by: Dick Stroud
A few of us with an interest in 50-plus marketing received an e-mail asking: “How does the aging of celebrities affect the psyches of the 'normal' aging population?
Does seeing something like this make them feel better? Or worse? Curious on your thoughts”.
The celebrity in question is Melanie Griffith and the part of her anatomy, where there are signs of gravity winning the day, is her knee. In all honesty it looks like poor old Melanie has, in the words of my dear old mum: “not worn too well”.
Typical of the style of journalism of the publication (the Daily Mail) the article then goes on to speculate that Ms Griffith has been hitting the Botox and collagen, big time.
There is the unspoken sub-text in the article that runs something like – big celebrity – pots of money – too much SDRR – no amount of money can stop you looking old – Ha Ha.
So as a ‘normal’ aging person, with a set of damn good knees, how do I react? Looking at the question from a marketer’s viewpoint I reckon the following.
Of course there is not a single response – if you asked the other 20 million 50-plus in the UK you would get all sorts of answers ranging from a senses of unadulterated schadenfreude through to sympathy that her obvious physical ageing is paraded in the tabloids.
I would also guess that that because of celebrities’ remoteness from the lives of ‘normal’ people, few ‘normals’ see the parallels between their own ageing and that of person they only know through the TV and cinema.
Finally, I would think there is a huge difference in the response between older men and women. I think there is the L’Oreal group of women who spend time and energy trying to delay/halt/reverse physiological ageing. Then there are the Dove pro.age group who say: “there is nothing I can do to stop ageing but I will look the best I can for my age”.
From a marketer’s perspective this is a fascinating topic since it gets to the heart of how people view the ageing process and what (and how much money) they are willing commit to doing something about it. Thanks Laura for sending the link.
Original Post: http://www.20plus30.com/blog/2007/05/knee-to-behold.html
