The way people are portrayed in marketing has a very real effect on how society sees them and behaves towards them. 

Anything that has reached mainstream advertising is, by definition, mainstream, and feels normal and accepted.

While advertisers and their agencies have made progress in how groups, such as women, people of different cultural backgrounds, and LGBTQI+ communities, are represented in ads – remember how “housewives” used to be portrayed and how same-sex couples were nowhere to be seen? – very little has changed in the portrayal of older people in advertising.  

Unless it’s for cruises, funeral insurance, or arthritis relief, older people are usually either excluded (which sends one message) or stereotyped as kindly old folks in the corner of Christmas ads or the butt of jokes as doddery, forgetful caricatures who lose their keys and can’t use technology. 

“There are so many blatantly ageist ads out there but most of them go either unnoticed or tolerated,” said Jane Caro, author, anti-ageism activist, former agency creative, and panellist on ABC-TV’s Gruen. 

“Ageism really is our last accepted prejudice. If advertisers and their agencies excluded or clumsily stereotyped any other group the way they do older people, the community backlash would break the internet.” 

While pernicious, ageism in advertising is just one aspect of a much bigger ageism issue; a pervasive prejudice that is all around us, all the time – in employment, healthcare, retail, entertainment, news media and casual conversation. 

Ageism is the one prejudice that will affect us all one day – if we’re lucky enough to grow older. 

At a National Press Club event on ageism recently, Age Discrimination Commissioner, Robert Fitzgerald (pictured, above), said, “When it comes to society’s treatment of older people, too often we do not attribute to them the same rights many of us take for granted.  

“These attitudes are underpinned by ageism, be it conscious or unconscious, and we often just accept this as okay. It isn’t.” 

Ageism diminishes the lives of millions of older Australians in big and small ways. It makes them feel invisible, excluded and their lives of lesser value.  

Anti-ageism advocates highlight how marketers have no qualms about generating fear to make the natural process of ageing feel like a disease you need to buy products to cure: “Remove ugly wrinkles”, “Look 10 years younger”.  

In marketing, the inclusion of older people in mainstream campaigns hasn’t even reached tokenistic levels, never mind normal and natural levels.  

Ageism robs Australia of the full participation of older people with a wealth of knowledge and experience that most would willingly contribute to our society, to the social and economic benefit of all. 

EveryAGE Counts is Australia’s national coalition of organisations and individuals committed to end ageism in Australia. 

Ageism Awareness Day, initiated by EveryAGE Counts and now marked in many countries around the world, is on 9 October.  

This year’s theme is “End ageism in advertising”.  

The campaign will call on all Australians to be the “eyes and ears” of ageism in advertising. 

It will call on advertisers and their agencies to raise their game, not only for the social good and because it’s the right thing to do, but because advertisers are currently alienating and irritating millions of potential and valuable customers. 

On Ageism Awareness Day, Jane Caro and Robert Fitzgerald will join US author and anti-ageism activist Ashton Applewhite in a one-hour webinar to highlight ageism in advertising. 

Advertisers and their agencies are encouraged to be part of the conversation and can register at https://aag.asn.au/EventDetail... 

In this video, Jane Caro explains the theme for Ageism Awareness Day. 

 

Related reading: EveryAGE Counts