Why brands keep ignoring the women with the money — and what that absence is actually costing everyone.
They receive between three and four percent of advertising attention. This is not a niche complaint — it is one of the largest documented gaps between consumer power and marketing investment in the developed world.
of all consumer spending in the US comes from women over 50 — three percent more than men of the same age.
of household purchasing decisions are made or controlled by women over 50.
of all luxury travel decisions.
of all consumer decisions are made or influenced by women.
of all UK household wealth is controlled by the over-50s.
of women 50+ say they are open to trying new brands. 75% will pay more for quality. 75% will pay more for convenience.
of all forecast growth in cosmetics and beauty over the next decade will come from women aged 50 and over.
of UK ads feature an over-50 in a leading role.
of UK marketers surveyed are aged 46–65. 74.6% are aged 26–45.
of UK ad agency staff are over 50 — and the number drops further in creative departments.
Most marketers write off consumers at age 49 — a convention inherited from broadcast television media buying, not from any current evidence about who actually spends.
Mid-life women aren't asking for more.
We're asking for better.
of women over 50 say they have a clear sense of their own identity. One third describe themselves as 'very confident in their own skin'.
of over-55s say they are open to switching brands and trying new things — directly contradicting the 'set in their ways' stereotype.
Quality is the top stated factor in purchase decisions for women 45+ — ahead of price.
Studies consistently find that women in their 50s and 60s report these as among the happiest decades of life — directly contradicting the 'decline' framing dominant in advertising.
Dove's Pro-Age campaign featured women aged 50+ photographed by Annie Leibovitz without airbrushing — age spots, wrinkles, grey hair, no apology.
The broader Real Beauty platform delivered double-digit growth in the quarter following its 2005 launch and has been credited with driving a decade of consecutive sales growth, eventually making Dove Unilever's biggest brand. Representation without 'age-defying' framing, sustained for nearly two decades.
L'Oréal's partnership with Vogue on the 'Non-Issue' — an edition created for and by women aged 50+ — outsold the regular September magazine.
L'Oréal stated that championing female empowerment among older women cemented the brand's relevance with progressive women in their thirties too, suggesting cross-generational halo effects that the industry continues to underestimate.
A 2025 Fashionista feature documented the rise of over-50 women on Instagram and TikTok who have built audiences in the hundreds of thousands to millions.
Notably, their followers skew younger than expected — predominantly women under 40 who want to see that getting older doesn't mean disappearing. The audience for honest representation is larger and younger than brands assume.
The global menopause market hit approximately US$17.7 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach US$27.6 billion by 2033. Venture capital going to women's health companies grew 314% between 2018 and 2023.
Most brands doing notable work in this space are founder-led by women in the demographic — a recurring pattern in brands that get it right.
Just 6% of UK ad agency staff are over 50. The proportion drops further in creative roles, and further again for women. Compare this to medicine (28%), science (30%), law (35%). Advertising is one of the youngest-skewed professional industries — which makes representational blind spots structural, not incidental.
Most marketers continue to define their target demographic as ending at 49 — a convention inherited from broadcast television media buying, not from any current evidence about who actually spends, who actually switches brands, or who actually has the discretionary income.
A residual industry belief that featuring older women will make the brand itself read as older. This is now contradicted by research showing younger consumers respond positively to age-diverse advertising — but the belief persists in brief-writing and creative review.
The gap is most acute in five categories where women 50+ are demonstrably engaged, spending and switching — and where the available imagery still does not look like them.
The full episode unpacks what this data means for women in midlife — what to look for, what to call out, and what better could actually look like.
Listen to the episode →