To feel pissed off with advertising to the 50+

Dsis and I have joked that we'll be sitting clapping along to "Whooooa, we're half way there, whoooo-aaaah, livin' on a prayer..."

I agree with Redcrayons about music. A colleague had to visit a care home and heard Led Zeppelin blasting out; Vera Lynn was his mother's generation.

I think often they just say "50+" because that makes people who are 80 feel better about the product. I saw a tv advert for incontinence pads recently with a woman whizzing along a zip wire. As if!!!

And we have to remember that young people do see us as old! When I was 20 someone my age in their 50s would have been ancient . We think we're awfully funky and with-it and groovy and wotnot, and definitely not in the least like our own parents, but some of those Hotter shoes do look rather comfortable... and I often wish mobiles had larger buttons...

That Boden information is fascinating, penny. Hardly anyone in their 20s buys from them, ditto people working in creative industries. Quelle surprise.

Cruises ate actually quite popular with families with kids. Just thought I'd poi t that out. Going on a cruise doesn't mean you're ready for the knackers yard.

There's nothing wrong with liking cruises, but I don't think it is age related. I have been on one a few years ago with a friend and it's not really my thing. I don't think I'm going to suddenly start enjoying them because I am older.

I think if you like them you'll like them whether you are young or old. I'm not having a go at cruises - each to their own. Many people probably wouldn't like the kind of holidays I'd enjoy, but it's nothing to do with age, it's to do with personality and preference.

I do love a river cruise though: Mr Kalinka and I went on one with my parents and we had a pretty good time, though we were among the more youthful travellers.

It sounds like a lot of places are advertising based on what staff in their 30s and 40s remember their own grandparents liking, not research into the actual demographic they are serving. (Or maybe they are just wanting to flatter an audience that's actually 80+ by labelling lots of things as 60+ or even 50+)

Clothes:
This YouGov profile for Boden is surprising - the most common users are women 55+: yougov.co.uk/profileslite#/Boden-Website/demographics
It's probably the case that a lot of the brands talked about on here as if they are a 35-45 sort of thing are actually worn by women older than that too.

I’m 47 and the onslaught is beginning! Bloody hell, I will probably go on for another 40 years at least, jumping up and down at Iron Maiden concerts. I am not quite ready for a “Highland Spendour” coach tour yet, and the only elasticated waist garments I wear are for my fitness training activities. My parents are still fit and active in their 70s, try playing Vera Lynn to them, they’d have a few words to say about it!

Welcome to my world,OP. I'm 64 so this has been going on for some time. I just totally ignore it. Any geriatric junk mail goes straight into the recycling and we'd no more equity release than fly to the moon - why would you when you're still celebrating being mortgage free? I reckon ER will bite a lot of people on the bum when it comes time to pay care home fees.

A lot of our friends are going on cruises and don't understand our refusal to even entertain them. Lots of them now play golf - fuck that for a game of soldiers.

Equally they're dressing in a way that makes them look like their mums, totally unnecessary. There's loads of advice in Style and Beauty about how to look good over 50 or 60 or 70.

At the end of the day age is a number. I refuse to allow mine to define me. You're unusual in having small children at 50, OP but that should make it easier to ignore all the marketing slung at you on the basis of your date of birth.

Oh and also I have multiple GC at age 50, had my first daughter when I was 17 and she now has 4 kids.

I had 2 grandchildren before I was 50 , I now have 4 and wouldn't look at a lot of these hotels, being a gran does not mean your life is over .I hate the over 50s life insurance, should be assurance anyway. I could still have another 40 years ahead of me off I'm anything like my grand. It would be like selling mortgages to kids

YANBU I'm 51 this month and I detest the way us over 50s are depicted by mainstream media. They use actors in their 70s for anything with 'over 50' in its name or description. We grew up in the age of punk, not rolling hoops down the road with a flippin stick.

My parents (early 70s) were looking at an over 60s cruise but were put off by the entertainment which included a wartime afternoon tea. They weren’t born during the war, their music is 60’s. Vera Lyn belongs to their parents generation! They dismissed it as for old fogies!

I’ve not quite hit the magic 50 yet, but can’t wait to develop a sudden interest in funeral plans, elasticated waist trousers and coach tours of Scotland. My dcs turn 18 when I’m 51, I’ll still have 15 years left on my mortgage. I’m looking forward to festivals, clubbing in Ibiza, and starting my Masters.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.