Marketing Ageism. Prejudice? or Pragmatism?
Experience is good, right? In F100D, your CV is your record of achievement. You are what you have learned. Most experience is transferrable. The CEO's first recruitment question is often "Where have you done this before?".
But marketing does not always follow this logic..
As a society, we may be getting (dramatically) older, but the marketing profession continues to revere and reward the young and energetic. It values freshness over faithfulness.
This knee-jerk reverence for youth is not just an issue for marketers themselves, but can affect their judgement and treatment of customers too.
As David Wolfe says: "With US adults 40 and older now outnumbering younger adults by 128 to 85 million, ageism has become a serious challenge in consumer marketing because the antipathy of young creatives toward aging can unconsciously find its way into marketing messages. Even the venerable AARP unwittingly projects ageism in its new tagline, “60 is the new 30�.
Is he overstating things? Surely we marketers are above such stereotyping? Well, maybe. If you fancy a bit of fun, try this little test on social attitudes
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