Ads for mobility aids

sorry, paddyann
fat fingers.

I think you're looking at this from the wrong angle.

The problem with the models used in these adverts is not their age, it is the fact that they look 100% fit.

To add to what paddann said, you don't have to be old to be less mobile or less able.
Children may need these aids too.

My daughter is mid forties she uses a lot of mobility aids ,I think people forget you don’t have to be old to be ill.On a good day you wouldn,t know she was ill but she spends most of her life in bed .These ads can be helpful for all ages

They don't want to remind us of the real reasons for mobility aids, i.e., lack of mobility with age.

Yes this idea that older people are all interested in the same things. Also playing Vera Lynn songs at get together Ms. Today's 85 to 90 year old grew up with the Rat Pack, early Elvis Presley etc.

slightly off-topic there - sorry

I got cross when Saga started sending me stuff when I turned 50. I'm now 60 so it makes sense now, but not 10 yy ago!

I also hate ads showing all these oldies line dancing at their day clubs! a. I'm not retired yet; b. I hate line dancing

They don't have to show people shuffling around in shapeless cardigans and worn slippers. Smartly dressed people in their 70s who obviously have stiff joints or troublesome hips as opposed to smartly dressed people in their 40s who obviously have no mobility issues whatsoever would do.

No doubt if the ads featured older looking, disabled people, there would be an outcry from everyone about how they look nothing like that...

Yes it's really insulting to people's intelligence. Have the makers of these ads ever had a close relative or friend with mobility issues? They don't seem to have a clue.

Completely agree. As a disabled person I would love to see more real people with mobility issues in these commercials. The advert that really annoys me is the one with the woman getting in and out of the bath. I know she is only an actress but she makes no attempt to disguise the fact that she 100% fit.

TerriBull

It's the same when retirement homes/villages are advertised, the "residents" very fit, healthy and glowing individuals who look as if they could undertake a trek in the lower reaches of the Himalayas, not a walking frame to be seen anywhere@

Oh yes! Glossy Care Home brochures with cheery looking residents being waited on by cheery looking staff, in a luxurious lounge all spick and span, and what's more the rosy-cheeked inmates appear to be wearing their own clothes and not somebody elses stuff because the staff can't be bothered to read name labels.
The images are all hunky-dory. Sure.

They always seem to aim retirement villages at Over 50s. Most people in their 50s are still working, travelling, and enjoying healthy social lives. Many of them are actually looking after their parents or trying to get them into a retirement home.

It's the same when retirement homes/villages are advertised, the "residents" very fit, healthy and glowing individuals who look as if they could undertake a trek in the lower reaches of the Himalayas, not a walking frame to be seen anywhere@

I suppose it’s much the same as the dress that looks amazing on the size 8, 5’ 10” model in the photo, which would not look nearly as appealing (or sell nearly as many) if it were modelled on the likes of 75 year old, size 14 me.

Yes, I know it’s not quite the same, but it’s the image of the end user, I suppose.

I tend to feel the same about any product aimed at older people, modelled by someone with grey hair, who nonetheless looks maybe 39 tops.

I just get fed up with so many brochures for mobility aids coming with catalogues. The catalogues are often for things that people of any age - or, at least, from middle age up - might buy.

Of course mobility aids are useful and as I get older I might need some, but the assumption that I'm already frail enough for them is very irritating!

It's the same with life insurance and ads for equity release plans.
They always feature a middle-aged, middle class couple beaming at each other (still have all their own teeth and a bloody good dental plan by the look of it), dressed in matching well-pressed Crimplene, lovely complexions and 'nice' hair (neither is crinkly or bald), poring over a bit of simple paperwork before going off for a lovely jog in a nearby picturesque wood. Still beaming and not a sign of arthritis, asthma, angina or diminishing sight.....
Who concocts these ads? 16 year olds?

But it's so against the reality that I find it just becomes a distraction. If they used a good looking person in their late sixties it might work. But a model who looks as if she's just jogged home from the gym, then smilingly climbing into her stair lift just has me laughing " oh c'mon".

The younger ones just look more glamorous, simple as that.

We can all imagine that’s the type of person who uses the equipment, even if it’s not true.

If they showed elderly people, looking frail, unsteady, just ‘old’ really, it wouldn’t be so easy to flog the products.