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Agencies seeking to correct that lapse are being careful about how they portray those generations because research is showing that older consumers have an angry distaste for the traditional advertising images of frail and dotty elders. Says John Ferrell, chief creative officer for the Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos agency: "The way that older people are depicted has changed dramatically. We learned they do not always want to be shown pitching horseshoes, rocking in a chair and watching life go by."
Older people now do the things in ads that they do in real life: work, play tennis, fall in love, buy new cars. "They've rejoined the American family that advertisers show us," says Frankie Cadwell, president of Cadwell Davis Partners, a Manhattan ad agency. The bride in a commercial for New York Telephone, for example, is about 60. All of the discreetly nude models in ads for Lear's, a magazine for older women, are over 40.
Advertisers admit that they woke up just in time. The baby boomers who shook up marketing themes 25 years ago are fast approaching middle age. Says Karp: "We'd better get our act together. In five to seven years, the boomers will begin to join the over-50 crowd." When it comes to portraying energetic oldsters, advertisers have only begun to kick up their heels.