Portrayals of Older Adults in Turkish Television Commercials

Ensuring the participation of older adults in all areas of life is vital not only for developed countries but also for developing countries. This study aims to analyze how older people in the commercials are displayed and how much they are represented on the television channels broadcasting in Turkey. In this study, In 444 different commercials, characters aged 60 and over were defined as older people. There were older characters in 46 (10.4%) of the 444 different commercials examined. The findings showed that 121 (6.0%) of the 2002 people seen in the commercials were determined as older adults. It was observed that 11 of the older adults (9.1%) played major roles in commercials. When evaluated concerning with stereotypes, 67 (55.4%) of older people were in "golden ager", 48 (39.7%) were in "perfect grandparent", four (3.3%) were in "hopeless", two (1.6%) were in "seriously disabled" categories. Representation of the older adults in Turkish television commercials is insufficient. Older characters are mostly male and generally stay in the background.