to wonder why the new Scottish widow is SO young?!

[Callani]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-25859003

Now I'm aware that it is (tragically) possible for someone to be a widow at the age of 24 but really?

Honestly, would it be so hard to have someone over the age of 40 as a Scottish widow? It kinda reminds me of those Fix-a-dent adverts where there's a 70 year old man with a 35 year old wife!

[Disclaimer: As an unmarried 26 year old, I am clearly just bitter that she got married at 21 or whatever]

I'm wondering if at 26 you may be getting to the stage of 'don't policemen look young nowadays?'.
The Scottish Widow used in the ads has been a young beautiful woman for as long as I can remember.

Oh no, I really am! I just looked up how old the other widows were and they were 22, 23 and 22 when they started so this is actually the oldest one of the lot!

God, I'm sure I remembered them being way older!? Standing fully corrected (and now having a slight crisis that I'm "old" at 26...)

There have been 3 previous models for SW adverts I think the most famous face was Amanda Lamb who went on to do A Place in the Sun & a Property Programme the name of which I can't recall.
I do unfortunatley know of 3/4 widows well under the age of 30 whose husbands where friends with my DS2 so in this day and age it is not impossible to have knowledge of such young women.

When I was a young teen I thought that was what forty-ish looked like if you were beautiful. I was wrong

I do think actually that the models are too young. But that has always been the case. And I too remember thinking the model was older than she was. Those days have long gone now.

Wasn't the first one Roger Moores Daughter?

I think they're up against the problem that the brand is obviously long-established and associated with a lot of recognition and goodwill, so they need a 'widow' on the ad, but don't want to suggest anything involving grief, recent bereavement, loss. So you end with a glamorous young woman who looks like she just picked a hooded cloak out of the dressing-up box...

I used to think that one of them looked a bit smug - as if she'd bumped off an elderly H and was preparing an exciting life with her new lover with the insurance money.

She was probably just meant to look mysterious and I had been reading too many trashy novels

The Scottish Widow has always been a foxy young woman, who it has to be said, has never looked too heartbroken over her widowed state.

Shosha yes you are right it was Deborah Moore,I just couldn't think who it was first time around.

Haha Ledaire!

I remember the fuss when Amanda Lamb was replaced by someone 10 years younger!

You know you're getting old when everyone appears younger.

When I visited my dentist for the first time I worried that he was properly qualified, he looked far too young. I didn't even give it a second thought that it was me who is OLD!

What Ledaire said... I know exactly which one you mean. Her expression almost suggests a measure of triumph.

I suppose young women are used to illustrate that these things can happen at any age and one should be prepared just in case. I don't know but that black cape isn't very flattering in my opinion, I'd have a scarlet velvet one.

"Triumph" - yes!

So glad it wasn't just me.

I would have thought that a reminder that one can be widowed even if young and gorgeous would be sensible. People who assume that life insurance etc is for older people and those in poor health are unfortunately not exempt from suffering an unexpected accident or life limiting illness.

It is good to draw attention that lots of women are widowed young-it isn't something that you are immune from until you are over a certain age!

Not all widows are women who were married 30+ years. I sadly know a few women widowed in their 30's and a couple in their twenties.

I was widowed at age 26, so it can happen. I wasn't glamorous though.

Unfortunately there will be quite a few widows in their early 20s where their DH has been killed in Afghanistan or similar , which is quite fitting with the company's beginnings in the Napoleonic wars.