When I worked at A.A.H.S.A. I distinctly remember one visit to a retirement community in Baltimore, during which we were filming a handful of the residents dining. Upon seeing the camera crew roll through their living space, one resident looked up proudly and uttered “I’m an old-timer.” Upon hearing this expression, her friends all began nodding their heads in agreement, and soon there was a chorus of them happily belting out that they too were “old-timers.” I remember being struck by how relaxed they were with a term that organizationally we would have shied far away from in describing this population.
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The truth is aging professionals have been struggling for some time to agree upon one vocabulary in addressing the sensitive issues associated with aging and the 50+ themselves—who are very diverse and highly segmented based on the events that shaped their lives.
And U.S. media/advertising, (as noted in Boomer Consumer), hasn’t exactly advanced the image of aging either (remember Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” and the movie “Grumpy Old Men”?). About the best thing to come out of that era was “Cocoon,” and even that focused on older adults besotted with the fountain of youth (e.g. pod-infused swimming pool that bestowed a promise of immortality and the ability to break dance).
So what do we call them? As marketers, what copy do you write to engage this group without patronizing them? Without putting them to sleep or making them feel uneasy? How do you make “senior” sound sexier?
While there are no rules per say, here are some general guidelines:
Out:
Active adult
Golden years
Silver
Mature adult
Third-agers
Golden oldie
Senior/ Senior Citizen
Boomer
Geezer
Elder/tribal elder
Aged/aging
And last but not least…old-timer
In:
Older adult
45+
50+
65+
Boomer consumer
Older boomers
Progressing
Evolving
Extending
Growing
Life phase/stage
Amanda Sobanet