Not only older Americans, but college students find advertising stereotypes of senior citizens offensive, according to a study done by Ball State University faculty members.
In fact, about 45 percent of students and 74 percent of seniors said they wouldn't buy a brand of a product that had offensive advertising.
Journalism professor Mark Popovich, associate journalism professor Robert Gustafson and Brigham Young University faculty member Tom Robinson completed the study.
A previous study in 2001 about negative images of seniors in magazine advertising sparked the idea for this 2005 study. In the first study, the researchers only interviewed older Americans. They discovered, however, that the seniors were concerned with how the negative stereotypes were affecting younger generations' views of older people, so in the recent study, researchers interviewed college students as well.
The study revealed that 81 percent of students and 76 percent of seniors think portraying seniors in a stereotypical manner is damaging or harmful to seniors.
"It was gratifying to know that seniors are outraged by the way that they are portrayed in some of these ads," Popovich said.
The seniors had a right to be upset about some of the ads, he said.
"I was surprised advertisers had used some of the images that they used," Popovich said.
Seniors determined the ads to be mentally harmful, thus lowering self-esteem.
"The message to advertisers is even though you might think its helpful or funny to make seniors the brunt of the joke - both groups tended to feel that is very harmful psychologically," Gustafson said.
He said researchers found many similarities between the views of college students and seniors on the ads.
Both groups thought the most offensive ads ridiculed or poked fun at seniors by portraying them as out of touch and unattractive, Gustafson said.
Popovich said he expected students would have cared less about the senior stereotypes and just gone with the flow of the ads when they were supposed to be funny.
"I guess I underestimated students reactions to it," he said.
Eight types of advertising stereotypes were identified: portraying older Americans as eccentrics, curmudgeons, the object of ridicule, unattractive, sentimental or overly affectionate, out of touch with modern society, conservative and mentally or physically deficient.
The seniors also expressed concern for the effect these ads had on the college students.
"They also felt [advertisements] were damaging to younger people because younger people were associating them with these damaging stereotypes," Gustafson said.
The study reported 82 percent of students and 92 percent of seniors said these ads were harmful or dangerous to young people by portraying seniors in a stereotypical manner.
He said young people feared growing older because they related aging with the negative images.
Popovich said many people creating ads are younger people because under the stress of an advertising job, most people get out of the field around the age of 50.
"It's just a generation gap that's built into the system," he said, and studies like this try to help bridge that gap.
"I think that ultimately, the advertising industry will be sensitive to the marketplace," and advertisers will do the right thing when they realize the ads are hurting people, he said.
Seniors were appreciative of the serious ads that dealt with medical information and medical topics, Popovich said.
Other cultures and societies treat their older citizens with more respect, he said. That respect hasn't been worked into our cultural backgrounds.
"Older people would probably say that we don't, as a society, put enough value on seniors," Popovich said.
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