It's especially popular with women (whispers) <over 40>

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

Every time that stupid advert comes on the telly, I want to throw something at the woman on it.

Just why does she feel the need to whisper when referencing these foul, ghastly old hags who reached 39 and then had the temerity to continue living and wanting to keep washing their hair?

I remember they had that shampoo decades ago, which was marketed at the over 40s (can't recall the name of it). IF more mature hair (and doesn't it keep falling out and being replaced afresh every day anyway?) does benefit from a different formulation, then great. Even if it doesn't and they just want to market a particular product at certain demographic as a lifestyle thing, then no real problem with that.

But why the whispering? As if it's shameful to have attained this great old age? I dread to imagine how she feels about actual elderly people who still have hair and like to keep it clean and looking good rather than just shaving it all off and superglueing a load of dried-out brittle straw from a barn floor on to their bonces instead. How very dare they?

Seriously, they would never sell a shampoo specially formulated for Afro hair and suddenly whisper "Black people". They wouldn't sell mild 'no more tears' stuff and whisper "Children".

Whispering suggests that something is either a secret or somehow shameful. There are millions of women over 40 out there who are neither trying to hide the fact of their existence nor feeling ashamed of it.

AIBU?

Ageism is rife. I am 71. Almost a statement of shame to some people. The weird thing about ageism is that sexists won't ever be women, racists won't ever be black but ageists will one day be old.

The thing with adverts is to think of the ver' ver' clever people - yah? all in a huddle - yah? thinking outside the box, in blue sky- yah? to appeal to the demographic (yah?)
If the actors and demographic they use is not a demographic I can relate to, or appeals to me then they can stuff their product.

Is that right June-dad?

Mammajay Great post.

OP Bloody great thread.

I knew I hated this advert but you have just articulated why. And made me laugh

This advert just makes me think something terrible will happen to my hair on my 40th birthday. Why will I need different shampoo? Will it all fall out overnight? Will it turn to straw? Will small animals take up residence?

It's not old! I would love to see a men's advert in this style. The caffeine shampoo advert is all zooming noises and manly voices, no hint of ageism. "It's especially popular with balding men"

However, it still employs lazy stereotypes and tries to pressure men too, albeit going for a different 'jugular'.

Are you a man?
Do you have thinning hair?
You need to fight for your hair!!

This teaches us that:
Bald men are not really men (or at least proper manly ones)
Being bald or having thinning hair is always preventable (and not a very common genetic-based fact of life).
Being bald or having thinning hair is shameful.
If something isn't black and doesn't reference cars in some way, it will go entirely over men's (balding) heads.

I am not for one moment equating the severity of the effects on people's lives of losing hair with having cancer (although plenty of folk sadly have to put up with both at the same time), but I think the entreaties to people that they need to FIGHT against something to do with their health that is very probably unbeatable are very ill-judged (and sometimes downright nasty).

By all means do whatever you believe or feel helps you cope with your own circumstances, but by telling people that they must fight, whether terminal illness or potentially confidence-sapping baldness or something anywhere in between, it gives out the clear message that those who nevertheless eventually do succumb to it have done so because they chose not to and therefore it is their fault and they are weak and/or a loser. Such a wicked message to give, whether intentional or not.

This sort of bullshit artificially manufactured consumer niche is all that is wrong with capitalism.

Omg, what am I missing? Is this special shampoo for the nether regions? Is that why it's for ladies "over forty?"

I hate that ad.

This advert just makes me think something terrible will happen to my hair on my 40th birthday. Why will I need different shampoo? Will it all fall out overnight? Will it turn to straw? Will small animals take up residence?

Ah, um, er, this could be awkward. Should I be the one to tell you that you'll need to budget for the compulsory (minimum third-party) hair insurance that you legally have to start buying as soon as you've completed your two-score years on earth? It doesn't come cheap, as premiums are directly based on the huge amount of expensive claims that are made every year.

The very existence of people over 40 is a shocking cause for concern in itself; the fact that some of them also have hair, with all the societal breakdown inevitably ushered in by all of those superannuated thatches - menaces and parasites the lot of them. If you tolerate this, then their wrinkles will be next.

The "Hair over 40" advert from byegone years was "Empathy" shampoo.

Hair grows 0.5" / month and falls out after 6 years or so.

But hair over 40 would be 20' long

Female Products marketed for the over 40s are usually for the over 60s. Most companies rarely market anything directly to women over 60.

All adverts aimed at women are all "ohh we're women tee hee we all like the same things and were all just so silly and a bunch of airheads how hilarious".

Empathy shampoo. " Brings back beautiful hair."
A bald boyfriend had a bottle in his bathroom. Not sure if it was irony or optimism.

The "Hair over 40" advert from byegone years was "Empathy" shampoo.

Hair grows 0.5" / month and falls out after 6 years or so.

But hair over 40 would be 20' long grin

Yes, thank you - that was it! It wasn't the one in the boxy-shaped bottle with the two different-coloured separated ingredients that wouldn't mix no matter how much you shook it, was it? I remember that being around at the same time, but it was probably a different product.

You might be on to something with the 20-foot hair, though - maybe the shampoo itself is mixed in with some of the heavy-duty chemicals that Dyno-Rod use to break down organic drain-clogging matter

They say it is the mot popular shampoo in Germany. I have lived in Germany for over 3 decades and have never seen any evidence to support this claim. I don't know anyone who uses it either & it is not that widely available to buy!

What ad is this for?

In the lead up to my 40th I bought night creams and day creams, and used them.

And then I turned 40, and nothing happened.

I am now loud and proud about my age. I feel really privileged to be in a position where I can age, as some people I know didn't get this far, and also to be in good health, for the same reason.

Anyone who thinks I should be demure or invisible can f**k off.

YANBU!

Although it has taken a while to type yanbu as too busy guffawing at ghastly old hags who reached 39 and then had the temerity to continue living and wanting to keep washing their hair?

You make splendid points Sausage, & with hilarious indignation.
Long may you Roll :)

Oh I agree with you OP! I shout at the TV every time this advert comes on. Maybe I am oversensitive as I am in fact a dried-up old hag of 39

@Mammajay - GENIUS! & shamelessly appropriated for my own smug future usage.

sexists won't ever be women, racists won't ever be black but ageists will one day be old

Does anyone have a link to this ad?

Female Products marketed for the over 40s are usually for the over 60s. Most companies rarely market anything directly to women over 60.

Yet they'll need to given the extension of the pension age and the reality of the need to keep working. Media and advertisers paint women in later life as irrelevances that shuttle back and forth between invisibility and being Hags That Should Be Shunned for Showing Their Wizened Visages and Straggly Hairs (unless the hairs growing luxuriantly in 'wrong' places like the chin or under the nose). They need to sell us products for the public weal as we need to carry on working until our late sixties and beyond so they have to render us acceptable to the general public and colleagues who are unfortunate enough to share workspaces with us.

every day past 40 i shamelessly clock up i count as a massive fuck you to the patriarchy

Funny how that gets easier every decade of accrued wisdom, innit @thetardis?
Thank you for articulating it so succinctly. Solidarity, Sister [not ironic] x

I’m now nearer 50 than 40 .... wouldn’t buy this product on principle ....