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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Rosstac · 17/07/2018 11:22

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.

blue25 · 17/07/2018 11:29

Well I'm 40 and love adult only holidays! There's been a mix of ages at the places we've stayed. I think you're being a bit paranoid.

JaneJeffer · 17/07/2018 11:30

I'd actually love to go on a coach tour holiday!

HRTpatch · 17/07/2018 11:31

My direct cremation has cost £1600.
I even paid for it on my JL card so I get some vouchers Smile

Rosstac · 17/07/2018 11:46

HRTpatch What about all the other things associated with a funeral, ie wake, flowers, hearse, chapel of rest, local paper announcements, order of service, a person to do the service( forgot what there are called) the urn for the ashes, etc

Bluelady · 17/07/2018 11:49

Rosstac, all those things are optional. Direct cremation means no funeral. The undertakers take the body to the crematorium and it goes straight into the burner with nobody there. A lot of people are choosing this now. Not everyone wants an all the trimmings send off.

Rosstac · 17/07/2018 11:57

Rosstac That sounds like a lovely send off to your dear parent or whoever, After years of life and love just give a quick roast and be done with them, what about celebrating their life and people wanting to show their last respects

scaryteacher · 17/07/2018 12:52

I am nowhere close to being a grandmother as ds is still at university, but that seems to be aimed at 50+. Just because I am over 50 doesn't mean I am brain dead or need a walking stick!

I think MN needs to redo their age ranges.

Bluelady · 17/07/2018 13:11

Because people who have direct cremation WANT that, are you really saying that people shouldn't have freedom of choice over what happens to them when they're dead? It's not what I want but it's absolutely what should happen for people who do.

Rosstac · 17/07/2018 13:15

Bluelady Yes it’s their decision, but what about the people left behind they are the ones that have to live with yourself decision.

HRTpatch · 17/07/2018 14:09

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

Rosstac · 17/07/2018 14:57

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

Xenia · 17/07/2018 15:06

I am not sent this stuff ( even though my date of birth comes up on Google (which I cannot get removed and even though I am a granny who also has teenagers and am mid 50s). I made my first will aged 18 when I was studying law at university with my burial requirements - burial, not cremation. My estate should be more than enough to cover the funeral costs so no need to buy anything in advance. I probably have about 30 years to go hopefully all of them working full time.

I tend not to see adverts. I turn the sound down on sky; I throw all junk mail away unread etc so perhaps it just passed me by and on line the advertisers always think I am interested in the court case subject matters I am litigating as my work tends to determine most of my web searches so that specific advertising is usually very and amusingly off the mark.

HRTpatch · 17/07/2018 15:14

I am not religious and couldn't give a stuff about how people react!
Nothing to do with them. My family know my wishes.

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

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

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.

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.

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

HRTpatch · 17/07/2018 16:35

countfosco I have paid for mine already.

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:
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.

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.

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:
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: