When just 8% of people in advertising are over 51, compared to 33% of the working population, it's no surprise that ageism is still prevalent both within the industry and its output.

Mullenlowe’s Invisible Powerhouse research shows that there are 52 million adults in Great Britain. 47% are in their 50s and above. Between them they control assets of over £6 trillion. Reaching this audience is business imperative. 

At this year’s Creative Equals’ RISE conference, Louise Cohen, Corporate Marketing Lead at Haleon, spoke on the factthat our ageist attitudes to getting old, not the biological impact of ageing, is making people live shorter, less fulfilling lives. No matter what stage of life we are at, it is one of the only universal truths that ageing is inevitable. 

Finding a better way to represent ageing and finding joy in all stages of life can help combat negative stereotypes of ageing for us all. With this in mind we asked industry experts in an ageing society, should brands and agencies be doing more to combat negative stereotypes of ageing?  

Yes, absolutely, and not just for moral reasons, but commercially it makes sense. An ageing society isn’t a niche audience; it’s the mainstream. Yet advertising still treats people over 50 as invisible, or reduces them to tired clichés – and that couldn’t be further from reality. Many in their 50s, 60s and beyond are active, ambitious, and culturally engaged. They have the time, freedom, and spending power to invest in brands that speak to them. Those who recognise and celebrate this will stand out and build genuine, lasting loyalty. As agencies, we have the power and, I think, the responsibility to challenge those outdated stereotypes. By creating authentic portrayals of ageing that resonate, we not only produce better, braver work but shape a society where people can look forward to their future with confidence and pride.

Yes. For starters, some are responsible for perpetuating many of these stereotypes by idealising youth. Yet, paradoxically, more and more of their potential customers will come from an older demographic, and young people now have to prepare for a typically longer ‘old age’ than previous generations. 

We work with Scottish Widows, who know that the majority of Brits aren’t saving enough for a comfortable retirement. To engage people with pensions, we have to make old age seem real, relatable, and aspirational. Putting away money for ‘Future me’, not some doddery, near-death, unrecognisable version of yourself who has no interests and desires needing funding anyway. The end of youth is far from the end of adventures.

However, we’ve also seen maturity coveted by brands in aspirational ways. Brian Cox for Malibu and Harrison Ford for Glenmorangie both celebrate the inner confidence, character and uncompromisingness that comes with age, in stark relief to the anxiety and strife for perfection so prevalent in culture. The more entertaining - and less literal - advertising is, the freer it will be to feature characters who aren’t strictly ‘typical’ or reflective of the target audience’s demographic. It can be more values-based, progressive, and, ultimately, effective. 

It's no one brand's primary job to tackle stereotyping, but marketing does play a role in reinforcing or challenging it. If we’re sticking to first principles, we should already be doing our bit to smash lazy assumptions. Brands need to capture attention and deliver a message that’s relevant and motivating; neither of those things can be effectively achieved through stereotypes.

An ageing population simply makes the case even stronger. With more over-50s living more varied, interesting lives than ever before, there’s simply no excuse for reductive portrayals. Nothing should be off the table.

That thinking informed our recent work for SunLife. We swapped smiling pensioners rhapsodising about parsnip jam for something a little more unexpected: overenthusiastic woodcarvers, pocket rocket jiu-jitsu masters, and a lovely couple from the Valleys who prefer not to wear clothes. It’s a celebration of the sheer variety and vibrancy in later life; a more honest and engaging way to connect with a hugely valuable audience that’s already bearing fruit for SunLife.

The lives of over-50s offer marketers more than ever before. Ditch that latest Gen-Z trend report (that will be out of date by next Friday) and come join us over here.

Brands need to move beyond thinking about people simply in terms of specific age brackets. Yes, different life moments happen to us at roughly similar ages, but they do not define how we act. We’ve certainly moved beyond ignoring older consumers or just sending them stairlift-centric marketing. It is crucial to look at customers as people, not just as equations of their age, gender, job or location. At Sticky, we look at how people are curious and how they explore the world. Do they like a simple route that avoids overwhelm? Do they like to have their limits pushed? Or are they all about making connections with others? These curiosity types stay with us regardless of age, so by using them as a bedrock of campaigns, we can communicate in a meaningful way with our audiences.

The advertising industry has a blind spot the size of the Boomer generation. We’re obsessed with youth, despite the fact that older consumers have more disposable income, more time, and arguably more loyalty. Yet most brand comms either ignore them or reduce them to stereotypes: frail, forgetful, or fumbling with tech. It’s lazy, outdated, and commercially stupid.

Ageing isn’t a niche - it’s universal (if you’re lucky). And older people aren’t a single segment. There’s as much diversity in the over-60s as there is in the under-30s, but you wouldn’t know it from most marketing. We urgently need more nuanced, positive, and realistic portrayals of ageing - not just to “include” older people, but to engage them meaningfully.

Agencies need to take responsibility, too. How many creative teams or casting directors over 50 are shaping these campaigns? Inclusion starts behind the camera. The brands that win in the next decade will be the ones that stop chasing youth culture and start reflecting real culture - which includes older consumers not just as buyers, but as people with style, purpose, humour and influence.

In short: we need less ‘anti-ageing’, more pro-ageing - in skincare, in strategy, and in storytelling.

The Advertising Association’s All In Census 2025 shows that 70% of the industry’s workforce is made up of people aged 25 to 44. Just 8% of people in advertising agencies are over 51, compared to 33% of the overall UK workforce and 22% in the information and communication sector (IPA Agency Census 2024). 

Compounding this, 79% of marketers in the UK are under 45, while the over 50s make up nearly 40% of the population and account for around 54% of all household spending (Marketing Week).

All too often, the people making the ads don’t reflect the full range of ages in society, leading to blind spots in how we represent older generations. If we’re going to communicate effectively, it’s a no-brainer that our teams need to reflect that society. The fact that we’re so out of touch with such a significant part of the population is a massive missed opportunity.

To truly tackle ageism, we need to look at ourselves first. If we want to create authentic portrayals of older people, we need more older, more diverse voices—not just in front of the camera, but in the creative process too. Ageism is an industry problem as much as a social one.

There’s nothing quite like working for an agency named after a creature that went extinct 66 million years ago to make you reflect on ageing. So yes, I do flinch a little when I hear “dinosaur” used to refer to something ‘older'. But let’s get something straight: old doesn’t mean irrelevant.

The idea that cultural relevance is the sole domain of the young is tired. The Sex Pistols were spitting on each other (or at least their fans were) in the ‘70s - now those fans are part of the heritage they once rebelled against. Ageing doesn’t mean disengaging. It means layering experience over instinct, memory over trend. Today’s 50+ audience are festival-goers, digital natives, entrepreneurs and content consumers, not the flat-capped clichés they are still too often served.

Too many brands are still chasing middle-class, millennial aesthetics and ignoring the fact that old people aren’t ‘old’ anymore. And too many agencies are still pretending that fresh thinking only comes from fresh grads. We need to stop letting youth drive cultural relevance by default.

It’s time the industry started reflecting life as it actually looks. That means casting older talent without making it a campaign about age. It means briefing for insight and emotional range, not just aesthetic trends. And it means giving cultural credit to experience - not just energy.

The future doesn’t belong to one generation. It belongs to all of us. Even the dinosaurs.

Brands and agencies absolutely need to do more to challenge outdated stereotypes of ageing.

With our campaign for Oxfam, Stay in the Fight, we saw firsthand the power of telling a different story. Instead of portraying older people as passive or past-it, we celebrated Boomers as the original protest generation: still driven, still relevant, and still fighting for the causes they care about.

Ageing audiences want to be seen as active participants in culture, not footnotes to it. But too many brands are still stuck in stereotypes - soft, patronising, reductive. For Stay in the Fight, we set out to prove that when you speak to people’s values and history, not their age, you earn their attention, and their loyalty.

Plus, the timing couldn’t be more urgent. We're currently witnessing the biggest wealth transfer in history, but older audiences are not just richer - they’re more progressive, more politically engaged, and more motivated to make an impact than ever. This is a huge opportunity for brands and agencies alike.

This isn’t just about doing better by older people. It’s about smarter, braver storytelling. And it’s time people caught up.

When it comes to negative stereotypes and combating them, it comes down to how you define an agency's responsibility when it comes to cultural norms. Should we be commenting on them, helping shape, or defining them? At our most sluggish, we react to something after the fact, and an agency's campaign will feel a bit cringe because we're late to the party or we misjudged the tone our audience is using (hey cool kids territory). 

Ideally, we should be out in front and piercing through culture to help shape it, identifying a habit or trend and holding it up for our audience to examine, ideally from another angle. So while it may help the bottom line to create a beauty campaign full of taut faces gleaming with age-defying products, it is neither new nor true to how our bodies work. What would it look like to acknowledge that our bodies are naturally predisposed to, well, age? It doesn't have to mean people become a wildly different shape or become consumed by wrinkles, but everyone is supposed to change over time. For brands to acknowledge or even celebrate this would be a disruptive position indeed.

As I edge into the age bracket where very soon, according to stereotypes (which are themselves old and useless) I’ll be seen as an ‘ageing’ person. How will a brand not actively put me off?

• Watch your language. Please never use the phrase ‘anti-aging’ or ‘pro-ageing’. A - your strategy is showing and B - for most of us lucky enough to ‘age’, we see it as a GOOD thing. Being ‘anti-ageing’ is like being ‘pro death’, BAD idea.

• Go on, guess how old I am. Being 50, 60, 70 years old now is not the same as it was a generation ago. Don’t assume you know what it means/ how it feels. Think about people older than you who are friends and family, get involved and ask the audience, I guarantee they’ll surprise you.

In a word, yes. In the same way we need to combat negative stereotypes across the board. Gender, ability, race, age. It’s the responsibility of advertisers and their agency partners to stay relevant and in touch with what’s going on in culture and different consumer groups. And then represent them in a way that feels knowing, empathetic and real.

Historically, as an industry, we’ve not been great at representing older consumers. As soon as a brief lands with the target audience of over 55s, we’ve tended to reach for cliche land. Grey haired grandparents walking hand in hand on a beach, grey haired men on golf courses, grey haired women being jolly with their grandkids. Why is everyone over the age of 55 suddenly grey? Why do they all like beaches, golf courses and have grandchildren? Why are they seemingly obsessed with family photos in picture frames? We’re working with a wealth management brand whose competitors' photo libraries all look like this. Our approach? Talk to these people with the wit and intelligence you would any other age range and resist at all costs the urge to hold a stereotypical mirror up to them.

Too often, age is used as a lazy shortcut for segmentation. But people don’t stop being curious, stylish or tech-savvy just because they’ve passed 60. Some are learning new skills, travelling the world or mentoring startups. Others are managing health, juggling responsibilities or enjoying time with family. None of this is captured by a blunt age band in a targeting brief. To connect meaningfully, we need to move beyond demographics and focus on mindset, interest and behaviour.

Dove’s transformation is a strong example. They didn’t just show older models or tick diversity boxes. They recognised who their customers actually were and built a brand where all women could see themselves. By rejecting a narrow definition of beauty and casting real people of all ages, body types and ethnicities, they drove long-term trust and grew market share.

You see the same principle at work in Apple stores. Genius Bar staff include older team members, not labelled as “help for older customers” but simply part of the mix. That’s inclusive design done well.

With ageing populations across most developed markets, this isn’t a side issue. It’s a growth opportunity. Ageing isn’t niche. It’s the future of every category. Design for people, not proxies.