I always think that one of the problems you get is that as people get older how they look varies more and more. Nobody confuses a new born and six month old baby or a 5 or 10 year old or 18 - 30 year old, there is a certain conformity of physical look, but by 40 some people are going grey, while others aren't. Some men are bald, others still have a luxuriant head of hair. Some women are getting saggy others aren't.
By the time your reach 50,60,70 it is almost impossible to use a person of an older age in an advert who will be either identifiable or aspirational to more than about 10% of your target audience. Currently we seem to appear in two forms, tall and slim with a luxuriant head of white hair, whitened teeth and tan leaping about (male and female) or crumpled old dear sitting all shrunken in an arm chair while improbably young daughter puts arm protectively around us. I find both repellent and do not remotely identify, look or act like either.
The other question I would like to ask is why do people only want to advertise disability aids, and funeral plans to us? Don't we buy food, cars, clothes, make-up, or any of the other ordinary everyday items bought by every other age group? Why do they only want to sell age specific items to us?