The invisible ‘ism
There’s no grey area when it comes to ageism in advertising in general, whether it’s the steady stream of client briefs citing Gen Z as their only target market, or the fact almost every creative competition or who’s who list is aimed at the under 30s.
While agencies are starting to embrace diversity and inclusivity within certain groups much more, both with their hiring and the talent they use in campaigns, ageism still struggles to be acknowledged across the board.
Sadly we live in a culture that misses the value of age and experience, the latest IPA survey highlights this trend, revealing that only 6% of agency staff are over the age of 50. That number is in stark contrast to other fields, where the over-50 demographic is more widely represented, such as finance (22%), medicine (28%), science (30%), and law (35%).
By 2040, over 50s will be spending 63p out of every pound that gets spent in the UK, being the biggest spenders in every category, from tech to cosmetics. Yet brands and agencies continue to overlook this under-represented market in favour of youth culture and the comeback of Comic Sans.
Why is ageism seemingly the last socially acceptable prejudice? As someone who is over 40, (but firmly still in my twenties in my mind), you start to notice ageism in effect, from the ‘sorry I don’t remember that reference… cause I’m not old lol’ , ‘how do you know that Tiktok trend?’ to the reality that despite the countless campaigns you’ve worked across, not one of them have included someone over 40 in the imagery.
For an agency to be truly diverse, we should be supporting and speaking up for all of these groups, not just the ones that are deemed aesthetically pleasing or ‘on trend’. We need to foster a culture of inclusion that deems age diversity as a strength, not a weakness, and encourage clients to value targeting a diverse range of age demographics in their campaigns.
We wanted to end on a great selection of work that embraces the older generation, unfortunately the search proved our point, very few brands are speaking up for this category.
