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WASHINGTON — A national survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. women finds a significant number of respondents in their 50s and above feel ignored by the beauty and personal grooming products industries, AARP reported, upon the release of Mirror/Mirror: Survey of Women’s Reflections of Beauty, Image and Media.
Forty percent 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.” Seventy percent of women age 40 and older want to see more perimenopausal and menopausal beauty and personal grooming products.
The survey, key elements of which will appear in the November issue of Allure, also reveals dissatisfaction with how women are portrayed in advertising, with 64 percent of Gen X women and 74% of Boomer women reporting they feel older adults are underrepresented in product advertising, and over 7 in 10 women in both age groups stating 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.
Elsewhere, 85% of women of all ages reported they wish ads had more realistic images of people, and 75% of women said that seeing beauty and personal grooming ads with real people makes them feel better about themselves.
Women age 50 and older spend an average of $29 monthly on beauty and personal grooming products, representing nearly $22 billion in annual sales.
Mirror/Mirror: Survey of Women’s Reflections of Beauty, Image and Media was conducted in July 2019 and polled 1,992 U.S. women. The complete results are available online here: www.aarp.org/womenonbeauty.
