Time Compression development was the opening of the first McDonald’s restaurant at 14th and E Street in San Bernardino, Calif. on December 12, 1948. Using their a “Speedee Service System,” brothers Dick and Maurice (“Mac”) McDonald established a $24 billion player in a $107 billion global fast-food market.

While White Castle, another fast food chain, was founded much earlier in Wichita, Kansas in 1921, it was McDonald’s, particularly under the aegis of Ray Kroc, who acquired McDonald’s in 1961 and moved the company to Des Plaines, Ill., that would become synonymous with the embryonic fast-food industry, selling one billion hamburgers by 1963.

More than a half century later, life continues to speed up. In November 2006 at an Adtech industry confab, Akamai Technologies CEO Paul Sagan noted that 75% of the 1,058 people surveyed by Jupiter Research would not return to a Web site that took longer than four seconds to load (PDF; page 7).

That figure was down markedly from the seven or eight seconds mentioned just five years earlier. This shorter attention span, which some ascribe to attention deficit disorder (ADD), a human affliction first identified in 1981, is but one result of one of the most profound Ubertrends sweeping society today: Time Compression.

That’s so 80s… so 1999… so last week… so yesterday… so last minute. It’s becoming abundantly clear that time and its related meanings are morphing in a cloud of time-tunnel dust.

Time Compression exploded during the decade of the 80s. When asked how they were doing, people suddenly began answering “busy” instead of the more customary “good” or “good.” This subtle shift in social dialog underscored the sea-change shift that had taken place in the consumer’s mind.

While the 40s and 50s ushered in such behavioral accelerants as instant photography, microwave cooking, fast food and the commercial jetliner, Time Compresssion in the 80s was reignited by a new set of phenomena, including the fax machine, FedEx and voicemail. All contributed to far more efficient office communication, a cornerstone ingredient of the acceleration process.

The advent of voicemail, in particular, reshaped the traditional secretarial role, forcing managers to fend for themselves. That meant forgoing that two-martini lunch, which had become a staple of doing business during the 70s, and which was usually followed by a blizzard of “While you were out” pink message slips.

E-mail, the increasingly pervasive mobile phone and the appearance of the Internet in the 90s further served to mainstream Time Compression. By 1996, 59% of Americans polled described themselves as busy, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey, with 19% reporting that they were “painfully” busy.

Meanwhile the blizzard of information that crossed every worker’s desk increased exponentially, driven in large part by the Internet, leading to a new phenomenon: “information anxiety,” a syndrome that two thirds of global managers suffered from, Reuters reported in October 1996.

Multitasking, another distinct by-product of Time Compression, has quickly grown into a mandatory skill set. In 2004, columnist P.J. Bernanski first notes seeing “good at multi-tasking” mentioned on resumés.

Time Compression hurtles forward partly because marketers and media encourage society to speed things up, as this National car rental sign, spotted in San Francisco airport, pointedly illustrates.

The vagaries of time have had a deleterious effect on disposable time. Not surprisingly, most Americans no longer have time to devote to traditional leisure activities.

A survey by employment firm Hudson, cited in a May 21, 2007 BusinessWeek article, found that more than half of U.S. workers fail to take all their vacation days, with 30% saying they use less than half their allotted time, and another 20% taking only a few days instead of a week or two.

Americans take even less vacation than the Japanese, the people responsible for karoshi — the phenomenon of “being worked to death.” If anything, U.S. workers simply perfected a habit that found its origins in the land of the rising sun.

And if less time is available for vacation, related leisure categories are certain to also suffer. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service notes that the number of anglers has dropped 12% since 2001, Newsweek reported in a June 16, 2007 article. During the same five-year period ending in 2006, the number of hunters fell by 4%.

Meanwhile, the total number of people who play golf has declined or remained flat each year since 2000, dropping to about 26 million from 30 million that year, according to the National Golf Foundation and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, The New York Times reported on February 21, 2008.

Is it any surprise then that one of America’s favorite pastimes, shopping, has also been affected by the vagaries of Time Compression? In 2007, $97 billion was spent on gift cards, according to TowerGroup, as more shoppers chose to save time by turning to this increasingly popular gift-buying shortcut.

The Wall Street Journal reported on June 27, 2007 that the average Wal-Mart shopper spends 21 minutes in the store yet only finds seven of the 10 items on his or her shopping list. As a result, the chain is trying to improve store navigation in order to help harried consumers find things faster.

Now imagine the impact Time Compression will have on shopping when consumers discover that the typical one-hour trip to the mall costs about $30 at the average hourly pay for managers and professionals, according to a May 9, 2005 BusinessWeek article. Since that $30 more than compensates shipping charges for a typical online order, it will become increasingly harder in the busy future to justify most shopping trips.

As consumers pack ever more activities into their busy, multitasking days, they are resorting to sleeping less. In the 1920s, the average U.S. adult slept 8.8 hours in each 24-hour period. That figure has declined to six hours and 40 minutes on weeknights.

No wonder energy drinks have exploded into a $40 billion worldwide business (PDF) since 1987, fueled primarily by a thirsty clubbing crowd, who seek to boost their energy level by packing in just one more frenetic experience.

Coffee retail has become a $70 billion global business, compared to just $30 billion a decade ago, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, all propelled by an insatiable urge to “pump up” — to have enough energy to make it through a typical busy, multitasking-laden day.

That time is now more valuable than money was conclusively proven by research firm Yankelovich, who in December 2006 reported that, “More than half (56%) of all consumers, at all income levels, say lack of time is a bigger problem for them than lack of money.”

With time now considered more valuable than money, the state of mind has become a state of time.

A Time Compression Time Line

Source: Mar. 2009 Ubercool Inc.

Rodney King’s 1991 beating was a watershed moment in modern history. Not only was it groundbreaking because police violence was captured on video, but it also helped propel a new Ubertrend, Voyeurgasm, which points to a future where just about everything will be captured by digital cameras or camcorders.

Since then, an explosion in high-profile events have been captured on video, including Beyoncé tripping on stage (since removed from the Web with Sony’s assistance), the Concorde crash, September 11, Paris Hilton’s “sex-capade” and President’s Bush’s shoe-throwing incident, O.J. Simpson’s infamous car chase, plus countless other police-car chases, and violent teen beatings.

Voyeurgasm dates back to the beginning of humankind itself, but with the assistance of manmade tools became a force over the past few centuries. The painting was the first device to help budding voyeurs catch glimpses of others, in robes or not. Then, in 1839 Louis Daguerre came along with his daguerrotype and ushered in the photographic revolution that allowed any consumer to capture images on film.

But there’s no question that digital technology, specifically camcorders; mobile phones equipped with cameras and video; webcams and surveillance cameras have helped whip this Ubertrend into a frenzy. In February 2005, the world’s videophiles gained an outlet, YouTube, that in four short years has grown into a medium that serves 14.3 billion videos each month, according to Comscore.

Sanyo’s new DMX-HD2000 is the latest in a series of compact camcorders that delivers “full” high-definition video, 1080p progressive video at 60 fps, using a state-of-the-art SDHC card (stores up to 32GB without moving parts). Once tools like these get in the hands of the YouTube generation, all eyes will be on us.

In fact, it’s the video camera that will be built into every mobile phone sold in the very near future that will make it possible to record virtually every live event and distribute it automatically.

The first inkling of this came on new year’s day January 1, 2009, when a bystander used a cellphone to catch a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police officer killing 22-year-old Oscar Grant. That mobile phones will soon catch every police misdeed was also underscored by a video that caught a New York police officer knocking a Critical Mass bicyclist right off his bicycle in front of horrified bystanders.

Of course, Voyeurgasm has also been a boon for the police themselves, catching an endless string of people red-handed in the midst of everyday crime. Madeline Toogood beating her daughter in 2002 was one of the earliest examples of child abuse caught on surveillance video. That has been followed by a flood of other captures, like that Orlando woman who was caught “power-washing” her child in a car wash last year.

But surveillance cameras have also done their share of spreading the good news, as when one camera on duty recorded the miracle landing of US Airways Flight 1549 for posterity.

Because video cameras are omnipresent, being among peers is no longer as safe as it used to be, as Prince Harry found out when he mocked gays and Asians in a secret video that somehow made its way to the press. Michael Phelps discovered much the same when he was caught smoking a bong during a college party at the University of North Carolina.

The Internet in particular has been a boon for Voyeurgasm, or “digital rubbernecking,” as you might call it. On President Obama’s inauguration, CNN alone streamed 21.3 videos of the inauguration.

Expect Voyeurgasm to completely remake media, as the YouTubes, MySpaces and Flickrs of the world conspire with billions of camera phones, digital cameras, camcorders plus surveillance cameras to create a brave new media experience where just about anything goes.

High-definition technology will raise the quality of home videos, some of which are bound to end up on television, which is also transitioning to HDTV. That will significantly turn up the graphic volume now produced by the world’s videophiles.

Our national obsession with celebrities led New Scientist magazine to conclude in 2003 that one-third of Americans were suffering from something it called “celebrity-worship syndrome” (CWS), a figure that’s probably around 50% by now, judging by the massive amounts of publicity that blogs like Perez Hilton and TMZ.com have attracted with their celebrity-peeking adventures.

The “pixel paparazzi” now stand at the ready for any opportunity to capture a Britney Spears “oops I did it again” moment so treasured by a celebrity obsessed culture.

Voyeurgasm’s impact on media consumption is already well-documented. In 1992, MTV debuted “Real World,” a show about seven strangers who share a house, which started the reality show trend in earnest. “Big Brother,” created in the Netherlands by Van der Mol Studios, became a big hit in the U.K. in 2000.

“Big Brother” was buoyed by the popularity of peeping-tom webcams, like JenniCam, and was quickly followed by a series of me-too shows, such as “Survivor” and “The Bachelor,” proving that people do indeed like to watch. Today, a plethora of reality shows clog the airwaves.

The public’s fascination with celebrities combined with reality shows produced a logical fad, “celebrity reality,” popularized by the 2003 MTV show “Newlyweds,” a reality show based on a celebrity couple. That unleashed “The Simple Life,” “The Osbournes,” “Celebrity Fit Club,” “The Surreal Life,” “Hogan Knows Best” and our favorite vomit-inducing reality NBC’s “Fear Factor.”

Today, reality shows have are a standard staple among TV viewers. Our look-at-me culture has fueled a dizzying array of TV shows, ranging from the bizarre to the outrageous. VH1’s “Flavor of Love,” starring Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav, featured a “spitting” incident that defined the term “voyeurgasmic.”

Another change brought on by Voyeurgasm is the growing role of transparency in everything we do. From public disclosure to glass-walled bathrooms to see-through restaurant kitchens, society is rapidly vaulting towards a future where being able to see one’s innermost processes will become an essential element. Transparency certainly shaped the Obama presidential campaign.

Beijing’s The Emperor Hotel, designed by internationally-renowned designers, Graft Labs, shows how Voyeurgasm has even infiltrated hotel design: a growing number of hotels now feature transparent showers and bathrooms.

In the past few years, the video surveillance industry has experienced growth rates of 15% to 20% a year, double the rate of just three years ago, reports JP Freeman CEO Joe Freeman, a security consulting company in 2003.

London now has more surveillance cameras monitoring its citizens than any other major city in the world. In all, there are some 500,000 cameras in the city, and one study suggested that in a given day a person could expect to be videotaped at least 300 times.

The city’s highly visible cameras are posted on corners of many buildings, on new buses and in every underground station. And since 2003, the license plate of every car driving into central London during weekdays is being recorded as part of a program to reduce traffic congestion. London charges a fee to cars it records but also uses the videos to catch and fine cheats.

As “cams” become cheaper and sharper, it’s only a matter of time before virtually everything is captured digitally. Still, as Rodney King’s case proved, Voyeurgasm can often have beneficial results.

In his groundbreaking 1956 book “The Stress of Life,” Hungarian professor Hans Selye, then living in Montreal, introduces society to the concept of “stress” — the first notable by-product of faster living. Appearing just eight years after the introduction of the McDonald’s and four years after the world’s first passenger jet flight, stress began its inexorable lifestyle ascent.

Today stress is pervasive. Seven out of 10 U.S. adults say they experience stress daily, according to the ADAA’s 2007 Stress & Anxiety Disorders Survey. More telling, 51% of teenagers now say they feel stressed out either all the time or sometimes, according to a 2004 MRI TeenMark survey.

But stress is but one modern phenomenon. Another trend influencing today’s lifestyle is a longer lifespan. An average person now lives two full generations longer than just 100 years ago, which will cause the 65+ U.S. population to more than double, reaching 82 million by 2050.

The trend has lead to the growing realization that 60 is the new 40, a trend that has garnered its own label: middlessence or troisième age (third age) in France.

With middle age redefined, people have to take much better care of themselves — the chief driving force behind the Fountain of Youth Ubertrend. This significant force is reshaping the way consumers around the globe choose to unwind, remain healthy and stay in shape, lifting the fortunes of the health and fitness and rejuvenation markets.

While the western world’s 450 million Baby Boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, are the primary drivers of the Fountain of Youth Ubertrend, their offspring will only reinforce this phenomenon, given that any child born around the millennium will live to be well over 100 years old.

This also explains why our youth- and celebrity-obsessed culture has helped shape a beauty and rejuvenation industry estimated to be a $128 billion in the U.S. alone. Here’s a capsule overview of all subtrends propelled by the Fountain of Youth:

Anti-aging Medicine

The anti-aging industry is currently estimated at $79 billion worldwide, according to the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine (A4M).

A4M has reportedly certified more than 1,500 doctors in anti-aging medicine since 1996. And while no clinical evidence exists to support this avant-garde dabbling in non-FDA approved medicine, early patient feedback points to startling results.

“Age management” treatments include megadoses of supplements, such as DHEA, glucosamine, Omega3 and anti-oxidant vitamins C and E, bolstered by human growth hormone (HGH), plus a dose of testosterone to increase libido and energy.

Human growth hormone (HGH) therapy is an essential part of age-management techniques and is typically administered via easy-to-use syringes, which were originally designed for children, like Genotropin’s MiniQuick (click on picture above to see instructional video).

A placebo-controlled, randomized study of people 65 and older in 2003 found that growth hormones increased lean body mass and decreased fat mass, however some study subjects also experienced frequent side effects including diabetes and glucose intolerance.

While most HGH prescriptions are written for children, 74% in 2004 went to people ages 20 and older. Sales of HGH in 2004 totaled $622 million for legitimate and non-legitimate uses. Pfizer’s Genotropin was one of the HGH drugs reportedly used by baseball player Barry Bonds, who morphed from a skinny Pittsburgh player into a muscular San Francisco Giant, and who suddenly, at age 37, hit a record-setting 73 home runs in 2001.

Body Shaping (Minimally Invasive)

Non- or minimally invasive treatments, which require little or no downtime, so-called “lunchtime procedures,” are obviously strongly preferred by consumers and are rapidly gaining in popularity. Lasers and other devices that claim to “firm and smooth” aging skin are among the fastest-growing cosmetic procedures.

Some doctors who have used the equipment wonder about its effectiveness and criticize aggressive promotions by manufacturers, laser centers and medical spas.

The UltraShape Contour 1, from Israel-based UltraShape, uses ultrasound technology to destroy fat cells. The Contour 1 is being used in Europe for “lunch-hour” procedures ($1,500-$2,000) and awaits FDA approval in the U.S.

Nevertheless, revenues for body-shaping treatments were estimated to be $4.2 billion worldwide in 2005, the last year for which data is available, and are expected to rise to $7.5 billion in 2010, according to Medical Insight, an Aliso Viejo, Calif. research firm.

Cosmetic Dentistry

Aging boomers and reality television shows that make over a person’s appearance have lead to double-digit revenue growth among some dentists performing cosmetic dentistry. In fact, elective dental procedures, which typically account for 20% of a dentist’s practice, are growing fast, particularly among women who account for nearly three-fourths of these procedures.

An American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD) survey found a 300% increase in tooth-whitening treatments in the past five years. The media-propelled trend has become a $2.75 billion industry, according to AACD, equal to about 4% of the $70-billion-a-year U.S. dental industry.

Facial Rejuvenation (Minimally Invasive)

A recent article in The Archives of Dermatology concludes that three anti-aging treatments are clinically proven effective: the topical application of retinol, carbon-dioxide laser resurfacing and injection of hyaluronic acid, a moisture-retaining acid that occurs naturally in the skin.

Connective tissue cells, called “Fibroblasts,” secrete a complex group of polysaccharides and proteins that create collagen, which gives skin its shape and elasticity while supporting blood vessels that permeate it. Collagen tissue is maintained by a mechanical tension with these skin cells.

While skin naturally deteriorates as it ages, it’s sunlight exposure that inhibits the ability of fibroblasts to produce collagen. That explains why hands, face, neck and the upper chest area suffer more than unexposed skin, and also why light-pigmented people wrinkle more readily than others.

First synthesized in 1955, Accutane was approved by Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in September 1982 and became a best-seller for its maker Roche, who sells more than $300 million annually of the retinoid. It also has become a big headache for Roche as Accutane also harbors dangerous side-effects, particularly for pregnant women.

In cosmetics, retinoid forms of vitamin A are used as anti-aging chemicals, because once absorbed by the skin, retinoids help increase skin turnover, resulting in an increase in collagen and providing a more youthful appearance.

Demand for anti-aging injectables is also booming. In December 2003, the FDA approved the use of Restylane for smoothing wrinkles and enhancing lips, which resulted in a whole new rejuvenation category, dubbed “facial fillers.”

Medicis Pharmaceutical’s Restylane and Perlane are widely considered leaders in the facial filler market. Allergan, best known for its Botox anti-wrinkle serum, received FDA approval for facial filler Juvéderm in June 2006, and is quickly gaining ground.

As doctors and patients become more familiar with the art of filling, facial “remodeling” is destined to become a major market force. The U.S. facial filler market is already worth about $250 million a year, estimates San Mateo, Calif.-based BioForm, triple the figure of just four years ago.

Restylane, manufactured by Medicis Pharmaceutical, is a gel made of an organic material that eventually breaks down, in this instance hyaluronic acid found in roosters’ combs.

New to the market is Allergan’s Juvéderm, which competes with Radiesse, a cosmetic treatment made by BioForm Medical, and market leader Restylane.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) reports that the number of minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures rose by 9% in 2007, to nearly 10 million procedures, with a big jump in demand for hyaluronic acid fillers, including Restylane, Hylaform and Juvederm.

The top five minimally-invasive procedures were Botox (4.6 million, up 13% from 2006), hyaluronic acid fillers (1.1 million, up 35%), chemical peel (1 million, down 4%), laser hair removal (906,000, up 2%) and microdermabrasion (897,000, up 10%).

The popularity of Botox, an injectable muscle relaxant that smoothes foreheads and crows feet, has resulted in $1.4 billion in sales for maker Allergan in 2008, according to the company.

Botox, one of the most poisonous naturally occurring neurotoxins in the world, reportedly generated $1.4 billion in worldwide sales for drug maker Allergan in 2008.

When the Food and Drug Administration approved Botox for cosmetic use in 2002, it helped spark a cultural phenomenon that included Botox parties, Botox gift cards and, of course, Botox humor.

Pharmaceuticals

The quest to reinvigorate the body and spirit has gone beyond meditation and massage. Wonder drugs are helping many stave off destiny. Heart disease is now better managed with statins, anti-cholesterol drugs, a $25 billion global market.

Research shows that adults who multitask regularly have more memory complaints than their older parents, according to psychologist Denise Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At least 12 biotech companies are working on a drug to combat this trend.

At the biotech forefront is Irvine, Calif.-based Cortex Pharmaceuticals, whose Ampakine CX717 clinical trials have drawn widespread media attention.

Irvine, Calif.-based Cortex Pharmaceuticals is testing Ampakine CX717, a drug that reportedly can improve memory after just 12 weeks of one capsule daily.

Another fascinating phenomenon is caloric restriction. Research shows that if a mouse’s daily caloric intake is reduced by 30%, it will live at least 30% longer than its normal two-year life span. Apparently, a stressed body produces protective substances that extend life.

Two Cambridge, Mass.-based biotechs are working on drugs that mimic the beneficial aspects of reduced caloric intake, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals and Elixir Pharmaceuticals. Just four years after being founded, biotech start-up Sirtris was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline for $720 million in April 2008.

Plastic Surgery

The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) reports that cosmetic procedures were down 7% in 2007, compared to 2006 when they were up 34% over 2005, a market estimated at more than $13 billion in the U.S. alone.

Women to continue to account for the majority of procedures, with 81% of all surgical procedures and 82% of all non-surgical procedures performed on women. The number one ranked procedure on women in 2007 was facelifts, followed by blepharoplasty (eyelid), and rhinoplasty (nose) earning third place.

Spas

The stresses of modern living have driven record numbers to spas. Between 1999 and 2003, U.S. spa revenues more than doubled, zooming from $5 billion to $11.2 billion, while the number of spa outlets jumped from 5,300 in 1999 to 12,100, according to a January 2005 report by the International SPA Association.

Spas are a $47 billion global market and the fourth-largest U.S. leisure industry, taking in more revenue than ski resorts, amusement parks and box office receipts combined, Frommers.com observed in a May 2006 article.

There are 71,600 spas worldwide employing 1.2 million workers, according to an SRI International study commissioned by the Global Spa Summit trade group. The 55-nation survey found that spas are a $60 billion business, with operating revenues of nearly $47 billion (capital investment makes up the other $13 billion). Most spas are located in Europe with 39% of all spas, followed by North America with 30%.

Yoga

Yoga, bubbling under the surface for more than 30 years, has exploded. An estimated 16.5 million Americans now practice this 5,000-year-old art, according to a February 2005 Yoga Journal/Harris Interactive study.

That’s more than triple the number a decade earlier when a 1994 Roper poll found 6 million yoga practitioners. Yoga practioners now spend $3 billion annually on classes and products, notes Harris Interactive.