Three Not-So-Bad Things on Aging and Longevity

The Martha Stewart cover at Sports Illustrated has made us wonder whether this is a sign of changing cultural values, or merely just a clever ploy by the marketing wizards at SI. If you’ve been off-planet or too obsessed with whether Nate the Great will reconcile with Ted Lasso (our Magic 8 ball says yes) and you’ve missed the story, here is some background. For almost 60 years, SI has published an annual swimsuit edition traditionally populated by young models in skimpy outfits, stretching both fabric and the definition of sports. In recent years, SI has made a small nod towards modernity by featuring women athletes as well as models, but this year, the magazine almost broke the internet by featuring 81 year old Martha Stewart as the cover model.??

It got us thinking about how society says people should act, and what good things happen when people push against stereotype:?

1. Dew we market to seniors or not?

Last month, PepsiCo rolled-out its new Hard Mountain Dew Livewire drink: an alcoholic Mountain Dew with an orange-citrus flavor. That typically would not get our attention—we are strictly Dr. Pepper territory at TNSB headquarters—but the launch came with an interesting twist. Instead of some glamorous Hollywood or Manhattan roll-out, Mountain Dew headed down to Florida for a “Definitely Over 21” party at a Florida retirement community. We weren’t that impressed by the claim that this “rager” would “shock the world” but it certainly caught our attention that such a youth oriented brand (even with alcohol tossed in) would think of marketing through an older demographic.

Older consumers, even as they account for a large share of the buying public,?have historically been underrepresented?in advertising. But, at least in a small way, it does appear to be the case that brands are now at least open to working with older digital influencers, at least on a case-by-case or product-by-product basis. We tend to think of the category of online influencers as young, even underage, but?older influencers that have become popular on TikTok, like Lynn Davis (@cookingwithlynja, who has 15 million followers), Lillian Droniak (@grandma_droniak, with 8.9 million followers) and Barbara Costello (@brunchwithbabs, with 3.1 million followers) have also caught the eye of marketers. Products being brokered for these content creators does skew older, but there is a leveling effect in social media. Influence marketers are looking for relatability and likability, not just demographics.

2. Coming to a digital red carpet near you...

Marketing is one bastion of ageism, and fashion is another. Perhaps that’s why we were struck by the photos published online by Nigerian visual artist Malik Afegbua of a fashion show in which all the models were older (and Black and African, though that is fodder for a different newsletter). The photos, some of which you can find?here, show the models, all distinctively older, sashaying down a runway—and some appear to be sprinting or dancing down that runway as well.

It all sounds promising and liberating, though that is leavened a bit by the fact that Afegbua produced the show not in real life but using an AI platform called Midjourney. Does that mean that technology is the great generational equalizer? Or is it yet another signal that reflecting older people in fashion is still so anathema that it can only be spun out of digital cloth? Let’s just hope that seeing the digital images might inspire such a show in real life.

3. The rise of the Climate Grannies.

Greta Thunberg, now all of 20 years old, is likely the world’s most famous climate activist, so it’s no surprise that we are a bit conditioned to think of climate activism as principally the province of the young. There is some logic there at least, since the worst of global warming will likely not hit until many of the Boomer Generation have moved onward.??

But it’s really not a likable idea, that activism about the future is the responsibility of the young, and it’s not completely true either, as evidenced by such organizations as?Third Act. But it’s true enough that we felt both relieved and delighted when we saw stories of the Climate Grannies, 2,000 older women in Switzerland (official name: Senior Women for Climate Protection) who have sued their own government in the European Court for Human Rights for failure to act on climate change. And it's not just the filing of legal papers, either: the Climate Grannies are also out in the streets, advocating for climate change.??

There are the equivalent of the Climate Grannies in a number of countries,?including Finland and the US, fighting for positive change and pushing back against stereotypes—proving once again that Grannies are good for many, many wonderful things.?

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And finally, if you are a glutton for even more not-so-bad news, say?happy birthday to Bobi (again). You may remember that some months ago, we told you about Bobi, the world’s oldest dog at age 30. And now our crack investigative reporting staff has discovered that Bobi has turned 31. Happy 169th Birthday, Bobi!