I Look at a Lot of Ads. I Can’t Find Myself.

We are in the business of visibility.

Advertising doesn’t just reflect culture. It shapes it. We cast the stories, the symbols, the aspirations. However, a paradox is in the air: despite our obsession with inclusion, one of the largest, wealthiest, and most culturally active cohorts in the world remains sidelined by the very industry tasked with seeing them.

I’m talking about people over 50. I am talking about me. And I can’t find me in most advertising today.

Sure, we’re finally seeing a few more silver-haired models on runways, as well as a few more older actors in award-winning roles. But let’s not confuse trendspotting with transformation. Because when it comes to advertising, the billboards, the pre-rolls, the campaigns that shape mainstream perception, the reality is starker.

A study by CreativeX analysed 126,000 ads across global markets. The percentage of people over 60? Just 4%.

Not 40. Four.

This, despite the fact that, according to McKinsey, people over 50 control more than half of global consumer spending. That’s over $15 trillion in annual purchasing power. Despite being the fastest-growing demographic in most developed economies. Despite being the ones driving a disproportionate share of global commerce, cultural influence, and platform growth.

They’re not on the sidelines. They’re funding the game.

What We Show Tells the Story We Believe

The problem isn’t just visibility. It’s narrative positioning.

When older adults appear in advertising, they’re too often shown in passive or dependent roles - smiling on porches, gardening in slow motion, or being gently coached by their children. The active, professional, powerful, or even playful portrayals? Almost nonexistent.

Women over 60 are three times more likely to be depicted at home than in a position of leadership. Older men might fare slightly better, but even they are more likely to be cast as former leaders than current ones, often as relics, former executives, nostalgic mentors, wise but sidelined.

We have a visual language for aging that hasn’t caught up with reality.

The Story Is Changing. Are We?

Today’s over-50s are launching companies, building second (or third) careers, mentoring teams, raising grandchildren, experimenting with AI tools, and spending more time than ever on digital platforms.

They’re not clinging to the past. They’re rewriting the future.

But advertising hasn’t updated its storyboard. And in doing so, we’re not just overlooking a demographic. We’re leaving money on the table. This isn’t about token representation. It’s about telling richer, more relevant stories that reflect the full human journey, especially at the stages shaped by wisdom, reinvention, and resilience.

Beyond Demographics, Into Transitions

At The Epilogue Company, we talk about the concept of marketing to transitions, not just age. Retirement. Re-entry. Reinvention. Recovery. These aren’t endpoints; they’re inflection points. And they are among the most emotionally charged and commercially powerful moments in people’s lives.

So why aren’t more brands stepping in?

What Needs to Change

Let’s stop asking, “Should we include an older person in this ad?” and start asking, “What stories are we leaving out?”

Let’s move beyond the token older couple in the background of a diverse cast and start telling narratives where age isn’t the punchline or the product feature, but a lens through which we explore ambition, resilience, intimacy, curiosity, and growth.

Let’s stop designing just for “youth culture” and start planning for the full arc of human experience. Because in an industry obsessed with what’s next, the most subversive thing you can do is honour what and who has come before, and is still in the game.

Doing so isn’t just good ethics. It’s good economics.

The over-50 market isn’t a legacy audience. It’s a growth audience. One with outsized spending power, expanding digital adoption, and a hunger for brands that speak to who they are now, not who they used to be.

Ignore them, and you don’t just miss the point.

You miss your next customer.

Work With Us

At The Epilogue Company, we help brands and agencies move beyond demographics, to see people not as age brackets, but as humans in motion.

We believe the next wave of growth won’t come from chasing the young. It will come from understanding the experienced, those navigating transitions, reinventing identities, and rewriting what it means to thrive in life’s third act.

If you’re rethinking a campaign, developing a product, or simply trying to gain a viewclearer more of the future, we can help.

We bring strategy, insight, and creative provocation to brands ready to lead, not just react.

The Epilogue Company Beyond Demographics.