This ground-breaking book addresses the representation of older people in advertising. It synthesises approaches drawn from psychology, advertising studies, media studies, literature and the screen. Ageing and Advertising builds upon original empirical research by Olsen and frames these new findings in terms of typological approaches to investigating and describing characters and their behaviours. Strong is widely published on such topics as recurring characters, genre, and adaptation, and his contribution centres on locating the identified character types in the long tradition of typological and generic analysis of characters and associated narrative templates. Alternatively, Olsen will discuss the function and significance of stereotypes and stereotyping in psychology and explore optimisation strategies via co-creation for future character types and narratives for advertising to resonate well with older audiences.

With an ageing population, both nationally and in the western world as a whole, targeting an older audience with disposable income has become increasingly important to advertisers and has been undertaken with increasing sophistication and nuance. Hence, Ageing and Advertising addresses a theme of social, economic, and cultural significance, not least in that the advertisements we consume serve to shape our sense of the world, and our roles therein. Illustrated with examples from real life advertising campaigns, we anticipate that the book will be of great interest to students of advertising and media studies as well as to students of literature, cultural studies, and film/TV who focus on questions of character and genre. In addition, it will be of capital significance in the field of gerontology and ageing studies.

To date, no monograph in the UK has approached this topic in such a comprehensive manner. Both the use of character types and narrative templates, as well as audience research via co-creation are unique selling points

Dennis Olsen is Associate Professor of Advertising and Branding at the University of West London. His interdisciplinary work is framed by sociological, cultural, and psychological perspectives.

Jeremy Strong is Professor of Literature and Film at the University of West London, teaching both creative writing and English Literature as well as supervising PhDs in a range of cognate disciplines. He is widely published in the fields of literature, film, cultural studies, and food studies.