Positive Aging and Brain Fitness

Branding and Marketing Thoughts

About a year ago, I was interviewed by Colin Milner, Executive Director of the International Council on Active Aging. This led to an opportunity to chair a year long work group on Rebranding Aging. The results of that process was presented at a strategy meeting at the Annual Meeting in San Diego earlier this month. As the plans are formalized, I will be sharing them on this blog. In the mean time, here is a link to the interview on ICAA TV:

Ambrosius on branding and marketing on ICAA TV

ICAA TV Interview

How Pervasive Is Ageism?

I am coming to believe that age bias is much more pervasive than any of us realize. This does not mean that we consciously discriminate against older adults; however, at the subconscious level we may carry a bias much more in favor of youth. The first step in fighting ageism is for those in the field of aging to determine if they are biased.

A recent email from my mentor, David B. Wolfe reminded me that more people should be encouraged to use Harvard University's no cost assessment. In the email David stated, "most people claiming to be innocent of any charge of ageism who take the Harvard Implicit Association Test discover that in fact they do harbor ageist biases at unconscious levels of their minds. Other research supports the conclusion that ageism (like racism and other "isms") is far more pervasive than most of us realize or want to admit." Take a few minutes and see whether or not you may have an unconcious bias.

 The step is to eliminate all stereotypical terms and age references from our own publications, promotional materials and messaging. We must also be conscious of using only photos that show the resilience, wisdom and experience of older consumers. If we can not first become self-aware and make our organizations bias free, we are not likely to succeed in our effort to dramatically reduce ageism in the general media.