OUGD505 - Studio brief 02 - Research

In research I looked at a real broad spectrum of the issue of ageing and its connection with the creative industries. The areas of advertising and brands related to ageing were interesting as when it comes to selling products, youth remains the default positioning in advertising from beer to, fashion to food, if an ad features a human, the chances are that that person will be under 40, if not 30. Or even 20. The advertising industry has been accused of ignoring older people in advertisements, or treating them inappropriately. In order to respond to accusations of ageism within the industry it is suggested that regulation may be required to raise the awareness of advertisers and agencies to the importance of older people, and to encourage more age diverse advertising. We are told constantly in the media that youth is desirable, and that youth is the best, and that age should be hidden and advertising does nothing to change that trend.

One way ageing can become more prominent in advertising and branding is how its communicated, so ageing as good. To expand more on this and how ageing is a process rather than a set of numbers with specific meanings, and more of a  experience that is portrayed as a virtue to be celebrated.

One really cool project that has a clever spin on the ageing problem in branding is a bottle that was displayed at the Design Museum. They are presented as a series of fine aged spirits that have been a lifetime in the making. The agency that created bottles completed the bespoke design with a  ‘New Old’ stamp as a mark of quality.

In research I found that brands are trying to encourage people to be less concentrated on youth or in fact on age altogether. I found that its a challenging issue, and one that is not only down to advertising agencies but also to pressure from the wider media and consumers themselves. I discovered that technology has helped blur those lines as briefs have a bigger age group audience due to technology. And I  think it will be really interesting when more brands realise that actually they could be talking to a much wider age group, that would probably connect better with their brand.