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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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..."

@Huskylover1 - exactly! We are young enough to have adventures in front of us, the money to enjoy them and health on our side. My dh and I are both going 4/5s very soon so that our 50s can be our time!
@pennycarbonara - absolutely no surprise there then!

Well, the advertisers are certainly missing a trick, as the Baby Boomers are the generation with the most disposable income, and we want to spend it! Just not on funeral plans, and stairlifts, and coach trips round Scotland!

was talking about being 50 and being a gran. Which is the inference some of the adverts give
A lot of my friends are early 40s to 50s with grandchildren.
My close friend is 54 with a 10 year old gc
My colleague is 49 with 3 grandkids under 6
An other friend is 51 with a gc starting school in September.
It's perfectly normal to be a grandparent in your 40s and early 50s.
i suppose it's down to local demographics but where I live having a child in your mid 30s is pushing it. I do realise this is down to many reasons including cultural backgrounds and social expectations.

You do realise you have a higher percentage chance of dying when you get older, hence the funeral plans, they cost a bit, better start planning,
I am mid fifties and very sadly two of my friends recently past away with cancer, it brings it home to you, your health does start to take a downward path as you turn fifty, The advertisers know who to target

There are books in my local library called things like 'The Internet for the Over 50s'.
My mum is in her 70s and loves Boden, White Stuff and Joules.

It's a dated way of viewing people. Decades ago people in their fifties seemed a lot older than they do now, plus people didn't live as long. All the people I know in their fifties dress the same and have the same hobbies and interests as people in their thirties. Nowadays I think people don't look or behave in a stereotypical elderly way until their eighties.

In my experience, the older people get, the more they are in denial about being old, let alone possibly one day dying.

I remember mil got expensive new kitchen flooring. She was grumbling about the 25-year guarantee and wondering whether she should extend it. She was 80 at the time.

Rosstac, aren't you a ray of sunshine and thank you for stating the obvious? You may not have a choice about when you die, but you do have a choice about how to spend your money with panache and style before then (ie no beige elasticated trousers and tea at the garden centre). The realisation that time may be running out is all the more reason to enjoy yourself whilst you still can and grow old disgracefully.

At 47 all my children are at primary school (my youngest in reception, he'll be 8 when I turn 50). At their very naice state primary school I'm surrounded by other parents in their 40s who like me didn't have childrn until their late 30s and early 40s. The average age to have a first child is 29 so lots of 50 year olds will still have dependant children. I have no contemporaries with grandchildren.

I'm 50 soon, DH is early 50's. We are off to see a punk band this weekend and a festival in a couple of weeks. I'm also going to Alton towers next week with DD.
My teeth are perfect, I go swimming and to the gym and I wear nice clothes.
Advertising is way off if they're thinking that most of our generation are going to be old before we're ready.
We do love cruises though, but then so does DD17.

I’m 50 this year. I can now deadlift the same weight as my personal trainer and intend to spend this decade on increasing my back strength. I simply haven’t the time for half the shite these companies pedal, but I’ve always wanted to know how a bath with a door works? Do you have to sit shivers no until the water reaches a certain level?