Retro style and antique items will never be out of date, because people tend to romanticize the past and forget the bad things, which happened to them once. Are elderly people as in trend as old things? With the population of the globe getting older and older at high rates—according to The U.S. Census Bureau, by 2050, the world’s 65-and-older population will triple by mid-century to 1 in 6 people, the audience is being prepared to the fact that aging is not a curse, and old people can be chick and great as well. While technology companies are developing new approaches to help people stay active for as long as possible, consumer brands have been engaging gray-haired models in their advertising to introduce new truths about elderly people and expand the semantic field of the word ‘old.’
As the world is getting older, and more people in their 50-s and older look, feel and act in a much younger way than their grannies at the same age, and their children also don’t want to adopt old-fashioned behavior models in the future. And brands are contributing a lot to developing this positive image—the image people want to see. One of the key principles of advertising is giving people a much-wanted picture to identify themselves with, so most probably brands are just responding to people’s implicit wish to see successful and happy elderly models on the screen and try this image on. It might be something like ‘I know that I’ll probably be 80 years old too, but I still want to look great at this age. Show me how great I will look like’. Previously, aged models were associated with respectability, wisdom and care, but things have changed a little bit and now, consumer brands employ two more approaches when talking about elderly people and featuring them in their campaigns—an ironic narrative and a serious story, sometimes even with a sexy twist.
Inviting aging ladies in cosmetics advertising is nothing new—50 and 60-something models’ smooth faces with minimum wrinkles, perfect skin and hair work great in commercials, highlighting the strengths of beauty anti-wrinkle and anti-age products. Dove is one of the beauty brands which celebrate women as they are, with all their flaws (which usually are not flaws at all) and at any age—the legendary body care brand through its ‘Real Beauty’ international promotion, which includes prints featuring older ladies as well, and ‘Pro.age’ campaign has done a lot to help older women build confidence in their beauty.
Last year, L’Oréal Paris tapped Hugh Laurie, who is now 53, and Inès de La Fressange, who turns 55 this August, as the new faces of the cosmetics brands. In 2006, the cosmetics giant also invited now 66-year old Diane Keaton for its campaign—last year, the award-winning actress became the face of the Chico’s apparel and accessories brand, getting featured in a fashion brand promotion for the first time in her life. Back in 2008, another personal care and cosmetics giant, Procter & Gamble, announced that Ellen DeGeneres (now 54) became one of the celebrity Cover Girl and Olay faces, joining other younger ambassadors including young diva Rihanna and middle-age Drew Barrymore, who is still associated with youth and freshness. The oldest model promoting cosmetics line is hilarious diva, mature-aged eccentric fashionista and style icon Iris Apfel aged 90—the MAC Cosmetics company launched a vibrant range, “a colour collection inspired by a rare bird who has always been ahead of her time” in early 2012, and released a print with Apfel wearing bright make-up looking right into your eyes through her round black glasses. While cosmetics in your bathroom doesn’t seem to be the ultimate tool to make the aging skin smooth and elastic (the secret kit surely includes some mesotherapy treatment or even Botox and surgery), it can make you feel and other people think that you are 10-15 years younger.
Photo: MAC’s collection designed by Iris Apfel, www.andsometimesnye.tumblr.com
Cosmetic brands are not the only ones which use the image of elderly people to build a stronger emotional connection with consumers and evoke sympathy in consumers’ hearts. Apparel labels also feature aged models in their promotions to demonstrate that real fashion knows no boundaries, and while young years may pass, beauty and style have a much longer shelf life. One of the most controversial, cliché-breaking and provocative brands in the clothing fields, American Apparel, which has been releasing sexually explicit campaigns, has recently tapped 60-year old Jacky O’Shaughnessy, for a series of Advanced Basics prints, including the ones featuring the lady spreading her legs wide in an acrobatic position—in one of them, she’s wearing a grey bulky cable knit sweater over a leotard and purple tights, and in the other, she is in the underwear. Before the launch of this promotion, M&S kicked off its clothing recycling campaign dubbed ‘Shwopping’ fronted by 66-year old British actress Joanna Lumley, who is convincing consumers to give their old outfits a new life. This may sound somewhat offensive, but it seems to me that inviting a senior celebrity to become the face of a campaign promoting second life of old clothing is just perfect to reflect the project’s concept, and it wouldn’t be as effective if it weren’t fronted by a young media, fashion or cinema personality.
From beauty and social involvement to fun. Elderly people can be very cute and make us smile, with all respect to them. One of my favourite campaigns, which put a spotlight on senior people in a humorous way, is the cross-platform promotion of KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese, launched in spring 2012. This year, the brand celebrates its 75th century and in its new promotion it wanted to feature those who are about the same age with the product—so, it hired Frankie, 87, and Dottie, 86 as the social media managers of KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese for one week. The ‘old birds’ were communicating with the brand’s fans on Twitter and Facebook, and talking about modern behaviours and technologies in the dedicated spots—my favourite is about Google, watch it below.
The granny theme has been also employed in a hilarious campaign for another Kraft Foods’ brand, the Athenos line—the Greek grandmother Yiayia, who is extremely judgmental about the way younger people live now, what they wear, their relationship and more, but never about Athenos they eat. The series of spots, launched in 2011 was so successful that the brand kicked off a new round of the promotion in May 2012.
Old Spice also featured an aging hunk, 50-something Fabio, in its Mano a Mano in el Baño mocking project, a duel between the Man your man could smell like and a heartbreaker from the covers of romance novels’—the young rival wins the battle, but the elderly one wins the hearts of all ladies of 50 and older.
What’s the major reason of featuring aging people in ads? In my opinion, brands just want to add a new meaning to the ‘aging people’ phrase, convince audience that being elderly doesn’t mean being week and not attractive. Why? Brands want to stay with consumers for decades and in fact all these commercials are targeted not at senior citizens—they won’t buy all these neon nail polishes and spandex clothing,—but at consumers in their 25-40. Companies just want to assure us that over some time we all will be like Sophie Laurent (77) or Meryl Streep (63), or the ambassadors of their own brands Hugh Hefner (86) and Richard Branson (61), as happy and attractive as they are. The way to look and feel young is to—as brands believe—consume their products and stand by their philosophy. The secret of my Granny, who turned 95 this year, is to think positive no matter what happens. Try to combine both approaches. Be young.