Aging & Social Change: Eleventh Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

This study consists of 601 ads issued over two nonconsecutive weeks on three commercial TV channels in Puerto Rico. It comprises one week prior to the proclamation of a state of emergency due to pandemic events (March 2020) and the second week after the reopening phase in July. We found that only 14.6% of the ads consisted of images of people over 55+ as a talent accompanied by people under 54 (of this only 1.16% were exclusive of elderly images). We use quantitative and qualitative methodology. The Nielsen Company and Publimedia provided the ads. The analysis was made with two templates constructed to collect data. The first template is based on an authorized adaptation of the Global Media Monitoring Project, and the second template consisted of a table containing forty-four stereotype variables. The sub representation of elder women in TV commercials was patent. The elder presence on television promotions is not related to the percentage of the population over 55 in Puerto Rico. Positive traits, negative traits, themes privileged by advertisers, images, frequency, and contradictions are considered.