Britain is now officially a grey nation. In 2007, the number of over-65s in the UK outnumbered the number of children aged 16 or under for the first time. Increasing wealth and advances in medical science mean we can all now expect to live longer, and while the trend has presented well-publicised problems for the public purse – the growing cost of pensions and NHS care – it’s also forced companies to think twice about the target market for their products and ad campaigns.
The grey pound is now a bigger business target than ever, with older consumers more likely to own their own homes and have increasing amounts of expendable income. As a result we’ve seen the number of products aimed at the older generation increase, from the success of Saga holidays to beauty products aimed at the over-55s, and even the traditionally youth-oriented music industry now pandering to the grey market, as it struggles to sell CDs and LPs to younger consumers who now expect to get their music online for free.
It means that the marketing men have had to change tack too. Turn on your TV today and you’ll see just as many wrinkled faces selling products as glowing youngsters. OAPs are popping up in TV ads more than ever before, and more often than not with a wry smile on their faces. As the advertising world increasingly looks to create unique, funny, and shareable ads for the internet age, they’ve found a surprising ally in pensioners.
Topping a survey of the UK’s most popular TV adverts last year was an Aldi commercial (below), featuring a po-faced pensioner with a penchant for gin. Turning our stereotypical view of the elderly on its head has become a successful new ad trend that’s inadvertently helping to do far more than just sell products. These ads act as a timely reminder that the UK’s greying population may be getting older, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t young at heart.
As the BBC’s recent old age campaign sought to change the way we think about our OAPs, so too do the recent wave of adverts that make pensioners the star of the show. Here are some of our favourites, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, and make you think twice about the straight-laced, cardigan-clad, clichéd way we view our old folks.
Barbara Windsor for Jackpotjoy
One of the nations best-known and most-loved golden oldies, Babs has been entertaining us for decades through the Carry On films of old to her 15-year stint behind the Queen Vic in Eastenders. Now crowned Jackpotjoy’s Queen of Bingo, her latest ad for the online bingo site has her overseeing a daredevil drag race that pits two thrillseeking pensioners against each other, battling it out on the way to the finish line on their souped-up mobility scooters.
McDonalds
Proving that you’re never too old to fall in love, this McDonalds ad sends up our notion that romance is dead post-retirement. Giving hip old lotharios a lesson or two when it comes to picking up chicks once you’re past 65, it ties in with the growing Hollywood trend for OAP rom-coms. Surprised by the huge success of Something’s Gotta Give, LA’s movie studios are beginning to see there’s a market out there for romantic movies both aimed at, and starring, the over-50s.
Irn Bru
This advert for Scotland’s national drink caused quite a stir when it first hit our screens. As a seemingly harmless old lady heads to the shops in her mobility scooter, her insatiable appetite for the fizzy orange pop sends her driving round the store like a maniac, shoplifting a basketful of Irn Bru cans, in an ad that regularly pops up on lists of the best TV adverts of all time.
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