Old age consumers think advertising is ageist – the industry needs to represent the elderly better

Marketing has an age problem. At least, that’s what older consumers themselves think, according to findings released in October by the popular Gransnet and Mumsnet forums.

The research claims that 78 per cent of forum users aged over 50 felt that their age group was underrepresented or misrepresented in advertising.

The industry should pay attention. It is widely understood that older generations, especially baby boomers (those born roughly between 1945 and 1965), are better off than younger cohorts. By ignoring or misrepresenting the elderly, brands could be cutting themselves off from a huge market: 49 per cent of respondents said that they actively avoided brands which ignored them.

To find out more about why the advertising industry is failing to portray the elderly in a realistic light, I sat down with comms expert Mike Teasdale, founder and planning director at marketing agency Harvest Digital.

“The most egregious examples are the ones that most of us aren’t exposed to, because we’re at work,” he says. “It is the cosy TV adverts in the afternoon, which are like old people sucking on a Werther’s Original, or staring at a lawn.”

These ads typically show older individuals living sedentary, boring lives focused on mundane pursuits, even though many people are still physically active and adventurous well into their 60s and beyond.

But even when marketers try to show the elderly in a different, edgier way, they run the risk of insulting them, warns Teasdale. For instance, US finance firm E-Trade released an ad earlier this year during the Super Bowl that showed very old people still in the workplace and failing at their jobs. The advert was trying to make the point that workers weren’t saving enough for retirement, but Teasdale points out that it was very tone-deaf.

Ageist or ignorant?

Presumably marketers don’t set out to alienate older consumers, so what’s the cause for this apparent ageism within the advertising industry?

Going back to the Gransnet research, nearly two thirds (62 per cent) of the 1,028 people surveyed believed that they were being ignored by the ad industry because those working in it are too young to understand this older demographic. This makes sense – a person in their 50s and 60s can relate to someone younger and remember being their age, but the reverse is not the case.

Teasdale broadly agrees that this might be to blame.

“It’s a challenge for advertising in general, and especially for digital marketing, because a lot of people working in this industry are so young. It’s not really their fault. I’m 57 – I worked out if I took myself out of my company, the average age drops from 31 to 29,” he says.

“It wouldn’t hurt to start recruiting people who are slightly older into agencies. There are lots of people with skills that could easily be finessed into digital marketing, but at the moment it’s like a closed shop.”

Outdated ideas

The other problem is that some marketers are still relying on lazy assumptions about different demographics.

We used to assume that younger people had more disposable income because they had few (if any) responsibilities. But the situation has changed. Most young people have little cash to spare after paying high levels of rent or saving for a house deposit, while older generations have paid off their mortgages. Plus, with the retirement age rising, people are staying in work for longer, either out of necessity or desire.

“I’m not saying that some aren’t struggling, but it’s clear that many old people often do have a better standard of living, as well as more certainty from their pension income, which isn’t as risky as a job,” says Teasdale.

“They’re sitting on equity, their children have left home, and so on. These people with more spending power, and are living longer.”

Part of the issue is that the way marketers categorise audiences is flawed. A brand targeting the “over 50s” or “over 60s” may be shooting itself in the foot – someone who is 55 has very different needs and interests to someone who is 85. However, brands are not properly considering this category problem, because they are so focused on the millennial market, laments Teasdale.

“Advertisers are obsessed with millennials because they think that if they get someone brand-loyal at 18, then they’ve got them for many years to come. But someone aged 50 can expect to live another 40 years. This definition of ‘old’ as over 50 or 55 feels absurd.

“My friends are doing crazy stuff, like travelling around New Zealand in camper vans. They’re not acting like old people are meant to. They don’t think of themselves as old.”

Golden years

So how can the advertising industry be better? Fundamentally, advertisers (especially ones working in digital) should be looking more at data, and relying less on their assumptions.

“Google analytics do allow us to segment by age, so we can look at people over the age of 55 and see what channels they use, what device they use to visit a website, and what they do on a site,” Teasdale explains. “The data is there, but people don’t necessarily look at it. They are letting down customers and clients by not doing that.”

The other advantages of online marketing still apply, as marketers can constantly test and tweak their content to find the right tone of voice that engages consumers. Programmatic advertising helps here, as agencies can pay for digital ads to appear in front of specific audiences, based on their particular interests or web behaviour.

“If we’re doing our job properly, then advertising should be aligned more closely with the interests of the actual audience. The data will keep us real and avoid our inbuilt biases. You might be targeting ‘over 65s’, and if they’re all looking at Motorbike Monthly then the advertising will flow to where the audience is,” he adds.

Fundamentally, Teasdale does not believe that the ad industry is deliberately ageist, but rather that advertisers are relying on stereotypes which need to be challenged. Agencies could also provide sensitivity training to make staff more aware of their biases.

We’ve already seen efforts by the industry to be more diverse and inclusive of non-white and LGBT communities – now it must focus on representing the elderly better too.

Most importantly, advertisers should be more empathetic towards their audience, and consider how their depictions of anyone – old, young, male, female – will make people feel.

“Empathy is the key ingredient in advertising,” concludes Teasdale. “It’s hard to be empathetic to people you don’t understand.”