More people than ever are entering into mid- and later-life and confronting and considering what experiences of ageing mean for them. In other words, as more people age, ageism becomes a more pertinent issue. And while conversations about age are rarely at the top of equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) agendas, more attention is being given to representations and perceptions of ageing... As such, now is a good time to act in changing representations of ageing.
Dr Martina Zimmermann, Reader in Health Humanities and Health Sciences, quoted in ‘Shifting representations of ageing in advertising, the media, and the creative industries’
21 May 2025
Research on ageing launches at the House of Lords
Society needs to tackle pessimism around ageing for people to live and age well, argues a new report by the Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth (SAACY), produced in collaboration with the Policy Institute at King’s and launched at the House of Lords on 13 May 2025.
‘Shifting representations of ageing in advertising, the media, and the creative industries’ highlights the need to challenge cultural pessimism about ageing, as ageism can be harmful for health and wellbeing and contribute to inequality.
To shift this mindset, the report proposes four strategic methods for promoting best practice in representing ageing:
- Harness data to make a case for shifting representations of ageing in advertising and marketing.
- Shift representations of ageing in print media through influencing the Editors’ Code to consider age.
- Drive change by developing processes to ‘complain better’ about ageist content.
- Establish a screenplay prize to showcase good representations of ageing.
In the report, the researchers suggest challenging the way we think about ageing by seeing it as a lifelong process. This view opens up the possibility of creating alternative futures across the life course.
The research interrogates how the media plays an important role in shaping beliefs and stereotypes around age; current representations of older people are often narrow and equate ageing with ‘being old’. Instead, the recommendations point towards using an ‘optimistic realism’ approach that tells and listens to diverse stories and can help to achieve positive change.
There are systemic opportunities to influence media representations of ageing; the report recommends that these representations will have a wider impact if they speak to all generations and draw on shared experiences.
Findings from the report stem from a Policy Lab hosted by The Policy Institute. The workshop brought together academics from a range of disciplines alongside representations from the creative industries, media, advertising, charities, the health and care sector, and policy to analyse how to change the way ageing is depicted.
The Policy Institute works to solve real world challenges with high-quality evidence, in conjunction with a wide range of policy and practitioner expertise. The SAACY project engaged leading organisations in the fields of ageing and media, and exemplified the extraordinary traction it is possible to achieve with research when you bring different perspectives together.
Dr Harriet Boulding, Senior Research Fellow at The Policy Institute
About The Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth (SAACY)
The Sciences of Ageing and the Culture of Youth (SAACY) is a research programme on ageing funded by a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship. It looks at how we talk and think about ageing, in scientific research, medical practice and wider culture, and how the way we do so can affect our experiences of ageing, the meaning we assign to growing older, and the decisions we make about older people. The project is supported by a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship awarded to Dr Martina Zimmermann, Reader in Health Humanities and Health Sciences in the Department of English at King’s College London.
About The Centre for the Humanities and Health (CHH)
The Centre for the Humanities and Health (CHH) is a UK leader in the Health Humanities, dedicated to researching the cultural meaning and lived experiences of wellbeing and illness through humanities and creative arts scholarship and practices. CHH is interested in investigating the roles patient experiences play in cultural and medical discourses and how they are valued or disregarded as forms of evidence and expertise contributing to medical and scientific knowledge
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Reader in Health Humanities and Health Sciences
Research Associate
Senior Research Fellow