“I don’t think of myself as old.” That’s the battle cry. As long as you can say that, you’re winning, right?
But you really will be old one day. Your secret fear of age will come home to roost. Then what?
Here’s my recommendation: starting now, become unafraid of aging.
How you do that is to first recognize where that fear is coming from. It’s induced by the culture, which is heavily—no, PRIMARILY—shaped by media. And media is shaped by advertising, marketing, and selling.
Anxiety is a sales tool. It makes us want to buy things.
Anxiety (fear) sells pills, lotions, potions, insurance, guns, prisons, and political candidates. Good news doesn’t sell anything, which is why you don’t get equal media brainwashing about the positive. Like the fact that around age 50, we start getting happier. Or that our brains work better in many ways.
So now you know you’re being brainwashed, you can laugh at the stupid media portrayal of us as doddering old fools or skateboarding freaks. The majority of us are in the normal middle.
Want to know what’s crazy? If advertisers stopped trying to scare us into buying stuff, they’d still sell us billions of dollars of goods and services.
This is because, contrary to conventional “wisdom,” older people constitute an exploding market! Here’s an excerpt from Time Magazine’s article, “Your Longevity is Good for Business,” by Dan Kadlec, who asks why businesses aren’t targeting people over 50.
This is a global market nearly the size of China, and it is entirely new in the sense that people this age have never before had so much spending power, staying power and ambition.
Why are advertisers still stuck in the 1950s? My guess is that most advertisers are young, thanks to age discrimination in the workplace, and don’t understand old people. And then there’s the fact that older age is changing for the better but the culture is slow to realize it (self-fulfilling prophesy, anyone?)
“The problem is a total absence of imagination,” says Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, which studies longevity. “Marketers still present these years as filled with golf, cruises and a rocking chair.”
“That model of later life may be dated, but it’s a struggle to fully understand what is replacing it. Here’s the way experts on aging describe it: People past 50 control 70% of the nation’s disposable income. If they aren’t working, they may be volunteering, starting a small business or nonprofit, or taking enrichment classes. Many remain socially active and want to look and feel great–and will spend to get that experience.”
If marketers dropped the ageist stereotyping, they could make more money. And we older people would be happier and better served.
I have decided with my retirement I started to write. I am starting a new genre. Instead of YA (Young adult) I’m writing OA (Older Adult) fiction. Having a great time, the characters are deeper and have more skeletons in the closet. So I started writing at younger than Grandma Moses. I have just published my first book, and I have so much excitement about the accomplishment.
I am so with you on that, Toni. I have looked and looked for books about older people. Fiction, I mean. There are plenty of books about aging or how-tos. But I wanted to read stories. There’s something about a good story.
For the longest time, I’ve been saying I write adult coming-of-age stories. I like OA, though. It’s easy and clear, simple and precise. I’m maybe going to adopt that.
I’m always looking for OA fiction. I’m going to go buy yours.
I also made a list of what I’m reading on another page on this website, and some of the books are OA. https://anyshinything.com/what-i-am-reading
I found a list on Barnes and Noble. That’s right here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/books/phases-of-life-fiction/old-age-fiction/_/N-29Z8q8Z10zj
And I have been compiling certain books (fiction) featuring older adults here: https://www.facebook.com/LynneSpreenAuthor
This is great. I want OA to catch on. My book is named Old Baggage, and is available on Amazon and also several e-book formats. I’m working on another too, well I’ve mean to be side tracked all day.
Lynne, this was spot on as I struggle with the reality of my upcoming retirement. When I read your blog, I can’t wait to get started on this new adventure. For enlightenment, those young advertisers should check out the senior national games.
When I shared a published article in Mature Living about aging, with my uncle in Florida, he commented, “I don’t feel old.” He was 94. That is what I hope I will say when I’m that age!
Libby, I hope we are all happy and satisfied when we get old. Mom is 90 and she seems pretty happy.
According to advertisers, we all need simplified everything plus drugs for incontinence, impotence, Alzheimer’s, etc. As if aging isn’t sometimes hard enough,we have to deal with false perceptions. And why do they so often make old people look like simpletons in ads? Is it meant to be funny?! People are getting called out on body shaming, hopefully ageism will be the next .
Actually comma ageism is illegal discrimination, and surprisingly, the cutoff point is age 40. So technically everybody over age 40 is in a protected class. But it’s hard to enforce, and as Bill Maher says, age discrimination is the last safe place to discriminate.
I should introduce the creators/producers of the Ad, “even an old person can use this tablet,” to one centenarian I met on-line and a 98-year old I met in person recently.
This was their take on PCs and IT technology. The 98-year old when I asked him, “do you use a computer?” he said: “I actually prefer an iPad.”
The centenarian, Mr. Don Pellmann (fastest 100-year old in the world-September 2015 San Diego masters Olympics) said: “you can’t live a normal life without a computer. I send emails daily and use it as an encyclopedia.”
So, dear condescending Ad-producers: Wake up. Those 90 and 100-year olds are kicking ass!
Thanks for the post, Lynn!
Very much my pleasure! Thanks for commenting Daniel.
As I said in Facebook, “Ouch, that bites!” I can’t believe that ad. So insulting! This article adds to my understanding of why advertisers persist in ignoring the good things about age. Ahhh, the young! They think they are never going to be old.
And why would they want to be, with all the negativity associated with it, however incorrectly!