What Is The Portrayal Of Older Adults In Advertising

What is it that drives commercials towards their target audience? Commercials can be for a certain age, race, and sometimes even a certain gender. Pop culture has influenced the minority groups and shed light to women 's rights or so it was thought. Lisa Shaffer a fellow student feels otherwise and believes that Pop culture has only defended traditional values and does little to challenge those who already have power . Commercials bring in gender norms and in Steve Craig’s article, “Men’s Men and Women’s Women” he speaks on four particular TV ads directed towards a particular gender. What is interesting is it shows a false image of the opposite sex to the audience being portrayed toward their preferences. It is the image the audience wants to see that appeals to them. This is all in an attempt to sell their products and take advantage of our desires and anxieties. Craig shows commercials brings gender norms that produce the ideas of what a man’s man and a woman’s woman which is why he would agree with Shaffer because it promotes an old way of thinking.

What is it that drives commercials towards their target audience? Commercials can be aimed toward certain age, race, along with certain gender groups. Pop culture has influenced minority groups and shed light on women 's rights or so it may seem. Lisa Shaffer a fellow student feels otherwise and believes that Pop culture has only defended traditional values and does little to challenge those who already have power . Commercials bring in gender norms and in Steve Craig’s article, “Men’s Men and Women’s Women” he speaks on four particular TV ads directed towards male and female audiences. Interestingly enough these tv ads deliver a false image of the opposite sex to the audience catering to their preferences. It is the image of what the audience wants to see that appeals to them. This is all in an attempt to sell products and take advantage of our desires and anxieties. Craig shows how commercials bring gender norms that produce the stigmas of a man’s man and a woman’s woman, which makes it apparent that he would agree with Shaffer because it promotes an old way of thinking.

Moreover, elderly are exposing to ageism through the process of negative stereotyping and discrimination. Cardigan and Zsamigin 2000 argues advertising industries either ignores elderly people or present them in a negative stereotype. Labelling theorist ray et al argues ageism creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that causes the elderly to behave in a way that confirms those beliefs. Bradley refers to old age as neglected and hidden dimension of social stratification.

The truth about how sex among older adults is portrayed in the media and popular culture is simply that it is not portrayed very often in these mediums. Preadolescents and adolescents tend to receive much of the sexualization that is used in these mediums while the elderly tend to never get portrayed doing these types of activities. This can be attributed to the media's presentation of the perfect human specimen, man or woman; of which most elderly people do not satisfy as they have wrinkles, sagging skin, more skin marks (moles, freckles) and overall are not attractive by the media's standards. Older people have the life experience and intelligence to ignore such impositions and therefore, it does not affect their sexual lifestyle. To the

Advertising Age (2011) outlines a new marketing plan for Old Navy. The company is planning the campaign with the 25-35 year old male demographic in mind. With a fairly narrow target market such as this, the campaign's message and media can have a high degree of focus. That focus, however, has to come from certain assumptions that the company makes about this target audience, specifically with respect to how the audience can be reached and to what messages the target market will respond. This campaign is focused on online videos, that are intended to be watched on a computer or mobile device, as opposed to television. The message of the spots is to differentiate Old Navy from the clothes that are characteristic of other demographics. In this case, the other demographics are represented by "Supar Tool" and "Corporado" characters that are caricatures of younger and older demographics respectively. The central message is that Old Navy helps you "dress like a man", not like those caricatures but a man that fits a different demographic and psychographic.

Stereotyping is something that occurs daily. This occurs frequently in television advertisements. Many of these stereotypes are involving gender and gender roles. This can affect the way perceive others and view themselves. People may see advertisements and not realize gender roles are implied. These gender stereotypes have been occurring in television and advertisements since the 1970’s.

People rarely ever see a commercial with an older adult advertising an everyday product such as cookware or a department store, and if they are, it is almost exclusively a product for the ageing population. Most of the commercials for older adults have to do with medications to help with some disease only common in older people, or creams to get rid of wrinkles, or products for frail seniors who can’t be alone in the house without having a life-altering accident, or even adult diapers. They are either portrayed as being ashamed of their age and looks, or as being so old and sickly that they don’t have time to care about their looks anymore. Neither of these conclusions drawn is accurate for the majority of the older population and it is demeaning for people to believe them to be correct. In all actuality, our aging population is very active in this day and age, and they enjoy a lot of the same activities that we do. Just because they have reached the age of sixty-five does not mean that they are suddenly dead to society and can’t shop, go to the beach, eat candy, or have fun in general, and it is time for our advertising to reflect these truths. The OAMPOA will personally campaign to major advertisers such as Coca-Cola, Target, and other well-known companies to include older adults in more commercials. It is possible for these

Television shows, ads, and movies compromise our national image of the elderly. “Television shows often depict the older relative as doddering and feeble...” (Lauren Stiller Rikleen). In many movies and shows, elders are shown as churlish and sickly.

AARP (American Association of Retired People) Magazine has one of the biggest audiences for magazines printed in the United States, with a circulation of 22.8 million. Their primary target audience consists of men and women between the ages of 50 and 75 who are either retired or nearing retirement. AARP’s advertisements greatly reflect their age demographic, as the products being advertised are typical for the baby boomer generation. Examples include easy to type flip phones, heart medication, adult diapers, and easy to climb into bathtubs. The ads promote safety, easy to use products, and easy to purchase products while giving as much information about the product possible on a full page ad.

Advertising in the 1950’s, at first glance, can be described as sexist; however, with a deeper understanding of the assumed gender roles of the decade, it is discovered that advertising was pushing established boundaries, especially that of women’s portrayal in ads. Advertising in the 1950’s was drastically different compared to today’s advertising norms. Ads in the 1950’s, under today’s values, are mostly interpreted as purely sexist. However, a deeper understanding of the decade and society can reveal how ads were even boundary pushing. While these ads may not be successful in today’s society, a simple comparison to today’s advertising can show how society’s values have shifted to accommodate different gender roles.

This essay will be examining the “AARP” magazine subscription (American Association of retired peoples) in order to find who the targeted audience is through the analysis of advertisement data. The “AARP” is a magazine titled with big bold red letters on the front page. The person sitting front and center of the front page is a well known older actor named Morgan Freeman. The front cover seemed specific in its target with an older crowd, but it’s possible that the demographics drinks alcohol. This is because Morgan Freeman has a glass with what seems to be whiskey with ice. The next biggest text on the page reads “Morgan Freeman In His Prime: A Legendary Life and Career in Photos”. Morgan Freeman is an older black male that is more so associated with the idea that this is what is a good idea of what life should be like in a persons older years of life.

There have been many advertising techniques over the past 50 years or so, but one of these changes is the adaption of ads to the shifting mind sets of people over time. An example of this previous statement is Folgers® Coffee. In the 1960s Folgers® launched an entire series of commercials which were demeaning towards women. The husbands in the commercials always had something witty and humiliating to say about the wives’ coffee, in one of the commercials the husband even goes on to say that the secretaries at his office made better coffee; the wives, sad and defeated, talked to a friend about the problem, prompting the friend to suggest she use Folgers®. The commercial always ended with the husbands’ approval and the wives feeling satisfied for attending to their husbands’ needs and wants.

Stereotypes have an overwhelming effect especially on the people they are directed towards. Studying stereotypes helps in understanding the factors leading to discrimination of certain people and not others. This is because stereotypes are depictive of opinions that are often passed from one generation to another within a particular culture. Mass media such as television and newspapers form a common source of opinions in the contemporary society (Kotter & Hess, 2012). The media presents messages in steady, repetitive, and compelling manner, making them believable to almost everybody. Stereotyping opinion and depictions from the media can thus have detrimental effects on the

The next time slot is the ten a.m. to four p.m. window. The ads aired during this time generally aim to reach the older generation and have to do with aging. Another target is children when they arrive home from school. A commercial that depicts how advertisers target the elder age group is from Coca-Cola, “Older Couple Turn into Adorable Kids.” The appeal is ethos; older people will feel and appear younger after they

The roles of males and females in society have significantly changed, as opposed to the predominant roles in our history. In the modern culture of today, women have begun to break out of the mold that which society has placed her in. This much can’t be said when it comes to modern gender representation in mass media advertising. It can be safe to state that woman are seen as sexual, fragile, exotic—whereas men are portrayed as tough, in control, and aggressive. This trend can be one seen as an inhibitor to the advancement of our culture, because especially for women, it is hard to pull away from the stereotypes that are continuously represented. As examples of the given trend, the following