OK Boomer, but it's not OK

This Superbowl, one of the winners was WeatherTech - "Whatever comes your way" that portrayed Boomers in a "Thelma and Louise" rampage. This apparently is "progress" in portraying Boomers and older Gen X.

WeatherTech Boomers

I say progress jokingly as this is just an exaggerated caricature which seems the way we use older people in advertising.

But wait that's advertising right?

Yes, but when we know consumers are moree likely to trust a brand whose ads feature people like them and 83% of men and women over 50 state "media/culture doesn't realize how much they stereotype older people" (Source: Institute on Gender in Media and the Next50 initiative).

So I started looking for ads that portrayed me - active, an adventurous cook, traveller and consumer of culture.

And I mostly found stereotypes using older people as the punch line.

Remember LinkedIn "No-one knows what you do" ad where a confused older lady said her grandson says "he works in a cloud company and sells clouds"

LinkedIn - "He sells clouds"

Or the Tide commercial "The In-laws" extolling the challenges of everyone living. together and the humor is a confused grandad in boxers looking for his pants.

Tide - "Has anybody seen my pants"

My point isn't that you shouldn't use humor to create drama - it's more that unless we start understanding that there is a vast market that is not seeing themselves represented in reality anywhere in advertising (and don't start me on the pharma commercials) then the more brands miss opportunities to drive trial and loyalty with the cohort with the time and money to buy your product.