exercise and ageing
The CEO of the US’s Council on Active Aging, Colin Milner, looks at how we need to change our perception of ageing to capture this booming market
POSITIVE AGEING I
ncreased life expectancy is one of the most significant success stories of our times. Yet this tribute to modern science is
also now considered one of the greatest global challenges, according to Laura Carstensen, PhD, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. How could this happen? Two simple words: age apathy. At a global level, the indifference
to population ageing is creating a concern that a lack of preparation by governments, businesses (including the fi tness industry), families and individuals will lead to its mismanagement.
So what about the fi tness industry?
How will we respond to this seismic demographic shift? And, most importantly, how do we ensure that our industry, like the rest of society, does not mismanage the opportunities presented by population ageing? One of the fi rst places to start, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on an Ageing Society, is to change the way society – that’s us – currently views ageing.
changing perceptions How do we change our views of ageing?
First, we need to realise how we came to have these views in the first place. They are based on our life experiences – what we have come to expect from ageing – and also by the media and marketing executives, who in many cases have focused significantly on the
negative aspects of ageing, namely
‘decline and decay’. Such negative views can create low expectations of ageing. In 2004 Unilever, the parent company
of the Dove personal care brand, challenged these negative stereotypes of ageing in its Dove ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’. One of the campaign’s billboards featured Irene Sinclair, aged 95, and posed the question: “Wrinkled? Wonderful?” Viewers were invited to log on to the campaign website and cast their vote. The ad proved a tremendous success, largely by tapping into society’s negative expectations of ageing and making people reconsider them. Millions of Baby Boomers, who are
starting to turn 65 this year, have taken up this mantle, seeing themselves not as a burden to society but as contributors to its success. This group is also demanding products and services that meet their
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