If you spend more than a week in the work of marketing to Boomers you begin to feel like you’re surrounded by old friends. Not because other such marketers form a tight-knit and supportive bond (which they do), but because you become quickly familiar with the same faces and images in Boomer-oriented ads and marketing materials.
Stock imagery – millions of photos available at Getty Images, iStockphoto, and other sites – is an invaluable resource to the majority of marketers who can’t afford the costs of custom photo shoots and the insatiable demand of marketing materials for imagery. Every company uses them.
But if you look to stock photo sites for images of women over 50 that accurately reflect the lives they lead: Good luck!
Nowhere are the stereotypes about midlife women more apparent. There are about 37 photos of Boomer women that reflect how they look in real life – and you see them everywhere. And there are many more that
reflect the idea that being 50 is the same as being 80. We recently saw a photo with the title “Beautiful at 67″ that looked more like “Wicked Witch of the West holding a fresh rose.”
For a great column on this disconnect, see “Some Boomers hope to die before they look as old as media portrayals.”
I don’t blame stock photo firms for this problem. They are merely agents for the work of independent photographers. But the repetition of the same images – the familiar faces that confront anyone who attends a Boomer-oriented conference – also represents an opportunity for smart photographers and stock photo sites.
Making the most of this opportunity should not be hard for anyone who will look around at women’s lives or check out the conversations at VibrantNation.com. But for those who remain crippled by stereotypes, here are a few ideas:
- A woman shopping for a luxury car – by herself.
- A woman meeting with her investment advisor (also a woman)
- 3 women enjoying a quiet laugh together at work
- A group of women celebrating a 50th birthday at a hip restaurant.
- A 55-year old woman boss (imagine that) mentoring her younger colleagues.
Of course, this list could go on and on. I can’t force photographers or stock photo agencies to pay attention to the real lives of Vibrant Women, but I can promise them that doing so will find its own reward: customers like me and most of the Fortune 2000.
This is the one case where saying goodbye to some old friends – the few dozen images we’ve seen too much of – won’t be sad.
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As one who uses photos regularly on MidLifeBloggers, I can attest to the truth of this post. I question whether it’s a solvable problem. Advertisers go for what has already worked, and the archetypes are the easiest way to get a point across.