Silver Advertising: Older People in Japanese TV Ads

Choosing the right models and portraying them appropriately are crucial tasks in marketing management and advertising creation. The way older television viewers feel represented by a company has an influence on the overall company image and purchase intentions. This chapter reports that despite a strong increase in older people in Japanese television advertisements between 1997 and 2007 there is still an under-representation of older people. This is especially the case for older women. These findings are in accordance with extant research from different parts of the world. However, our study also finds that, when represented, older models are overwhelmingly depicted in major roles. Overall, our study not only adds a Japanese perspective, but is also the first one that compares two periods in time. In terms of product categories we found finance/insurance and real estate/housing to feature the largest number of older people. Finally, results from a survey of Japanese consumers give further insight into the phenomenon of older people in Japanese TV ads and how Japanese think about them. Even though our content analysis had revealed a strong under-representation of older people, the consumer survey shows that TV ads are not seen as showing too few older models, and the vast majority of respondents refuted the idea that they did not want to see older people in television advertising. Implications for advertising research and practice are discussed.