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In the Olay ad pictured above, a young model poses next to a bottle of Olay total effects with the quote, “Join me in the battle against ageing!” written in bold type across the top. While this ad is just one example of the countless anti-aging campaigns littered throughout the media, it stood out to me because of the shockingly young model at the forefront. While this product is clearly aimed at older women, Olay’s ad demonstrates the unachievable standards set for ageing women in the Western world and beyond. In this culture jamming assignment I will highlight these unattainable standards and further address the problem with the “battle against ageing” as it fits into our modern society.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of U.S. women aged 55 years and older will increase by more than 26 million within the next 30 years . Despite the growing number of seniors, the reality of the “ageing woman” is still very much a secret. The idea of ageing gracefully has served as a powerful marketing tool for cosmetic companies because it allows them to sell expensive anti-ageing products to a targeted audience. In fact, the global anti-aging market was valued at USD 36.2 billion in 2018. Considering the changing social dynamics for ageing women who are living longer and healthier lives, it is vital that we also change the way we think about ageing. In order to alter the way we think, we must start with changing the way we talk about ageing through packaging and marketing.

In my jammed version of the Olay ad, I have edited a newborn baby over the face of the model and edited the text on the right-hand side. In the blurb, I have taken the sentence, “I’m very proud to be a part of a brand that has made millions of women feel younger,” and edited it to say, “I’m very proud to be a part of the brand that has made millions off making women feel insecure.” I wanted to manipulate the ad to reveal how companies like Olay are profiting from selling damaging and unrealistic images to women.

Not only do anti-ageing products like Olay Total Effects offer false promises of “reversing the clock” but they also serve to erase an entire demographic of ageing women from view. In our current society, “to age is to be erased – to be deemed irrelevant, disappear from magazine covers and popular films and… for women, it also means being turned from a coveted object into a disposable one.” Now I’m not suggesting that replacing the young model with an older woman would solve the problem entirely. In the U.S and other industrialized nations, there is an unprecedented increase in the number of ageing women, which means we must work to understand their unique social conditions and needs. Ageing women are no longer the dependent and ill-abled figures that they have long been regarded as. In order to change the current mindset on ageing and the prevailing ageist rhetoric in the media, we need to show older adults living full and robust lives.

Sources:

Image: 10 Best Anti Aging images | Anti aging, Anti aging skin care …

Hess, Amanda. “The Ever-Changing Business of ‘Anti-Aging’.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Sept. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/magazine/the-ever-changing-business-of-anti-aging.html.

Hollis-Sawyer, Lisa. “Examining Women’s Aging through a Feminist Advocacy Perspective.” Https://Www.apadivisions.org, Oct. 2017, www.apadivisions.org/division-20/publications/newsletters/adult-development/2017/10/women-aging.

Shahbandeh, M. “Size of the Anti-Aging Market Worldwide 2018-2023.” Statista, 25 Mar. 2019, www.statista.com/statistics/509679/value-of-the-global-anti-aging-market/.