Negative depictions of Americans ages 50 and older have lessened over a five-year period, with negative sentiment in online media and marketing images dropping from 28% in 2018 to 10% in 2023, according to research published this week by senior advocacy organization AARP.
“The 50-plus population is pictured as more active and independent, less fearful, and more likely to use technology, reflecting a growing recognition of older adults’ active lifestyles and valuable engagement in society,” the organization said in an announcement of the findings. “At the same time, challenges remain.”
One of these challenges is the fact that images of 50-plus adults in the workplace remain relatively rare, which fails to keep pace with the growing presence of older adults in the U.S. workforce. But depictions of older adults spending time with family also declined during the same five-year period.
“At AARP, we have been leading the fight to combat ageism in marketing and media imagery, and it looks like the creative industry is starting to really listen,” said Martha Boudreau, AARP’s chief communications and marketing officer. “As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. In the age of social media, and with the ubiquity of advertising across people’s daily lives, this is more true than ever.”
The depiction of these older adults is not an innocuous element, since depictions in culture and advertising tend to reflect and validate the perceptions people have of a topic, she said.
“The images we see shape what we think and can even influence how we act towards one another,” Boudreau added. “Progress has been made in improving how 50-plus adults are portrayed but we still have a lot of work to do. Studies like these point the way forward and give us a solid roadmap for how to continue to make things better.”
The analysis involved a random sample of more than 1,000 online images and 500 videos featuring 50-and-older adults. The sample came from “brands and thought leaders posted on news sites and social media with at least two million followers or readers,” AARP said. Political content — which can be highly charged in relation to older adults — was excluded from this effort.
In terms of observed improvements in the depictions, AARP noted that older adults are portrayed as more active than they have been in years past. They’re also seen using technology more readily, and the reality that seniors have an overwhelming desire to age in place is more commonly and accurately depicted.
“Nearly 80% of adults 50-plus want to remain in their communities and homes as they age, and this trend has been more prominently reflected in media in recent years, with 73% of static images showing people at home vs. 39% in 2018,” the analysis found. “Just 8% of static images showed people in a retirement community compared to 15% in 2018.”
This is reflecting a reality among many older people, who are more frequently choosing to remain at home and avoid congregate care settings if possible. But it also reflects a potentially changing perception of what it looks like when someone gets older.
“It’s a sign that retirement centers are less likely to be the visual shorthand for aging, with images elevating independence over medical worries or reliance on assistance,” AARP explained.
Areas for improvement, the report stated, include a need to depict more older adults in the workforce; a gap in representations of mobility challenges faced by older Americans; and a need to depict the rising commonality of multigenerational households.
