GNer aged 50 or over? Take our survey - £100 voucher to be won

Cut down on the overblown prose and half truths. Give us succinct and relevant facts about the product.

Don't tell us how many people our age are impressed, we prefer to make up our own minds.

Don't use celebrities who probably wouldn't be seen dead using the product if they weren't being richly rewarded.
Sue Pollard is often seen in Waitrose but are there any sightings of certain slebs in Iceland or Farm Foods?
I use Iceland because the staff are courteous and cheerful, it's convenient, sells many groceries I use, and delivers free, not because a bemused-looking Hoff endorses it! If I drank beer the writhing denim man and his greasy looking hair in the snow would but me off the one he recommends!

Don't use twee, smug, middle class oldies to sell either funeral plans or life insurance. Those adverts are so irritating.

I think, as far as possible, keep people out of adverts. By the time people reach their 60s they are so diverse in appearance from still looking absurdly young (naturally) to ageing long before their time and this diversity grows the older we get. So it is impossible to put anyone in an advert that everyone in the target group will identify with, rather than be alienated by.

Currently there seem to be two stereotypical ad old people: 1) old dears, crabbed and shrunken, disabled, needing their children to do everything for them or 2) tall slim elegantly dressed and beautifully coiffed (men and women) all white hair and white teeth. Most of us find both stereotypes equally alienating.

I think that advertisers need to focus on making the best that people can be, rather than concentrate on staying and looking young. Most people actually have a much younger version of themselves in their head so will probably ignore adverts peopled with the elderly!

Wow! What else to add to the comments above? I agree with every single one of them, and it's good to know I'm not the only one who feels this way.

The facts, and the price - those are the two most important things to get across. Please stop the stereotyping....

Tentatively inching head above parapet... I suspect we'd be a lot better off with a lot less advertising! Think bank balance, waistline, household clutter and the global environment for starters.

Have all the advertising you like, all that needs to be done is for people to decide not to buy things they do not need. We are only sheep if we choose to be.

Why over 50s? That’s barely middle aged!

The only older person I ever liked in an advert was the J. H Hartley one. It didn't make me like Yellow Pages, though.

I so agree with all that's been said. We're all very different as we get older and know our strengths and weaknesses and exactly what we want. Consequently, enticing an older person to change is probably quite difficult.

I, too, agree with what has been posted so far. I would add that some of them are quite patronising.
We need to know the cost of something, what it does and where we can buy it without all the added flannel!

1. Don't tell me what I can afford. "Quality at a price you can afford. That's Room Sense". How do you know, you presumptuous ar*****e?

2. Don't sing to me. Why would some bunch of second rate session singers intoning a 3rd rate ditty make me want, among other things, a log cabin, high ABV rated cider, laxatives, a hearing test, a new car, a new kitchen? Generally, it has the opposite effect and I shun products whose ads annoy me.

3. Don't run the same ad on broadcast media any more often than hourly and preferably less often than that. Currently, I'm being driven insane by the NHS nursing recruitment ad running three or four times an hour on any commercial station I happen to tune to. It's probably made more aggravating by the voice-over's horrible accent.

4. Don't use meaningless phrases, e.g.: Nat West, "we are what we do". Eh? Whatever does that mean?

5. If the rules say you have to include all that waffle about terms and conditions; share prices can go down as well as up; please drink responsibly, etc, then please book more airtime instead of having your voice-over gabble 30 seconds' worth of words in 15 seconds.

Survey completed

My bugbear is the advert for life insurance, the smug older woman is n her '70’s kitchen,
im pretty sure most of us have modern kitchens.

The only adverts I really watch are the Lloyds Black Horse ones because I just love watching the horse. No idea what the voice over is though. I’m not listening.

I really dislike the use of celebrities in advertising, if anything it totally puts me off the product, Why do advertisers use so called celebs to endorse an array of health and beauty products (hair and nail vitamins, volume shampoo and conditioner), when the truth is that I too could have long glossy healthy voluminous locks, with the help of good quality hair extensions and my own personal hairdresser/stylist.

Tried to complete the survey, but it insisted I hadn’t answered a certain question, I had! Gave up.

I got caught by that OldMeg, then realised it was a question that asked me to tick three items in the list below and I had ticked all that applied to me. The message telling you the question was unasnwered was unhelpful, it should have said filled in incorrectly.

I agree with all that has been said. I hate the advert for equity release where the sly eyed guy is having a conversatipn with his well dressed wife. Very middle class. Yuk

I have to laugh at the toothpaste/toothbrush TV ads where all those earnest looking 'dentists' try to convince us they're not actors. In magazines, the creams that supposedly improve the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles feature girls of about 20 years old! Either that or the celebs have had a fair bit of work done!

I am deeply offended by all those cosmetic ads that constantly harp on about them being anti-aging and that using them helps you look younger.

The inference is that aging is something that is unpleasant and ugly and to be avoided. In fact the relentless march of time is something that no-one from new born babe to centenarian can avoid. Keeping well and healthy and looking good at any age (not for your age) is something to be advocated but this harping on about trying to look young all the time is offensive.

I have done survey but I REALLY don’t like being asked my income and I was asked to tick what matter to me and when I ticked what matter to me I was told the question wasn’t correct I find that is what is wrong no one care what matters to me.

Why does age have to be a factor ? The concept of gender is changing and becomimg outdated why is age still a major form of identity, like gender, it is a social construction.
I find adverts that are aimed at the over 50s very patronising, Helen Mirrin trying to convince me she uses an off the shelf brand, whatever . Age is often seen as a dirty word for example the plantur shampoo advert where they actually whisper the words over 40s like it’s something to be ashamed of. The assumption of marketing is that unless its incontinence pads, joint pain or funeral plans then there is no point in marketing to us, We don’t shop in New look , we don’t buy on line, we have no idea about technology we don’t work, we do not contribute and we do not matter. Well we have an aging population and we are major contributers and far more savvvy than given credit for .
I look around at young girls and many of them are very overweight , drinking heavily and smoking , self harming, full of Botox where does the assumption younger is more beautiful healthy come from?

pinkjj27 I know exactly what you mean, and completely agree with you. It is the assumptions that are made about us, usually patronising and demeaning ones, made as soon as they see the grey hair, the lined face, or the date of birth.

I am starting to kick and scream and when I was put on a 'vulnerable customer' list by my energy supplier, just because I was over 60, I did just that and complained to the chairman and any senior manager I could get and email address for. I am now off the list.

I know it has benefits and I would certainly sign up if I had any problems, but it was the assumption, over 60 = vulnerable that is what I was complaining about.

So many folk have said it all already. We are all different, one size doesn’t fit all so stop making assumptions about us!

pinkjj27 , good post.