The Trouble With Anti-Aging Ads
Aging is practically a sin in America – or at least, looking like you’ve aged can be. The anti-aging industry yields roughly $20 billion annually in the U.S. alone. [1] So if they haven’t made you feel ugly yet, just give it time.
“Fight Ageing.” (sic – alternate spelling)
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Anti-aging cream (Bahrain)
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Gear up for battle to save your youth.
Who is she fighting, other than herself? It’s interesting that a twenty-something woman is promoting “Minus 10,” a cream that supposedly sheds 10 years off your appearance. Is she trying to look 12?
“Fights against 7 signs of aging.”
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Anti-aging cream
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Wrinkle cream is a powerful weapon.
Olay takes the combative approach as well, but instead focuses on the product itself as a weapon. The bottles are lined up like artillery, aimed and ready to fire. It’s simple and strong, but this image perpetuates the idea that aging is your enemy.
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Anti-aging cream
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Pause the aging process.
Time passes, and everyone grows older. Nivea doesn’t recommend doing anything else to pause time other than smearing some cream on your face. It’s as if factors like diet, exercise, drug/alcohol consumption, stress levels, etc, play no part in your health or appearance.
Attractive? / Attractive.
“Beautiful” / Beautiful.
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Wrinkle removal (Russia)
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Even a few fine lines can make you ugly.
The “wrinkles” in question just look like facial expression lines. So, unless your face is completely smooth and motionless, you’re unattractive? This is how a generation of botoxed baby boomers was born.
“Damn, she fine.”
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Incognito clothing
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Hotness is a brief stage you go through when you’re young.
She’s just out of puberty, but not yet an adult. That stage of her life, according to this campaign, is the only time a woman is really attractive or relevant.
“For a wonderful life.”
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Beauty products (Europe)
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Your life will be wonderful if you never appear to age.
Tying in with the previous image from Incognito clothing, Harvey Nichols proposes that the only way to stay attractive (thus, happy) is to physically stay young. This lie is a big reason why some women dread birthdays, feeling threatened by impending irrelevance.
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Anti-aging cream (Romania)
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Run from the older, uglier you!
Gerovital’s ad illustrates very literally the idea of running from the aging process. Should people really feel this fearful, and spend this much time and energy, trying to avoid the inevitable? Besides, this woman’s older self is still very beautiful!
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Anti-aging cream
WHAT IT’S SAYING: You don’t have to grow up.
Turns out Peter Pan’s secret was just lotion. By featuring characters from a fairy tale, this ad intentionally sells a fantasy. For Peter, it was the promise of never having to face adulthood, maintaining childlike innocence forever. For some consumers, it’s likely they also want to stay youthful or relive their younger years, and looking younger is a way to pursue that fantasy.
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Anti-aging cream
WHAT IT’S SAYING: She might still be a witch, but at least she’s prettier.
Transforming an ugly old witch seems like a logical, even creative choice, considering the product they’re trying to sell. But she’s still an evil character, who just has fewer wrinkles. Does this imply that nothing else matters, as long as you’re beautiful?
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Furniture (Europe)
WHAT IT’S SAYING: A good night’s sleep will help you feel better and look younger.
Getting enough sleep is important, and both people look better (and appear to feel better) after hypothetically using IKEA mattresses. But how come the ad with a man appeals to him feeling better, and the ad with a woman appeals to her looking better? IKEA seems to have chosen our priorities for us, based solely on gender.
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Anti-aging cream
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Look 50 years younger in only 1 hour!
Results very not typical. Why doesn’t the asterisk just come out and say “*This was photoshopped. Good luck with being old.”
“Age-defying jewelry.”
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Jewelry
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Look young again! Very young.
Shiny rocks definitely don’t have that effect. And who wants to look like a toddler again anyway?
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Botox
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Do you feel like a wrinkly old dog? Let us take care of that.
Babies and puppies really can sell anything.
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Anti-aging cream
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Defy gravity.
A “14 day intervention kit for firmer looking cheeks”? That’s a very specific product you’ve created, Olay. For some reason, everyone wants to defeat (or at least control) naturally occurring processes. Time, age, and now gravity, are all under attack, deemed forces “to be reckoned with.” The illusion of power is comical. Nothing can defy gravity.
“Correct your age.”
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Olay products
WHAT IT’S SAYING: No matter how old you are, it’s always too old.
You’re 38? No, you should be 33. 48? Cut that down to 42. By telling you to “correct your age,” Olay already assumes there’s something wrong with you: you’ve been alive too long. These ads define the passage of time as an unfortunate error that needs fixing.
“Hide your age.”
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Olay products
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Age is a number you should feel ashamed of.
If you’ve made it to 40, shame on you! The only way to feel good about yourself at this point, is to hide that number as best as you can.
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Kaya Skin Clinic procedures (Dubai)
WHAT IT’S SAYING: Slow down gravity.
It’s simple and clever, but again, physically impossible.
“Keeps your skin young.”
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Anti-aging cream (Europe)
WHAT IT’S SAYING: You have to stop time before it ruins you.
Clocks in anti-aging ads are clichéd, but they continue to be used ad nauseam. Pretty much every ad like this features either (a) a literal stopping of time, or (b) a literal reversal of time. Maybe the images are effective, but it’s more likely just a lack of creativity on the ad agencies’ part.
WHAT IT’S SELLING: Anti-aging cream
WHAT IT’S SAYING: He’ll grow older, but you’ll stay the same.
She does look the same – exactly the same, because they photoshopped one image of her head onto all the pictures. Granted, they might have wanted the photo editing to look obvious, to serve the message that you will literally stay unchanged over time. But this kind of advertising exacerbates the double standard that it’s perfectly fine for men to visibly age, but unacceptable for women to do so.
Many campaigns exploit insecurities for a profit, and age-defying ads are some of the worst offenders. Everyone gets older, but if they’re taught to feel ashamed of this process, they’ll probably try to fight it. In this way, ads can spread a sickness just to sell you the cure.
wow, I had a good laugh reading it, but unfortunately it is not a laughing matter. It makes me sad that instead of appreciating the wisdom aging brings as a powerful tool to create more fulfilled lives for ourselves and others, women are supposed to fear it.
I am in my mid-twenties but many my older friends say that the older they get the more comfortable they became with their bodies and their lives. I hope I will be able to wear my 40s with pride and not feel ashamed of it.
Great post. These ads.. I don’t know whether to be bored, repulsed or infuriated.
I had a little comment to add here as well. I don’t think that the Peter Pan ad was just directed to women, but also young girls. It’s like the old smoking campaigns that were directed to kids. Kids see their favorite character promoting anti-aging and grow up thinking that they need to stay young.
Great post! I love that someone out there is promoting the message that age is not something to be corrected, but embraced.
Vanity is the business we’re all in.
Have been searching for some decent information on this for awhile now thats for the great article.