Where is our society now? Why multigenerational representation matters in advertising

Ayesha Walawalkar, Chief Strategy Officer for MullenLowe Group UK, writes in WARC about our research highlighting the negative stereotypes that are often used in advertising to characterise people aged over 55, and why brands are missing a huge opportunity by alienating this large, financially powerful cohort.

Advertising’s obsession with youth and the desire to attract younger audiences is not a new phenomenon; it has been with us for so many decades it has become a default strategy. And there are some obvious reasons why.

First, we’ve become accustomed to thinking that new trends and ideas originate amongst and are driven by young people and hence, in order to be seen as relevant and modern, brands and agencies feel they must focus on keeping up with the kids.

It’s easy to forget that along with their dominant scale and purchasing power, the 50+ generation (who hold 69.7% of UK household wealth) are a group for whom both trend setting and activism have long been second nature. Take environmental activism as an example: whilst world media focused on poster child Greta Thunberg, both Extinction Rebellion UK and Insulate Britain were founded by a Welshman in his 50s, Roger Hallam. The most radical actions of the Insulate Britain group have been carried out by retired or semi-retired citizens with the time, energy, experience and confidence to stage high profile stunts for a cause they believe in. Lifelong trend setter Vivian Westwood is now an anti-fracking activist, and mid lifers are the people most likely to buy the premium priced, environmentally friendly products in our supermarkets. Without them, the pace of environmental change would be much slower.

At the opposite extreme, it was the work of another ‘Boomer’ – Nigel Farage – that ignited the popular revolt that led to the Brexit vote. Whatever one may think of older provocateurs, they are at the forefront of the UK’s biggest cultural and political movements of the last decade.

Second, we often assume that penetration growth means targeting young people coming into a market. This is particulary true in categories where lifetime value of a customer is key. But in many industries there’s a strong case for thinking more broadly about where new customers -particularly affluent customers – can come from. Not only does the demographic curve in the UK point to the continued importance of older consumers in volume terms, but the older skew in wealth means that their value as customers will become more – not less- important in the coming years.

Yet the over 50s – in marketing terms at least – are an overlooked group. This is not just a problem in terms of fair representation, it’s also short-sighted from a commercial standpoint. Tackling the problem requires shifting our historical mindset: the question is – how?

The challenge for mass brands

MullenLowe Group UK research suggests that people in older age groups respond very positively to seeing their cohort represented in multi-generational narratives and images. Multigenerational approaches normalise the business of getting older, presenting age as an equal, natural, and accepted state alongside younger life-stages.

Of course, multigenerational advertising doesn’t make sense for everybody. There are many brands that have narrow targeting for good reasons. But if we look at brands and categories that straddle broad audiences – retail, food or household care brands for example – the default creative target (depicted most often in advertising) is the ‘Young family’ group, who actually represent only around 1 in 4 UK households. Athough 50+ adults make up a substantial proportion of retail consumers, if they are represented at all its often as background decoration.

There are some honourable exceptions amongst mass brands (IKEA has given grandparents starring roles in their communication, and a recent – and joyful – AirBnB spot features an older couple) but 2021 Channel 4 research found that just 12% of UK ads featured someone over 50 in a leading role.

Stereotypes are another problem. The Centre for Ageing Better describes the ad industry’s approach as a very extreme idea of ageing: “You’re either a ‘super-ager’ or facing inevitable decline and death.”

Such stereotyping arises when advertising either caters exclusively to a much older demographic – selling products like stairlifts, equity release or funeral services, OR occasionally signals “Progressiveness” for brands by featuring eg. octogenarian ultramarathoners as a sign of inclusiveness. Whilst there is undoubtedly a role for both of these approaches, neither does much to represent ‘3rd Age’ adults with any degree of authenticity. The huge body of ordinary people in their 50s, 60s, 70s and above who are simply getting on with their lives remains largely invisible.

Being age-diverse is not a risk

The question is how do we encourage marketers and advertisers to recognise age diversity as an opportunity rather than a risk to their brand image?

It’s not enough to just increase the numbers of older faces in ads. Taking older consumers seriously means creating nuanced, engaging narratives in which the age of the protagonist is treated as one of the many facets of their character.

Several successful television dramas and films feature highly engaging, multi dimensional, older protagonists. Long-running TV detective Vera is a lead character who is often the oldest person in the room. Her age and outlook on life are key elements of her unique and quirky appeal. Soap operas such as Eastenders have long understood that breadth of appeal relies on breadth of characters as well as storyline.

To adopt an age agnostic, attitude driven mindset in advertising doesn’t compromise or risk brand appeal if a narrative is strong, but it does require us to consciously challenge our own biases when briefing, ideating and casting. And it requires the kind of confidence that Ridley Scott displayed when he cast an unknown actress (Sigourney Weaver) in a role written for a man (Ripley in Alien). Scott understood that assumptions about female vulnerability would heighten the tension in the script and by deliberately playing on those assumptions he turned a low budget sci fi thriller into a cult classic. There is nothing to stop marketers, writers and directors today making equally bold and unexpected choices by casting older actors.

When we stop lumping everyone over the age of 50 into a monolithic group of stereotypical retirees with thickening waistlines, receding hairlines and beige cardigans, we can begin to see the possibilities that intelligent, nuanced representation can offer us.

This is what led us to carry out our Invisible Powerhouse research. We wanted to look at what really matters to this very diverse group of people: at how attitude, personality and lifestyle continue to drive differences in behaviour and purchasing, regardless of age.

Exploring the Invisible Powerhouse

Since people over 50 often have the time and money to act on the things that really interest them, it’s imperative we explore and understand their interests, attitudes and motivations.

We worked with Kantar to create an attitudinal segmentation of adults aged 55+, and identified 7 groups who each think, work, relax, travel, shop and consume media differently. People in these groups can have more in common with people decades younger (who think the same way as them) than they do with radically different segments of their own age. Through exploring the different segments, it became crystal clear to us that one size does not fit all at 65 any more than it does at 25 or 45.

We’ve begun using this attitude-based segmentation to tailor communication for clients whose audiences include signficant numbers of over 50s, and  working with all of our brands to embed proper understanding of mid life and older audiences as a key facet of D&I in creative development.

If you don’t connect with characters in advertising, it sends a subtle signal that this brand is not for you. 88% of over-55s say they feel unhappy about the way advertising treats them. This is a misstep of enormous proportions and, as the cost of lving crisis begins to bite, its one that brands and advertisers cannot afford any longer.