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Meet the Charmed Generation
A sizable group of the current generation of over 50’s is, by all accounts, an affluent one, having benefited from a strong State welfare system for health and education,and from generous pension benefits, now on their way out. So why is this generation the subject of discrimination in marketing?
First published by CriticalEYE (Feb 2006)
Extract from the article
In the past, the old ‘map’ of consumer marketing was exquisitely simple; it showed a single road, leading to metropolis ‘18-34 year olds’.
Nowadays, the landscape has somewhat changed, dissolving into a myriad of side-turnings and lanes. New signposts appear with names like ‘the over-50s’.
Some of these go nowhere, but some lead to sixlane highways. Marketing now needs a new map - maybe even a new car.
The Western and much of the Eastern world is institutionally ageist. Youth, youthfulness, vitality and modernity always trump age, maturity, wisdom, and experience.
It is not surprising, then, that living in a culture where young is good and old is boring.'