What if we're all a little ageist?

Ageism is rife in business, in media, and of course in advertising.

It turns out that one source of it might be inside all of us.

Benny Barak gathered studies from 18 countries around the world on how people feel subjectively (their “felt” age) and what they think is the “ideal” age.

Universally, people FEEL about six years younger than they ARE, and they WISH they were another five years younger than they FEEL.

This is regardless of age (for adults), gender, and even cultural type (e.g., individualistic vs collectivist).

The older people got, the larger the gaps were as well.

35-yr-olds in India felt 31 & wished they were 28. 50-yr-olds in the Netherlands felt 46 & wished they were 40. And 70-yr-olds in the US felt 62 & wished they were 50.

Apparently, every birthday, you wish you were an additional 3 months younger. It’s like anti-dog-years.

This might help explain the lack of older people in ads; we're all indeed young(er) at heart. Or at least at mind.

And if “ageist” is too harsh a word for something that seems built-in to the human brain, let’s just say we’re all a little ”aspirational.” Hell, I wish I were a decade younger.

Why? The reasons for this are very likely biological & evolutionary. But given it's universal (with variance & outliers, natch), it makes sense that it even influences the ads we make.