Nearly three quarters of women over 50 shun all advertising
72% of women aged 53 to 72 - dubbed 'baby boomers' - ‘don’t pay attention to advertising’, according to a report examining the evolving relationship between women and marketing.
Nearly three quarters of Baby Boomer women shun advertising
Elastic Generation: The Female Edit sought the opinion of women aged 53 to 72 from the JWT London Innovation Group, in an effort to pin down an accurate depiction of this key demographic.
It found that 91% of respondents wished advertisers would treat them as people and not as stereotypes with 90% agreeing with the statement ‘I’m not going to start dressing in beige just because I’m over 50 now.’
In a similar vein 71% stated they were still a ‘kid at heart’ while 73% expressed displeasure at how their generation was patronized with regards to technology. Adding weight to these findings 81% of women polled said they did not recognise themselves in advertising supposedly targeted at their generation.
As such brands are encouraged to think beyond age as a number and get to the bottom of what really motivates their target audience while ensuring that depictions of older people in advertising are authentic – binning outdated stereotypes once and for all.
Such findings will be highly worrying for marketers given that 78% of over 50’s command the purse-strings in their households, with the age group accounting for half of all consumer spending in the UK.
JWT are seeking to 'redefine femininity' with Female Tribes Consulting, focussed exclusively on women.