Do We Need a New Spin on Getting Old?

Twenty-two years after people 40 and older became the adult majority marketers everywhere are finally paying rapt attention to aging markets. But there seems to be a dearth of consistency in how marketers view these markets.

A sizeable consensus does exist on one point: aging is a problem that can be solved by changing how people think about it. That’s how Colin Milner, CEO of the International Council of Active Aging, sees it.  He wants to “re-brand aging from burden to opportunity.” 

Others have come at the “problem” of aging in similar fashion, coining such terms as “creative aging,” “productive aging,” “vital aging,” and positive aging.” But putting a smiley face on aging has never seemed to me to be a very authentic way of viewing older markets. It masks the darker realities of aging which reinforces the deep-seated antipathy against aging that pervades our society.

As the name of this blog indicates, I have offered up the idea of “ageless marketing.” Instead of “active aging, how about “active living?” Or “creative living” in lieu of “creative aging.” Why do we feel compelled to promote advanced age as a great time of life by implicitly by invoking the values of youth?

Old age can be mercilessly hard to endure. Most people over 70 have five or more chronic conditions. Ceaseless pain in some part of the body is not uncommon. Many evolve into terminal conditions. The pharmaceutical industry certainly views old age as a time of proliferating health problems. This is apparent in their dominance of advertising on the nightly network news shows.

Of course, marketers never talk about “old age.” Old age people don’t exist on Madison Avenue. This pretend game rests on the myth that showing younger people using products that are consumed at a much higher per capita rate by older people will make the products more attractive to older people who after all have a few hundred billion to spend each year.

So, when marketers talk about the “over-50 market” they generally mean the 50 to 65 market – people who have fewer health constraints and who are jogging along with only a modest rate of decline in physical and cognitive abilities. After 65, older markets start getting complicated. Coping with the vicissitudes of later life becomes a more important focus for growing numbers than lifestyle modality. Why do we struggle so mightily to ignore that reality?

 Marketing writer Thom Forbes questions Milner’s verbal remedy for the “burden” of aging in a recent column, “Do We Need A New Spin On Getting Old.”  He acknowledges the power of words in shaping our attitudes on aging, for good or ill, but goes on to say, “… there's nothing quite as convincing as creaky joints, winded lungs and easily fatigued muscles to convince us that we are, indeed, getting old.”

Like Forbes, my issue is not that positive projections of older people have little effect in producing bountiful marketing, but that they are overly done at the expense of representing old age in a more realistic light. This sets up a problem involving authenticity.

Various surveys have shown that most older people feel that marketers don’t represent them accurately in ads. We’re told that authenticity is more important in older markets, yet we represent older people in inauthentic ways. What is the solution for this dilemma? How can we create attractive messages that are authentic in how they represent old age?  Are reality and attractiveness of commercial messaging incompatible?

Stay tuned.

 

Comments

[Dick Ambrosius]

Great blog my friend. My problem with Forbes is that he would have ignored Milner's release had he not used the term branding rather than ageless marketing. I chaired this ICAA work group and my first white paper began with the comment that "aging is a biological process not a brand." However, until the term re-branding was used the AdWeek folk ignored the issue as they have since your first book.

Sure aging can be full of pain and challenges, many for which are the result of lifestyle and a lack of emphasis of wellness and well being. At the same time, I have a 2 year old granddaughter with arthritis. Since she is aging, I guess is an aging issue.

[David Wolfe]

Dick -- How long have you and I been observing the trouble that people in marketing have painfully endured over something as normal as breathing in and out -- the process of getting older? Younger marketers are in general a helluva more bothered by the prospects of aging than most of those who have gotten there. There is sound research that backs that up.

[Dick Ambrosius]

Agreed! Happy New Year! We will both keep fighting the good fight.

[Regan Marye]

You're right! Marketing should be ageless. Now, I get it why my dad doesn't want to live on his age. I mean, what the society perceived about his age range. He still does things that he does on his younger days in Jacksonville. He said, you will become weak if you only think of it. And he's right, the mind can really control how you feel it as if it's the engine of our body. The world is so big that we should not stop searching to improve our living.

[marketing bureau]

Since there is a great competition in marketing today, indeed every marketer is using a unique technique on how to be different from all others. Marketing seems to be vital when it comes to the customers and clients.

[Andrea]

I am 22 years old find working stefssrul enough, also I embrace aging it is a good part of life, it isn't bad, it is good because why would you want to live forever, you people who do enjoy working for the rest of your days paying bills etc and even if you do retire young you will get bored my dad retired young owns the fastest most exotic toys like fast cars and he gets depressed and decided to work again and hates that too. You people who want to live forever are nuts, enjoy'