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AIBU?

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Original poster

To feel pissed off with advertising to the 50+

139 replies

Oliversmumsarmy · 15/07/2018 11:17

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

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
notacooldad · 06/08/2024 19:10

Why has a 6 year old thread been revived?😂

blackheartsgirl · 06/08/2024 16:20

Im 47 and I have multiple grandchildren 😭🤷‍♀️.

its not that unusual in my circle. I was 22 when I had ds and then he had 4 dc before the age of 25 (he works and has a good job btw)

But yes I get your point about 50+ advertising. It bloody annoys me.

Simonjlucas · 06/08/2024 16:12

Just wait for euthanasia to be legal... they will jump on that opportunity! Fulfill your deathwish here before pension is taken away.

tillytrotter1 · 18/07/2018 11:05

I would prefer people to appreciate me and make the most of me when I'm alive.
Not by spending £5000 on wreaths and a hearse
Totally agree, much rather they went off on holiday, open a bottle of something and enjoyed their memories. Some self-centred people on here want to make it about them, as usual. How about respecting the wishes of the person you're supposed to have loved? It's your last chance to do what they want.

tillytrotter1 · 18/07/2018 10:59

Sympathise totally, being 70 this year but they can be soooooooooo funny! Walk in baths, how does it empty, do you sit there as it drains, all the scummy stuff sticking to you? Not just for older people but the ear-wax advert used to turn by stomach and the VIP poo I though was a send-up mock advert!
You are what you feel, had a couple of weeks at Disney earlier this year, marvelous, front of the queue!

Original poster
Oliversmumsarmy · 18/07/2018 10:47

so they mostly ignore the age 50+ marketing, we buy as much as we ever were going to

I dont. If advertising is supposed to make you spend more who knows how much better the high Street would do if they advertised to a demographic who would probably shop there.

we pretend we're only 40+. It's the age 60+ who start to pay attention to 50+ branded items. Flattery marketing, indeed

I am nearly 60 and I think the 40+ marketing is the same as the 50+ still too old

OP posts:
haverhill · 18/07/2018 09:46

I feel no connection to most advertiser’s notion of a woman in her late 40s. None whatsoever. It doesn’t even register with me except to find it vaguely amusing. It’s like their image of women our age is 40 years behind reality.

Original poster
Oliversmumsarmy · 18/07/2018 09:39

The way I see it is as a woman approaching 60 i am part of the Baby Boom generation. That means as a demographic there are more of us than there are of any other demographics.
Yet you look on tv, just on the adverts and count the number of actors/background people and then count the number of over 50s women.

Just seen an advert which went on about family. Whilst there were young couples with children and at least 3 older men in there I might have missed it but I didn't see any older women .

Looking at Bodens website. Older man features in their models but no older women in the women's section

It is like we are airbrushed out of adverts. Like we don't exist

OP posts:
AStatelyPleasureDome · 18/07/2018 03:47

Why do you think Marks and Spencer is going down the pan? Nobody wants to wear their frumpy old clothes. Growing old gracefully means being confident in your own skin, to dress and act to please yourself (within legal constraints, obviously). It does not mean dressing like Miss Marple, who was sharper than any of her younger counterparts anyway, She used their prejudice to get results!

Those of you who are obsessed with funerals, wouldn't your spouse organise and pay for it, or are you alone, or worried that you might die together ie most likely in an accident, which could just as easily happen to a 20 something.

lljkk · 17/07/2018 20:47

the age 50-60yos don't think of themselves as old even though we are so they mostly ignore the age 50+ marketing, we buy as much as we ever were going to, we pretend we're only 40+. It's the age 60+ who start to pay attention to 50+ branded items. Flattery marketing, indeed!

Original poster
Oliversmumsarmy · 17/07/2018 20:44

Dmil is 96 and is out most evenings, (Bridge evenings and her bf), goes on holiday every few months, complains about trying to find clothes that don't look dreadfully old fashioned and still hasnt got a funeral plan. Or had equity release.

When a 96 year old is complaining that things are too old fashioned then there is something very wrong with the advertising

OP posts:
BettyBooJustDoinTheDoo · 17/07/2018 19:54

Nothing worse than mutton dressed as mutton! I agree with you wholeheartedly OP I really cannot relate to these over 50 adverts at all, I wonder if Liz Hurley and Kylie get sent adverts for bath chairs and beige elasticated slacks! McCarthy and Stone advertise their retirement apartments for age 55! It’s beyond my comprehension. Also the tick boxes on forms etc annoy me, 30-40, 40-50 and then we are lumped into 50-80! But hey at least we get a free pen eh?

Undercoverbanana · 17/07/2018 19:16

lljkk - Great point! Flattery marketing!

Advertise it as 50+ knowing full well that they will not be interested but all the 70+s will be attracted to the “idea” of doing something more youthful.

Now I can ignore the Riverboat Cruises adverts in peace. 😎

HRTpatch · 17/07/2018 19:05

Exactly countfosco.
There is no funeral.

Original poster
Oliversmumsarmy · 17/07/2018 19:04

People age 50+ buy less stuff, are less consumerist as a group, so the don't get the same advertising as youngers

But I would love to spend money.
This thread was started by looking on Airbnb and anything I wanted to do it seemed to be advertised to the 20s/30s market. So makes me doubt whether I am too old to take part.
Whether there is some unwritten age group for these sort of things.

Then looking to find something advertised that was in my age group and finding nothing I would be interested in.

OP posts:
Original poster
Oliversmumsarmy · 17/07/2018 18:56

It won’t affect you as you will be dead, what about the people you leave behind

You do know that there is no correlation between how much you spend on a funeral and how well you were liked or loved.

OP posts:
CountFosco · 17/07/2018 18:56

countfosco I have paid for mine already

You said above you've paid for a direct cremation but no funeral.

lljkk · 17/07/2018 18:55

I have a theory that stuff is marketed at "age 50+" so that people age 60+ or 70+ (etc.) can feel younger than that are.

People age 50+ buy less stuff, are less consumerist as a group, so the don't get the same advertising as youngers.

Original poster
Oliversmumsarmy · 17/07/2018 18:49

Oliversmumsarmy I suppose your one of them people that tell other people how wacky and crazy you are, how rules apply to other people and you don’t care what any one else thinks, radical dude,
Have you let your children know that they’re going to have to fork out for your funeral yet, best give them time to save

Wtf

You definitely need to get out more.

As I have said before I wear Primark T.Shirt and jeans and you consider that whacky.

As for my children they know I would not hold with spending money on something that is going to be buried in the ground.
Yes they would have to pay for it but they will get it back a million fold.

Also the females in my family have long lives. So I am not going to be paying out for a funeral plan for 40+ years it wouldn't be worth it

OP posts:
HRTpatch · 17/07/2018 16:35

countfosco I have paid for mine already.

HRTpatch · 17/07/2018 16:34

I would prefer people to appreciate me and make the most of me when I'm alive.
Not by spending £5000 on wreaths and a hearse

CountFosco · 17/07/2018 16:20

Who wants all that extra shit? I certainly don't. What a waste of money.

A funeral is not for the dead, it's for the bereaved. You might not care about a funeral but it's an important part of the bereavement process for your loved ones. If you don't pay for it your family will end paying for it out of their own pockets.

Anyway, I looked up the average age of becoming a grandparent and it's apparently 47 but I couldn't find where the data comes from. If the average first time Mum is 29 that means their mothers on average became parents at 18 which does not seem likely. I suspect it's a self reporting group from a particular pressure group and of course does not include people who have yet to become grandparents.

Bluelady · 17/07/2018 16:15

Christ Rosstac, you're like a dog with a bone. She's decided what she wants and paid for it. Just leave it.

Rosstac · 17/07/2018 16:12

HRTpatch It’s not a case of religion, it’s about saying you goodbyes and doing respect for a departed person

BitOutOfPractice · 17/07/2018 15:22

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

I'd quite like that TBH Grin

But in principle I agree with you OP. I think marketeers seem to have missed the memo that said 50 is the new 40 and so on