Kwabena Frimpong Supervisors: Dr. Barbara Czarnecka Dr. Giuseppe Adamo Full Title: That’s my opinion: younger consumers’ perception of older models in newspaper adverts. Kwabena Frimpong Supervisors: Dr. Barbara Czarnecka Dr. Giuseppe Adamo

Rational for Paper The topic of how the advertising community engages the older consumer group is gaining scholarly attention. Existing knowledge on how this consumer group is portrayed in ads have largely emanated from opinion of older people themselves ( either as coders or survey participants) Thus, there is a paucity of knowledge on how the future generation (younger people) perceive the older generation in newspaper adverts.

Research Method used Content analysis of newspaper advert was employed in the study. The method is largely considered as the most preferred method for studying media content (Krippendorf,2013) UK newspaper are categorised into 3 – higher quality, mid – quality and the populars (Cridland, 2009) Using data for NRS( 2010) and Mori Data (2010), a years’ edition of adverts from one higher quality (Telegraph) and two mid- quality (Daily Mirror & Daily Express) newspapers

Research Method used A total of 950 editions of the three newspapers were scanned for a minimum of ¼ page adverts featuring models of all ages Duplicates from the same publication was omitted. Finally, 700 adverts were extracted and coded by two young ( 26 & 28 years) coders.

Table 1: Breakdown of newspapers / adverts in the study.

Table2 – General overview of results   Number of ads. coded Number of people in ads. Number of 50’s In ads. (Kappa=0.85) Gender (Kappa = 0.92) Count of % of total Male Female Coder 1 700 2456 346 14% 191 (55%) 155 (45%) Coder 2 355 186 (52%) 169 (48%) Mean 350 (53%) 162 (47%)

Table3 – Traits in datasets    Total traits Positive Traits (Kappa = .81) Negative traits. (Kappa = .92) Count % of total Coder 1 633 592 94% 41 6% Coder 2 482 92% 24 8% Mean 537 93% 32 7%

Chart 1 – traits in datasets

Chart 2 - key positive traits Figure 1: Trait description uncovered in dataset

Chart 3 – key negative traits

Table 4 – roles played Roles (Total) Major Minor Background Kappa Mean   Roles (Total) Major Minor Background Kappa Count % of total 0.89 Coder 1 346 318 92% 18 5% 10 3% Coder 2 355 319 90% 31 9% 5 1% Mean 350 91% 24 7% 8 2%

Summary – Traits Older models are positively than negatively portrayed (93% vs. 7%) according to the study Younger people may perceive older in adverts as representing a “well – informed” demographic group. This contradicts most of the extent studies (e.g. William et al. 2010;) which have reported the “Healthy”, “ Active” and “ Affluent” traits as typifying the older consumer cohort

Summary – Numeric representation Over 50’s in UK constituted about 36% of the 2014 UK population (ONS, 2014) a representation of 14% of older models in the study can thus, be considered as an under-representation There were more males than females ( 53% vs. 47)

Summary - Roles played Both coders were consistent on the fact that older people played major roles more than the other roles. The significant results as far as ‘role’ is concerned is that both coders found older females (56%) playing more major roles than males (44%) which was a departure from the existing knowledge.

Key research questions What are the traits younger consumer’s perceive older people to be associated with in UK newspaper adverts? Do younger consumer's think older people are adequately represented in ads? What are the roles older people mostly play when they feature in advert?

Contribution of the paper Older people could help authenticate a brands’ credibility / quality when used as models.

Conceptual Framework Environmental stimuli created by Advertising community Image portrayed by older models Roles older people play (major, minor, background) The numeric representation of older models in ads. Results of consumption of media images misrepresentation of younger people’s world view of old age Society likely to respond to inappropriate portrayal with some punitive reactions such as product boycott Media as a mirror to consumers Ad. audience Younger consumers Older consumers Theoretical model: author's creation based on cultivation theory (Gebner, 1960) and the ethnolinguistic vitality theory (Giles et al. 1977)

Appendix - adverts