To feel pissed off with advertising to the 50+

[Oliversmumsarmy]

I might be being overly sensitive but since I turned 50 I started to receive mail advertising the nearest care home, assisted living apartments, funeral plans.

On TV all I see is the plan your own funeral, how to glue in your teeth adverts or the now you are 50 you can go cruising or stay in a hotel where there are no kids with a lot of other people who being 50+ means your kids have magically disappeared.

At 50 I had 2 children in primary school, like a lot of my 50+ friends. At 50 a couple of them still had kids in nursery and one was pregnant.

I peaked looking on AIRBNB this morning at things to do in the local area of a holiday destination I was interested in.

Saw something i thought we could do as a family. But the photographs were of young people in their 20s.30s
In fact all the advertising for anything I looked at was aimed at the 20-30 year old market.


AIBU that as more and more women are giving birth in their mid to late 30s and older. Their Dps/dhs are usually similar age or older.
Men and women aren't all suddenly turning into old fogies who want to run out and plan their funeral on our 50th birthday.

One particular advert always got to me and it might seem ridiculous but the kitchen used in the advert supposedly what some advertising geek thinks is typical of a family whose parents are in their 50s was something out of the 1970s.

Don't advertisers realise most of us at this age have moved and redecorated since 1977.
Advertising adults only holidays to those as young as 50 is directed at grandparents. Unless you had children under the age of 24 and the same with your children I don't see how you can have multiple GC at 50.
Not saying you can't but I think I am right in thinking the average age to give birth is late 20s not late teens.

Aibu to be pissed. I know I could book stuff or buy what I like but the expectation that once you hit 50 advertisers think all you are fit for is to plans your own funeral or shut yourself away in some care home or hotel with others of the same age is really offensive.

Advertisers are missing out on a huge market. After all according to some we are the BB generation and have the most disposable cash

[Gardai]

Yep, I get sun life ‘plan your funeral’ mail now with it’s jolly bright & cheerful envelope and a free voucher if I sign up - or a pen !!! Wowsers.

I am a youthful geriatric and do not relate to the glued in dentures currently (I don’t need glue in my plate). I don’t piss myself when I laugh or dance (yet). My kid is still young, I can run faster than her and I agree, there’s a missing demographic re advertisers.

[lidoshuffle]

I totally agree, although the gluey-in-teeth and funeral adverts on the telly are probably aimed at 70+, but they use actors/models in their gorgeous 50s prime

[Mrsharrison]

Yes I can't relate to the actors representing me.
I don't look like them and I don't need tena lady either.
And I've got my own teeth which are still in good shape.
My generation started the rave culture. We're not making the transition to beige slacks and potting shed yet.

[beepbeeprichie]

YANBU OP. Similarly I’m finding very few clothes in the shops that aren’t Edinburgh Woollen Mill old fogey or Top Shop young. It’s almost as if you’re supposed to just give up and stock pile the fixodent.

[FatSally]

am right in thinking the average age to give birth is late 20s not late teens

I don't really understand some of your post.

All of my children will be adults before i'm 50. My youngest child was born when I was nearly 31 so it hardly means having kids in your teens for this to be the case!

Tbh I think all of your dc being adults, or nearly adults, by 50 is much more common than having young dc or being pregnant at this age...so advertisers are doing what they always to, marketing to the masses.

[lidoshuffle]

Clothes are a really bugbear. At 50 there's still nearly 20 years of working life so we need fashionable, but age appropriate, clothing for work, let alone socialising. Elasticated polyester dirdnls can do one!

[squashyhat]

Yes! I am mid 50s and never had kids so no grandchildren, am certainly not planning my funeral yet, don't have dentures or leak wee and went to my first music festival a few weeks ago (apart from a shitty experience at V in the 90s).

[TheVanguardSix]

I'm 46 and I'm just dreading the 'now that you're 50 and have one foot in the grave..." bollocks.
You get to 100 in this country, you get a letter from the queen.
You hit 50 in this country, you get Tena Lady and funeral planning shoved in your face.
I've got the Tena Lady covered already, thanks!

And THIS!!!
My generation started the rave culture. We're not making the transition to beige slacks and potting shed yet. Where's the 'fuck yeah' emoji?
There's a gap in the market! Make mine a rave funeral.

[HRTpatch]

I'm late 50s, still going to gigs and wearing Top Shop jeans. And enjoying retirement which does mot involve garden centres or 2 for 1 lunches in crap pubs.
I have planned my funeral as well

[Oliversmumsarmy]

All of my children will be adults before i'm 50. My youngest child was born when I was nearly 31 so it hardly means having kids in your teens for this to be the case

I was talking about being 50 and being a gran. Which is the inference some of the adverts give.

I think it depends where you live etc. Youngest in my antenatal class was a young 22 year old who did have an arranged marriage and was from India. Her second was born at 35

The next youngest was 30. Most were between 34-36 and I was certainly not the oldest.

I forgot about the Tena lady advert.

It is quite depressing really

[Oliversmumsarmy]

Quick chat about the funeral plans with friends of my age and we couldn't give a stuff about our funeral. We will be dead. We won't care.

[Oliversmumsarmy]

As for SAGA insurance. Do they think we are dopey and are not going to compare prices. I have always found them to be very expensive

[ToadOfSadness]

I don't worry about the TV ads any more than I do the Tena ones or the Pampers ones or those annoying squealy holiday park ones, I just don't look at them. No more irritating than the noisy and ridiculous car ads, those I actually turn off, would much rather see denture glue and people going to funerals because they are quieter.

I found that because I changed my age on social media to 109 in order to not become a magnet for stuff I didn't want to see, I did get more funeral plans and the like. I use adsense when there is an option and block as many of the companies I am not interested in as possible.

Much as I like a garden centre, browsing the plants in the fresh air, coffee and cake outside, I wouldn't bother browsing the clothing options they have, sometimes in vast quantities, because I might be old and knackered but I am not going to dress like it.

[Oliversmumsarmy]

I am not worried by the adverts I just see them as irrelevant.

However at some point I would like to see a nod in the direction that just because I am 50+ I am not past it. I am not going to be planning my funeral ever. I have all my own teeth, funnily enough the only people I know who that advert would be relevant to are both under 30.
Nor am I going to go into a retirement home.

What I would like to see is some adverts to include a few people my age who are realistic and not this caricature of what a middle-aged woman looks like.

[specialsubject]

the funeral plans are a rip off.

you can get off junk mail lists, I get none. Tick the right boxes and don't shop at certain retailers.

and why are you watching TV ads? Recorder boxes are cheap now.

[ARumDo]

Derailing slightly I know but interesting re clothes. I am a size 14, 50 year old mother of 2 boys and my 17 yr old niece is also a size 14. And yet I am unable to wear the same clothes as her, leaving aside any questions of would I want to, because they simply don't fit me. There does seem to be a size 14 and a size 14 and they are not the same. I went to the sales last week and it was a depressing affair - I am not ready for the "grown up" clothes and not comfortable in many of the "young" ones. Retailers like Boden make me laugh. I read an excellent blog by MidlifeChic bemoaning how Boden are trying to move their demographic to a younger audience - the reality for me is that the only direction they are headed is older and older to a point where I find very little there to buy. Sooty. Complete hijack I know but just needed a quick rant!

[KurriKurri]

I'm 58, I have grown up children but no grandchildren.
I get endless advertising crap about funeral plans, pension plans (thanks I already sorted that out with my work years ago) Stannah stair lifts, baths with a door in that you sit in in your swimsuit, chairs that let you lie down all day, sleazy looking older men who apparently want to 'date' me, holidays involving sitting very still and having a cup of tea while looking at a view, and stuff that assumes I am crippled with corns and bunions but can't reach my own toes.

It is all nonsense, and I ignore. I'm active, lucky enough to be mobile and fit, I'm not sitting around waiting for death. Most people work into their sixties these days and enjoy perfectly normal activities. I appreciate that some people are infirm and needs aids to help them with everyday life, but infirmity can strike at any age. I have friends ranging from 20's to 80's in all the age groups there is a spectrum of needs, health issues or lack of them. It's the assumption that when you hit fifty you fall to bits.

Also the assumption that if you are over fifty, single and female you must be dying for a partner (to enjoy all the non-activities with you presumably). I'm perfectly happy on my own, totally independent. I think all these adverts paint a sad and false picture of the lives led by people over fifty - it all adds to the ageist stereotypes. over fifties arenot a homgenous group who suddenly all like the same boring things and are constantly preparing for thier own demise.

[Oliversmumsarmy]

I gave up buying clothes years ago. Not that I was ever really into clothes. I don't work in an office and most of the time I am filthy dirty when I have come off site.

I have been dressed in clothes apparently appropriate for my age before.

They fall into 2 categories either those that my 95 year old mil wouldn't wear because they were so old fashioned or that yummy mummy type clothing that involves a lot of scarfs and droopy necklaces.

I hate the look.

I have lost my way when it comes to fashion and nothing is directed at me so even though I have money to spend I just end up in Primark with a few t.shirts and a pair of jeans.

[roguedad]

Just to inject some gender diversity into this great thread, if you are a bloke you get bombarded with some of the same stuff (SAGA have given up, pension freedom scammers are finally tiring of my rudeness, the baths-with-a-door people are still trying) but also lots of lovely advice on erectile dysfunction. It is quite astonishing how many different remedies there are, some now with testimonials from celebrities.

Probably best to leave that one there. What I really want now I have turned 60 is a battery-powered chainsaw....let's see how long the algos take to send me ads now.

[Kingsclerelass]

Op, I feel the same. Those saga ads are ridiculous. And as for the funeral plans....
I had dc at 45. Now mid 50s, I work full time, we’re going surfing next week and in the autumn we start building our new house.
When their ageist rubbish arrives in the post I scrawl “maybe in 40 years - RTS” across it. Might as well waste their postage.

[Huskylover1]

YANBU. But, those Sunlife over 50's adverts do not have actors in their 50's, they are almost 70.

I think most people recognise, that 50 is very young to be thinking about funerals etc, however, there are the odd few people that young, that suffer with ill health.

In a previous job, I worked with members of the public on the lowest incomes, I guess they'd had "hard lives" and at 50 many looked incredibly old.

At 50 I had 2 children in primary school, like a lot of my 50+ friends. At 50 a couple of them still had kids in nursery and one was pregnant

^^ You must realise though, that this is not the norm. Not by a long shot. I had my kids in my late twenties. I am 48 now and DH is 45. Both the kids are adults and we are still fit and healthy, infact DH has a very demanding job protecting the public.

I think the demographic that's being missed, is people aged 45+ whose kids have flown the nest. More cash. No responsibility for kids. It's time when parents get their lives back and start to travel surely?

We've just booked a long haul holiday to the Caribbean, and won't be hanging up our dancing shoes any time soon.

I can't imagine having primary school kids at this age. Not because I feel old, but because now is time for me and DH to take time out for us, now that the kids are grown. It's a brilliant and exciting time.

[MayFayner]

The only time I ever saw those stena stairlift/ fixodent/ Tena lady/ prune juice ads on a regular basis was when I was a student. It was watching daytime tv that exposed me to them, not my age.

Facebook has recently started showing me A LOT of ads for slippers though. Slippers and cosmetic surgery

[KurriKurri]

The TV adds all have this strange misty lighting as if when you hit fifty you automatically go soft focus.

The ones where a couple are sitting on a rock staring out to sea, him gobbling his viagra, her checking she's got enough Tena pads to last the day.

Equity release is another one - leaflets with elderly couples all cardiganed up taking out a mortgage so they can afford the sedentary cruises up the Rhine, door baths, giant slippers, fold you up in the middle electric beds, and discreet plastic pants for when you feel like adding a bit of a crackle to your life.

[1moreglassplease]

I could have written this thread! I turned 49 last year and am bombarded with funeral plan rubbish through the post and watching daytime TV is a constant bombardment of funeral plans, "oops" moment ads for women, over-50s dating sites (shudder), Stannah stairlifts etc. Talk about depressing. Am just waiting for the FiftyPlus catalogue to land on my doormat .

I'm fully active and working out in the gym regularly, have no plans to slow down just yet and love clothes shopping. Looking forward to being mortgage free and having more disposable income for myself next year. Am single and childfree so will enjoy it even more.

[Foxyloxy1plus1]

I get them all the time and just feel that they’re stereotypical and completely unrepresentative of the people I know.

Just because you’re over 50 (or 60, or 70) doesn’t mean that you’re sitting around waiting to croak. Most of the people I do exercise classes with are way over 50 and probably fitter than many people half their age. I have no desire to buy a chair that helps you to stand up or sit down. I can do squats and burpees, jacks and circuits. Don’t need it.

I’m wearing shorts and a vest top and am not planning on Crimplene, Hotter shoes and floaty scarves any time soon. I’m more likely to be found wearing a tea dress or jump suit.