Stop the Anti-Aging Messages

Kathy Sporre ♦ June 5, 2013 ♦ 13 Comments

I’m calling for all marketers to put a stop to using the term “anti-aging” in their advertisements. Why? Because I’m tired of them taking older adults, especially the boomer generation, for a bunch of fools who they think are afraid of getting older and dying.

Let’s look at the term “anti-aging.” Anti means: unwilling, defiant, opposing, hostile, antagonistic, resistant, averse. Aging, well, I think we all know that term means we are getting older. Each and every day from the time we are born we are aging.

I’d like to know where that mythical line lies where marketers assume we go from enjoying and anticipating growing older to being in full hostile opposition to it; because I haven’t reached it yet, and I’m a few years away from 60. Yet, I’ve been bombarded by “anti-aging” messages in magazines, to “anti-aging” advertisements on television since I can remember. Perhaps the marketing community needs psycho-therapy so they to can learn to embrace the aging process.

I’m planning on aging well at the least and aging magnificently at best. I understand that to do so will require me to live intentionally.  I know that, like every age, there will be challenges. That’s always been a part of life and aging. It isn’t something new that happens when we reach some mythical line in the sand.

So, marketers, stop insulting our intelligence with your “anti-aging” messages. Many of us have no aversion to growing older. In fact, most people can’t wait to get older: can’t wait to get old enough to drive, can’t wait to get old enough to date, can’t wait to get old enough to get a job, can’t wait to get old enough to get married, can’t wait to get old enough to have a family of their own, can’t wait to see their children develop their own lives, can’t wait for visits from family to fill the nest up again – temporarily, can’t wait to mature and become less emotional about everything from soup to nuts, can’t wait to have grandchildren and great-grandchildren, can’t wait to retire and start that dream job or just relax for a change, can’t wait….can’t wait….can’t wait…

Can anyone see a pattern in a person’s aging process here? I sure can. It’s about anticipation. It’s about growth. It’s about becoming whole. It’s about becoming yourself. It’s about becoming better. It’s about becoming significant. It’s about becoming magnificent!

The term “anti-aging” belongs high on a shelf in a storage closet along with those marketers who prey on people with the message that, “aging is a boogeyman who will get you if you don’t watch out!”

We are no longer children who can be frightened into compliant behavior by the use of these tactics. The only thing I have to say to these marketers is, “Boo!”

AGEISM: Prejudice or discrimination against a particular age-group and especially the elderly.