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Beauty Industry, Market Research

Are Beauty Brands Ignoring Boomers & Gen Xers?

AARP's national survey, Mirror Mirror: Survey of Women's Reflections of Beauty, Image and Media, found that older women feel ignored.

By: Beauty Packaging Staff


A national women’s survey reveals that Boomers and Gen Xers feel ignored by beauty brands, AARP reports. Women want to see more variety of ages — and more realism — in beauty advertising and product ads, it concludes.

The survey, Mirror/Mirror: Survey of Women’s Reflections of Beauty, Image and Media, was conducted in July 2019 and polled 1,992 U.S. women.

Women age 50 and older spend an average of $29 monthly on beauty and personal grooming products, representing nearly $22 billion in annual sales.

Key Points

Here’s a few highlights from the survey:

  • 40% of Gen-X women (ages 39-54) and 53% of Boomer women (ages 55-73) disagreed with the statement “the beauty and personal grooming product industry creates products with people my age in mind.”

  • 70% of women age 40 and older want to see more perimenopausal and menopausal beauty and personal grooming products.

  • Key elements from the survey will appear in the November issue of Allure.

  • 64% of Gen X women and 74% of Boomer women feel older adults are underrepresented in product advertising.

  • Over 7 in 10 women in both age groups state they are more likely to purchase products from brands that depict people of a variety of ages in their ads.

  • Interestingly, 76% of Millennial women (ages 22-38) reported they, too, are most likely to purchase products whose ads feature people of a variety of ages.

  • 85% of women of all ages reported they wish ads had more realistic images of people.

  • 75% of women of all ages said that seeing beauty and personal grooming ads with real people makes them feel better about themselves.

Stay Tuned

AARP conducted this study as part of a longer-term effort by AARP to shape a new image of aging in advertising, marketing and media.

Later this month, AARP will issue a related study, Latinos and Beauty as We Age: A Cultural Reflection.

Read Next

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