Media Portrayals of the Old, Young, and those with Disabilities in TV Commercials and in Magazines

After finishing my article on media representations in children’s stories (below), I turned on the television and immediately saw this commercial:

Chevy Commercial OLD couple YOUNG again 2011

And I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to write more about this topic!  There are some great other media representations of the elderly on TV and in magazines.  Although in some places, there was nothing to represent the older generation.

For the Chevy commercial above “Old Couple Young Again” (2011) an older man picks up an older woman for a date, and when they go into the car they are about 50 years younger, trying to show that the car is making the older couple feel young again.  If you consider that they couple are not really turning into younger people, but feeling like younger people, then there really are no bad stereotypes of aging.  The older couple look like what real people look like that I meet in real life.

Compare this with various magazines.  Marie Claire (March 2011) had four people in the article that were over the age of 12, and maybe pictures of 100 children 12 and under.  OK, maybe I am exaggerating about the age being under 12, but not really that much.  It is so sad that these models of little children who are made up to look older; so that that when a person reads the article they think they are supposed to look 12 years old.  There are about four people in the whole magazine that looked older: two advertising aging creams, one advertising foundation, and the editor in chief of the magazine.  Not one article in the magazine is about other generations.  The women in this magazine do not look positively or accurately towards ageing, but also the youthful, unattainable stereotypes are hurtful to the viewer.  The people in the magazine do not look like anyone that I meet.  Even my 10-year-old niece doesn’t look like them, as she is not trying to look like she is 18 years old, but she looks like the little girl that she is.

Not surprising that it was worse with the lack of representation of other generations in two teen magazines: “J-14: #1 Teen Celeb Mag!” (May/June 2011), and “Seventeen” (March 2011).  Even in the health section in Seventeen, there is nothing about health.  The titles in Seventeen, for example, included: “Look Fierce For Your First Day!”, “No More Shopping Meltdowns!”.  J-14 didn’t even have a health section.  Like Seventeen, the stereotypes in the teen magazines are hurtful because nothing real is portrayed.  Like Marie Claire, the models look nothing like real people.

After looking at a woman’s magazine, and teen magazines, what are men looking at in magazines?  The next magazine is called “Men’s Fitness: Exercise / Nutrition / Sports / Sex” (September 2011).  On the cover of this issue is a huge picture of slightly grey haired Dr. Oz with the feature article in huge type stating “Dr. Oz Shows You How to Live to 100 (and live well)”.  Dr. Oz “prescribes a mix of competition, training, nutrition, and preventive medicine” that helps a person live to be 100: “Life’s A Game—Play to Win” it shouts (p. 69).  Is life a game?  Is it something to joke about?  The readers must think so, because the rest of the magazine has body builders, one man showing off the huge bulge in his pants, and a few ladies looking like porn.  The stereotypes of a man must be muscular with bulging pants to attain what is for most unattainable is not good, but at least there is some mention about age.  Except for Dr. Oz, these men look nothing like the men that I see in real like.

“Inc.: The Magazine for (Fast) Growing Companies” (September 2011) has at last is a real mix of real people in various generations.  The focus in this issue is a ranking of the “America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies”.  The ads have men and woman at various ages.  They have pictures of people who run many of what they believe as the 500 fastest growing companies.  Real people.  This magazine is looking a little more realistic, with adults at every age represented, looking exactly like what a person sees in real life, minus the children.

NIH Medline Plus (Winter 2011) and AARP (July/August 2011) both feature a senior on their covers, with NIH Medline with a woman, and AARP with Harrison Ford.  NIH Medline Plus covers a large amount of health articles, and represents all ages, from babies to seniors.  AARP is mostly about seniors, but in some of the advertisements there are seniors with families.  Stereotypes are realistic, without biases.  What is nice is that not only does everyone look real, without being 12 and trying to look 18, but real people, there are babies, and children looking like children that I see from day to day.

Except for a brief second in the Viagra commercial, and a small picture of an older woman in a walker in NIH Medline Plus, people with disabilities are not even represented.  Here is the Viagra commercial:

Viagra commercial We are the Champions

For some mass media, there appears to be some pull towards being realistic, but mostly when the audience is considered for older people, and disabilities are usually not even mentioned.  For teens or young women such in Marie Clare, J-14 and Seventeen, there seems to be an unrealistic portrayal of what a woman is supposed to look like, not anything like what a woman or even a teen looks like.  For men such as in the magazine Men’s Fitness, it is not much better, but at least how to beat age and live to be 100 is not only talked about, but the feature article.  The rest of the magazines and TV commercials talked about in this article portray a realistic population.  People with disabilities for the most part are not even discussed.