“This is going to be the youngest generation of old people ever”
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The advertising industry has been slow to recognise that it needs to adapt to demographic changes, particularly in Germany, where the median age is already above 45. In contrast, “the average age of staff at ad agencies is 33 years,” he says, and only 5 per cent of ad agency staff are over 50.
Germany is hardly unique. In the US, the number of households headed by a person aged 55 and over more than doubled between 1970 and 2009 to 4.47m, while the total number of households rose by just 17 per cent. In the UK, the percentage of households headed by a person aged 55 or over rose from roughly 38 per cent in 1986 to 43 per cent at the last census.
Tom Morton, chief strategy officer for Havas Worldwide New York, the ad agency, says his company began studying what older consumers wanted after spotting the demographic trend. Havas conducted a survey of more than 7,000 older people worldwide and concluded that the “youth obsession” of previous generations no longer had the same tug.
“Rather than shying away from growing old, more people are embracing their later years and the unique satisfactions they’ll bring,” the study concludes, noting that physical beauty is less important for the age group than it once was and that loss of autonomy is a much bigger fear.
