Representations of older adults in television advertisements

The purpose of the present study was to examine a comprehensive set of television advertisements, across networks and times of day, to determine how older adults are portrayed. Older adults appeared in 15% of advertisements, and in those ads, older women were underrepresented relative to men, and older adults appeared less frequently on youth-oriented networks and during the evening. Older adults tended to play incidental roles in the advertisements and to promote a circumscribed, stereotyped set of products and services. Moreover, their characters portrayed overwhelmingly positive attributes and traits. Results from the current study suggest ways in which portrayals in television advertisements might shape attitudes that viewers have about older adults and aging.