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Generic Millennial Ad throws every cliche into a commercial

Strum your ukulele, invent some hashtags and enjoy a scathing parody of millennial-focused commercials that miss the mark.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser

You're a big company. You want those sweet, sweet millennial dollars. So how do you appeal to this finicky age group of young consumers? With ukuleles, beards, selfies and slang, of course. 

Stock footage company Dissolve and creative group And/Or Studio are taking tone-deaf advertisers to task with a very funny commercial parody called "This Is a Generic Millennial Ad."

The ad, published on Tuesday, is made up entirely of Dissolve clips and features millennials snapping food photos, taking selfies, dancing in the middle of the street and hanging out with an "eclectic group of friends." 

The video is littered with emoji, hashtags, smartphones, internet-speak, fireworks and an increasingly desperate narrator who is trying to appeal to millennials. 

Jon Parker, brand director at Dissolve, tells CNET this ad is "definitely a cautionary tale" and a call for marketers to beware of generalizations and cliches when advertising to millennials. It's also totes entertaining. 

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