Representations of Older People in Advertising: A Review

Abstract

Abstract: Societies around the world are increasingly aging; nevertheless, older people in advertising are still mostly underrepresented. This article gives an overview of the literature on this topic showing that older people (roughly 60 years old and above) are nearly invisible in advertising, particularly older women. In terms of their assigned roles in advertising representation, older people are mostly not shown in major roles in Western countries, while in an East Asian context older people are more often shown in such roles. Finally, globally older people are mostly depicted with other age groups and rarely alone, are generally shown in positive ways, and there are few cultural differences between these representations. Based on my literature review, I identify several suggestions for future research on representations of older people in advertising.