Our Own Voices
"Because You're Worth It?": A Critical Discourse Analysis of Successful Ageing in Advertisements
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lame M. Kenalemang-Palm
Sweden, like most developing countries, is experiencing a rapidly ageing population. By 2030, one in five persons will be aged 65 or older. A growing body of research indicates that it is increasingly becoming important for the elderly to maintain a healthy lifestyle. This has led to the development of policies such as “successful ageing” that have become prerequisites for the future sustainability of health and social policies in Western countries. Successful ageing is a holistic approach that seeks to help individuals to optimize their physical, mental, and social health that will help them to lead a good quality of life. Considering that this particular segment of the population constitutes the largest and the most lucrative consumer market, contemporary media continuously try to incorporate this social group in their advertisement campaigns. These marketing campaigns provide models of the type of lifestyle that individuals should maintain if they want age ‘perfectly.’ Drawing on a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective, I focus on how discourses of ageing are re-defined and re-positioned through L’Oreal Paris’ advertisements of their “Ageless Beauty” campaign, featuring the “Age Perfect Golden Age” and “Age Re-Perfect” range. The analysis is based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework. The findings indicate that discourses of ageing are being connected to desired values such as beauty, perfectionism, golden, and away from the connotations of ‘old,’ ‘elderly’ i.e., the undesired states of life as well as how discourses of beauty are constructed and reconstructed by stereotyping how their products are synonymous with a successful life.
Social and Cultural Perspectives on Aging in Tahar Ben Jelloun Novels and Story Tales: Retirement and Loneliness as Modern Disease Killing the North-African Immigrant
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maya Hauptman
Retirement is perceived as a disease by Ben Jelloun's Maghrebin protagonists, male immigrants, who came to France to look for work. Having worked hard and overtime all their life, generally in factories, to make the ends meet, they were unable to develop hobbies or a social life. So, once retired, they found themselves idle, not knowing what to do with their free time. They could not adjust to the new situation; depressed, they didn't find the strength to pull themselves up, and empty eyes, they let death fall upon them. Poignant metaphors picture their mood and their descent to hell. This situation affects the whole helpless family. Age doesn't affect women the same way because they generally don't work outside the house. They go on with their work, keeping busy around the house as long as they can. In his own country, a North-African doesn't encounter the same situation, where retirement is scarce. He will work in the fields or in his shop, as long as he can. In a rural society, or in a developing society, people belonging to the old generation do not retire before very old age because no money was put aside. Another issue we consider is the extreme solitude of those immigrants who return to their original country, build a big house where they plan to live together with their children, but find themselves alone, a machine answering their phone calls. The parents' country is not the children; even less in a mixed marriage.
Representation of Older People in Film - Alternative Methods
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Astra Zoldnere
Although the world and particularly higher-income countries are aging, we live in a youth-oriented society. This research project examines the representation of older people in current day German-speaking fiction films. Data of the pilot study shows that older people are highly underrepresented, stereotyped, and mostly depicted in a negative light. Ageist remarks and jokes are also commonly used. Theoretical research gives the possibility to identify the common representation patterns. However the gap between academic research and film practice remains. I intend to find the link between theory and practice. How can academic research and art contribute to each other and acquire knowledge from each other? My plan is to invite people in retirement age to re-enact the most typical scenes identified in the theoretical research and to reflect about their experiences thereafter. I want to give older people a voice to evaluate and reason about the scenes themselves. The result will be a creative documentary film. The aim of this study is to encourage a critical discussion about the representation of older people in film by combining theoretical and artistic research methods.
