Baby Boomers and Anti Aging Marketing Trends
I try to keep up with marketing trends in the baby boomer anti aging arena. Already, sales of skin care products to women has grown to $2 billion in the U.S. And, marketers are jumping on the band wagon to purvey skin care products to men as an aging population begins to swell. Currently, sales of men's skin care products has reached $70 million, and are growing at about 4% to 5% annually, twice the rate of women's sales.
In my mind, the question is what all this might signify. Bear with me as I ramble a little, fleshing out some thoughts.
As baby boomers, and those of us a little older, age, it should go without saying that we ought to strive to look and feel our best. The marketing explosion of anti aging products and services aimed at doing just that tells us that concerns about aging will draw more attention as baby boomers swell the older population. This phenomenon, however, merely scratches the surface of much more profound issues.
In a popular culture culture aimed at younger people, the beautiful and the agile, we're not well attuned to giving much thought to the topic of aging. Although the aging process is as undeniable as phases of the moon, negative stereotypes about older people abound. In fact, much of what appears on the advertising landscape today seems to obsess about anti-aging, especially anti aging skin care.
Anti Aging is a concept based on entrenched myths that prevail about seniors in an American culture witnessing a rapidly increasing older population. It is an unfortunate truth that older adults too often are stereotyped as, by and large, decrepit and dependent. They remain viewed as no longer suited to contributing to society. In short, old is bad.
One direction taken in furtherance of an anti aging bias is continuing manifestations of age discrimination. In other words, the stereotypes find their most negative expression in the work place.
We love to marvel at displays of creativity or physical achievements among older people. An 89 year old tennis player or skier, holding his or her own, is admired and respected. For some reason, aging celebrities are highly regarded in spite of an otherwise general attitudinal rejection of aging in American belief systems.
Unfortunately, our admiration is selective. Shift over to the workplace and it's an entirely different story. This is where the term "anti aging" has an entirely different meaning, namely, too many employers continue to exhibit bias against workers who are aging. Age discrimination remains a fact of life.
All that said, since I'm not looking for a job, I think I'll pass on making an investment in men's anti aging skin care products. I'm not against anti aging, I just don't think I need these things to look and feel good.
Find reliable information about anti-aging skin treatment at Chicago Dermatology.Tags: age, Age Discrimination, aging population, Aging Process, Anti Aging, Baby Boomers, senior citizens, seniors
