Advertising aimed at over 50s

They should ask themselves why they think that this is a homogenous market who, on their 50th birthday, have suddenly transformed from a wide spectrum of interests, attitudes and fortunes into an army of clones who will all respond to the same approach.

Then they should actually listen to all those over-50 friends and relations who could be buying their product. Not just those in the news for being mugged, or the ones in care homes, but those who are active and involved in all the things that interested them when they were younger - or have taken up new interests when they have retired and have more time.

Retirement age is now very likely to be 70. These people are working in a stimulating environment and travelling a distance daily (driving or on public transport) They wear the same clothes and makeup as their under-50 colleagues, they shop in the same supermarkets, read the same books, tend the same gardens. They do the same things in their limited spare time as the under-50s, limited even more by the childcare they do so that their children can get a little leisure time too.

After retirement, life goes on much the same, but without the pressure of work there can be (granny duties permitting) more time for leisure pursuits. These do not necessarily involve sitting in a rocking-chair knitting shapeless garments with a pot of tea and a packet of biscuits to hand, waiting for the phone to ring and news of the outside world to percolate in.

The breadth of interests of the older person is just as wide as that of a 40-year-old. Some indulge in strenuous sports, some lecture on abstruse subjects, some travel around the world. Many are as net-aware as their grandchildren, and some were pioneers of computing and internet use from the days when you actually had to know what went on "under the bonnet", not just how to use a social network site.

They know what it is to look after young children too, while parents work or play. Some face health problems - that can change their priorities, but it does not remove all individual personality from them. They are interested in othe things besides disability aids and bath seats. In fact, they are delighted to forget about such things, given half a chance. They don't like being patronised and treated as helpless and tottering through the waiting room to death.

In short, there is no single way to address your advertising to "the older generation" They are not one generation, they are two or three generations. They are individuals. They have seen more of the world than you have, young man/woman. They remember a time before universal blanket advertising of every single product or service, and they know that it is all hype.

I hope this post is helpful to you.

I completely agree with elegran.

My own mother looked fantastic at 70, with a full head of thick black wavy hair. She looked about 50, that was the age many people thought she was. It was only after a fall, when she broke her back and it was not diagnosed, that she aged a bit due to the pain, but even now at 78 she still has only very slightly grey hair and looks amazing - and thanks to modern treatments can still get around very happily. She can't bear sentiment, is not at all fond of children, loves jeans and camping, and she and my stepfather refuse to ever click on an online advert in case they introduce malware. I'm with them on that one, although I will read articles that come up on products if they interest me.

Take facebook, for example. Once you reach a certain birthdate, all of the adverts down the side of your page are geared to your age. It's exactly the same as watching tv in the afternoon. When I joined facebook I lied about my age as I was worried about identity theft. My friend can't understand why she is getting adverts for funerals and pensions, while I am getting adverts for face creams, anti-wrinkle tips and slimming aids. My husband is in his late 40s and is starting to get adverts for Viagra! And penis enlargements...

We don't want to be targeted. In any way. We want to be able to look for things ourselves. I can happily do an online search for knee supports and spend half an hour reading reviews before I choose, I don't want to be bombarded with adverts for them for ever.

I would say - simply provide an excellent product, and we will find you. Place an advert somewhere by all means, maybe one of our children will buy it for us to try it out, but stop reminding us that we are aging. We know we are.

Or - send Gransnet some free samples for us to trial!

Completely agree with the last two posts. I am not foolish enough to say I am unaffected and impervious to advertisements, but I watch very little television, live in a rural area, do my weekly shop with a shopping list from which I rarely deviate and can read an online page without seeing the adverts, that includes when reading Gransnet! But then that is no different to when I was 30,40, 50 or 60 (except for the internet, which has only been around for about 20 years.

Looking at my recent online purchasing; a clock, a toaster, some clothes from a mainstream clothes retailer, a specialist book, opera DVDs, cosmetics, wallpaper, furnishing fabric, it is difficult to see anything there that is age specific, except, possibly, the opera DVDs!

I have just been reading a BBC News item. www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27208531 It is headed 'Retirement village life: A third way to face old age '. What are the other two ways of living. I quote the first sentence:
'Old age is associated with moving into a care home or struggling on in your own home. But is there an alternative? The residents of the Denham Garden Village retirement complex think so.' Says it all really about advertisers perception of old age.

I am living in a large old four bedroomed house with a large garden, which we bought for retirement and have yet to struggle with any aspect of living in it or managing it. 10 - 20% of older people may need care in some form, whether at home or in a sheltered environment or care home but by far the larger proportion of older people are part of the majority section of the population, their living conditions, daily needs and activities are little different to that of their children or even grandchildren.

All that is needed is to include a wider variety of people, age, ethnicity, social group in mainstream advertising, advertisers are more likely to reach us through mainstream advertising than niche advertising.

Show as many older people (no, not ones with snow-white hair, angelic smiles, pastel twin sets and walking sticks) as you show mixed race families - which seem to be the main groups featured these days. What are the statistics? Are there as many mixed race families in the UK as there are over-50s?

Have the "older generation" doing things, not just looking on indulgently while everyone else is enjoying themselves.

Let them be strong, positive and making the right decisions, not standing patiently behind the youngsters who know best.

Show them decorating their homes (I am halfway through painting my front door and vestibule, and I know that it will just show up how dingy the hall is so that will be next . . .)

Show Gran making a fabulous dressing-up costume for grandchild's party on the sewing machine that made clothes for her children.

Show Gran or Grandad toiling in the allotment and bringing home armfuls of fruit and vegetables.

Show them cooking a delicious meal while watching grandchildren play, answering the phone, filling the dishwasher and emptying the tumble dryer.

Show them doing voluntary work as tour guides, CAB, animal welfare sanctuaries, children's nurseries, care homes, you name it, there are over-50's out there giving their time for nothing.

They don't spend all day and all evening watching TV. They LIVE.

Exactly! Because we are deliberately ignoring them as they are now.
The next logical step for advertisers is to ban me from sites such as ASOS and Fat Face (nice tunic tops). I would have to register, including my age, would be politely declined and directed to Edinburgh Woollen Mill.

But do that at your peril...

All adverts aimed at over 50's make you feel old or incontinent

I turn off the sound and read while tv ads are on and I rarely notice billboard ads.However,the really annoying ones are in the back of "Yours" magazine,chairlifts,baths,etc..I actually really like to read Yours as it has some interesting articles and features,so I just skip those pages.I'm sure many others must do the same (as at least they are all in one place),so the advertisers are wasting their money.

Totally agree with janerowena......irritating to say the least and the massive assumption that all retirees/older folk have loads of spare cash to do these things with!
Also agree with comments about people used in fashion/beauty ads...so not your average and insulting to say the least...by a certain age you are not so easily hoodwinked by advertising....we are a shrewd bunch!
Most of my contemporaries are 'over 50' working full time and nowhere near thinking or being able to afford retirement and the 'luxury' lifestyle that is promoted...my mother is 'over 50' and had dementia so she is definitely not in that catagory either...!!

Just read through everyone's responses and I agree with them all - Elegran sums it up perfectly when she says that we LIVE! Since I turned 60, 8 years ago, I retired from paid work, started two voluntary jobs, made several new friends and - gulp - met the love of my life, got married and am now Grandma to 4 (aged between 7 and 4, so I've known them all since their births).

So try advertising b****y stair lifts and pension plans to me and you'll get very short shrift!

Some products have 'anti-adverts'....I hate the Churchill dog. A couple of years ago I was really torn when their quote came up as best buy for car insurance.
I decided head had to come before heart, and spent a year cringing at every bit of correspondence adorned with his photo.
Such a relief to get a better price from a different company the next year.

I have just filled in the survey and I agree with what everyone else has said on here. However one point I would raise with these stupid 'Over fifty' adverts and leaflets etc etc is why do they assume that because we are over fifty we have suddenly 'Made it' and are financially secure all of a sudden, as though 50 is the magic number and we can all give up work, set up trusts for our Grandkids, go on endless cruises and jollies, oh yes, and have our houses converted to include walk in baths and wardrobes and garage doors that allow us to drive our (Expensive) motorised carts in.

I have a feeling my old age won't be half as glitzy as these advert zombies suggest !
Never mind, perhaps someone will give me a 'Funeral plan' for my next birthday...I know some of my friends would do anything for a free pen'Just for enquiring' !!!!!!

Ye Gods - I can just see us all entering competitions on Gransnet for a £500 funeral money-off voucher!

Banksy sums up my feelings on all advertising rather well.

www.tickld.com/x/wise-words-from-banksy-these-will-help-you-go-far-in-life

I really resent having to pay for carrier bags that advertise the shop I have just spent a small fortune in, even if it is a bag for life. Maybe I could leave mine to Tesco and Sainsbury in my will?

A good Bristolian our Banksy!

I don't watch "day time" television, whatever that is. I do sometimes have it on during the day if there is a real program, but not for the usual mush. In any case the only adverts I watch are the Meercat ones. Good for Oleg - he has two Daddies and no Mummy - very progressive.

I do surveys and they keep asking if I've seen an advert. I reply no, then they show the advert in full and I say "Oh yes I did see it but forgot who it was for". If there were "over 50" adverts in the mix I must have missed them.

I hate those adverts for river cruises especially as they sponsor lots of crime drama. That man who looks like a "lounge Lizard" with that woman hanging all other him.

My daughter records these programmes and then we can skip the adverts . Oh what joy.

The list of adverts that annoy me is endless. Let me name a few:

Tenna Pants in case I wet myself, Equity release plans, funeral plans, chair lifts, walk-in baths (wearing a swimsuit and full make-up), life insurance plans (with a free pen), horrid beige clothes that are totally shapeless, invisible hearing aids, tablets and creams to ease joint pain, retirement home complexes and Saga holidays. While some of these would indeed be useful why do advertisers assume that we don't want to dress in lovely clothes and generally HAVE FUN. It is nice to mix with people of similar ages but I don't like the idea of being segregated/labelled very much. We need to mix with all age groups.

I quite agree.

For years everytime I logged into Facebook I'd see adverts for anti wrinkle creams and how to loose weight, but got completely fed up when they started giving me ads on how to make a will and funeral plans. So I changed my date of birth, I took off 30 years so now Facebook 'thinks' I'm 34 years old. The result is that I get adverts that are much more appropriate and appealing! I now have much more cheerful adverts for things such as activity holidays and pretty dresses.

I shall alter mine again as soon as that starts, then. I read somewhere that you can only alter your DOB three times on fb, after that they think you are a troll and ban you. I have told my friend (only 56) that the reason that she is getting funeral plans while I get wrinkle creams, is because I deducted several years from my age because I didn't want to be a victim of identity theft. It was a lucky choice for me as it quite upsets her and I know it would infuriate me.

How come all these companies don't realise that the very people they are aiming at, feel alienated and upset by their advertising strategies?

I hate advertising of all kinds and go out of my way to avoid it so I'm never aware whether it's aimed at 'old' people or not. I rarely watch live tv and will go wash up, make tea, inspect plumbing or any other activity that temporarily removes me from the advert infested area if I do - mostly though we watch stuff previously recorded so we can ff through. I run an adblocker on my browser, don't listen to the radio or read newspapers. The only advertisements I ever look at are the ones in a magazine for fat people because they are mostly of interest to me as a fat person trying to become less so. And because sometimes they contain money off offers

The adverts on tv now last for so long that I can go to the loo, make a coffee and do some washing up during the first lot. 10 minutes later I am finishing the washing-up, getting some bits out of the freezer to start cooking something for the freezer. 15 minutes later I am back outside finishing off the coking, and wondering whether to do a bit of ironing during the next advert break. I usually finish up with doing some mending because I am exhausted by all that advert-avoidance.

The trouble is many old women turn into clones. They wear twin sets with ski pants and anoraks with those dangly bits to secure the hoods. They wear pearl necklaces and have tightly permed hair tinted pink or blue.
They say they are pensioners as any excuse for all sorts of things and moan about how much better life was in the old days and 'we fought the war for you'.
I asked my GP when the transition would happen and he replied that I would always be the same in nice unusual skirts, have a wild hairstyle and be eccentric. I think people would agree that he was right.
At 71 I mostly feel 18, do at least an hour of jogging a day using the wii fit, my hair is still brownish and like the 'wild girl of Borneo'
I'd like to sit down and read books and magazines like my already elderly friends of 40 but I find too much else to do with gardening and internet pursuits. One day I will!
And, I don't wear a swimming costume in the bath!