UK Takes the Lead in Breaking Stereotypes of Advertising to Seniors

LONDON, July 9, 2025 – In 2024, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK launched a research project, on portrayal of older peoples in ads.

Supported by Age Without Limits, the study ‘Looking Into The Depiction of Older People In Advertising,’ involved focus groups and a survey of over 4,000 UK adults.

Focus groups comprising a range of different age groups were shown 34 ads featuring older people made by brands including Amazon, Cadbury, Land Rover, L’Oréal, Pure Cremation and Tesco.

The study found that many older people feel invisible in mainstream advertising, reduced to outdated stereotypes.

A common perception was that seniors are ‘bombarded’ by ads for funeral services, care homes, and mobility aids.

Offensive portrayal of elderly persons in advertisements is globally a common practice, highlighting lack of sensitization.

An increased focus on advertising to seniors by depicting them suitably, is being driven by advertising agencies and brands in the UK.

The movement started with UK, but is increasingly being adopted across different countries.

Seniors showed in an inappropriate manner in ads, may not have caught the fancy of advertising regulators in lesser developed markets but UK has taken a lead.

Challenging Ageism

In a post on its website, Age Without Limits said that it was a part of its ongoing action to work with and challenge media organisations to ensure that older people are realistically represented, without reliance on outdated and negative stereotypes or stoking unnecessary intergenerational division.

The organisation has also written to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) to include ageism in their code of practice.

Age Without Limits has appreciated banning of advertisements by ASA in the past for contravening gender stereotypes.

“So are we! Showing older people as lacking in individuality as homogenous groups that are at the extremes of what it can be to be older creates damaging stereotypes,” said Age Without Limits, while welcoming the ASA study.

“Be they negative portrayals of older people as only frail and vulnerable makes growing old seem depressing and perpetuates ageist attitudes; or happier depictions of older people as affluent in an exaggerated and unrealistic way, or as super-agers taking on unreachable feats of fitness can lead to older people in poverty or ill-health not getting the support and services they need.”

Ads that Evoked Sharp Response

Growing older in Britain has certainly changed over the last few years. The seniors are now continuing to work, even in age group of 70s and making efforts to be financially independent.

However, as per the ASA study, its respondents expressed concern that advertising paints a very different and outdated picture of the elderly persons.

An ad by the Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, which used the strapline “Parents don’t get B2B”, showed the maximum possibility to cause harm. “If you think other people think you are stupid and that’s how you come across, I don’t think that is good for self-esteem,” said one female participant.

An ad for the fashion brand JD Williams that featured older women in bright, colourful and “trendy” clothes used the strapline “Feeling more girlfriend than grandma”.

“I can imagine some older women seeing beauty ads and thinking the goal for women is to look 20 years younger,” said one participant. “As if that is what will make you feel happier. This could be quite harmful because it forces an ideal on older women. It is kind of pushing the idea that they should aim to look young.”

Some of those surveyed felt it was a positive and atypical depiction of older women, while others felt it reinforced the idea that ageing was a negative thing and that women were not going to look or feel good unless they tried to fight the process.

Key Findings from the Report

According to the ASA study, over a third (35 percent) of the UK population agree that older people are often negatively stereotyped in advertising. Many respondents felt that portraying older individuals as lonely, purposeless, or powerless could be harmful, particularly for those aged 75 and over.

Nearly half of the UK public (49 percent) said ads using humour at the expense of older people were likely to cause offence. Forty-four percent of UK adults believe that older people are either underrepresented or not represented at all in ads, particularly in categories like fashion, beauty, technology and household goods.

People of all ages said they want to see more authentic and realistic portrayals of older people.

We found that older people feel relatively positive about their age - those aged 55 and over were more likely than younger groups to agree that “age is just a number” and to say they feel “comfortable in their own skin, says the ASA study findings.

The public made it clear they want advertising to reflect this outlook by featuring real older people, focusing on individuals rather than their age, and portraying a diverse range of later-life experiences. Yet many feel the industry has been slow to adapt, with advertisers still lagging behind the public’s shifting attitudes towards ageing.

Kam Atwal, Research Lead at the ASA said, “As a society, we’re living longer, richer, and more varied lives. Our research reveals that some of today’s portrayals of older people in advertising are not being received positively, and that the public want ads to better reflect the varied lives older people lead today. This is a real opportunity for brands to embrace the true diversity of later life and take a leading role in challenging outdated perceptions.”

The study found that many older people feel invisible in mainstream advertising, reduced to outdated stereotypes.

Inputs from Saqib Malik

Editing by David Ryder