I was at a conference a few months ago and had the pleasure of meeting Lynn Carson, Eastern Director of Allergan Medical, SkinMedica and Latisse. Being both of the 50+ age, we had a lively discussion on aging parents, how life brought us to the place we are, and on growing older. Both of us work in the esthetic world, but very little of our conversation revolved around what we do to maintain the outside. Mind you we both try and take care of ourselves and appreciate the extra confidence that gives us, but it is just part of the picture.
When I returned home she forwarded me this wonderful article on how the older woman is finally being embraced by advertisers. Hopefully we will no longer see ads for wrinkle creams sporting 20-somethings or fashion only modeled by the young! Alice Ericson of Grey Advertising thinks it is a trend that will continue. Ericson states, “At one point, at Tom Ford, everyone was naked. Maybe old is the new naked.” National ad campaigns like L’Oreal are featuring mature women such as Helen Mirren, Twiggy and Diane Keaton. Yves St Laurent is featuring 71-year-old Joni Mitchell. “They’re icons. They’re amazing,” Ericsson said. “They have substance. They also have wrinkles.”
I welcome this inclusion of the older woman in advertising. I know from creating our own advertising how difficult it has been to find any photos to use of older women and men other than the few models you see everywhere. But I have seen a drastic increase since I started this job seven years ago. That is also why I always love when we focus on our “real” clients and show how they have embraced their own personal beauty. The one warning I would give to the advertising world is not to pigeonhole us. We are too wise at this age to think there is only one way to be beautiful. We are now going to define that for ourselves. I challenge them to show us in all the many varieties we come in.
This spring, embrace your beauty no matter what the age. After all this is YOUR beautiful!