Ageism in advertising—how AI and layoffs are exacerbating the issue

An anonymous creative director recently posted a picture of a sad-looking dog, graying in the face, staring out a window on the Fishbowl app’s channel dedicated to agencies. “I’m 56 and was laid-off recently. Is this it for me?” the post read. “Was my last [full-time] job my last [full-time] job? Are creatives my age the old dogs no one wants to pat?” The post drummed up dozens of comments, with many people responding with messages of support or sympathy, or commenting that they could relate. In an industry obsessed with youth culture and reaching the next generation of consumers, ageism is far from new. The issue is being exacerbated due to mass industry layoffs, mega-mergers creating redundancies and generations of people living and working longer than they ever have before. Add to that the stereotypical view that older professionals are not as capable as younger workers to handle the pace of rapidly evolving technologies at a time when advertisers are obsessed with tech like AI, and it’s a perfect storm. “Our industry is ageist as fuck,” said Cindy Gallop, industry consultant, founder and CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld and MakeLoveNotPorn and an advocate on diversity, equity and inclusion, including the issue of ageism Ad Age Tech Power List 2025 We’re looking for top digital innovators from agencies, brands, platforms, ad tech companies and tech startups Enter here Gallop recalled a Fishbowl survey several years ago that asked industry professionals when they first experienced ageism. “Literally, the answers began in the early 30s; that was when people felt ageism kicking in.” Many women in advertising start experiencing ageism around 38 years old and, “for men, it usually hits around 52,” said Christie Cordes, founder and CEO of Ad Recruiter + Consiglieré, which is part executive search firm and part executive talent advisory. “That’s when they stop getting emails, callbacks … it’s younger than you think.” Ad Age interviewed agency and marketing professionals about the continuing spread of ageism in the industry, along with possible solutions for job seekers over the age of 50 and ways the industry can change dated attitudes about seasoned talent. From dotcoms to AI Across all U.S. businesses, 90% of working Americans aged 40 and older reported experiencing ageism in the workplace, including in hiring practices, pay disparities and workplace dynamics, according to Resume Now’s September 2024 State of Ageism in the Workplace Survey, based on responses from 1,003 U.S.-based workers aged 40 or older. Those statistics were not specific to advertising, but some in the industry said the issue is even worse in ad land. Tony Stanol, president of headhunting firm Global Recruiters of Sarasota, who believes advertising is particularly ageist, pointed to these research points: According to the Journal of Advertising, fewer than 10% of advertising practitioners in the U.S., U.K. and Australia are over 45 years old. The average age of a U.S. marketing manager is also around 39 years old, compared to around 45 years old for all managerial roles, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. People above a certain age “feel frozen out, left out of conversations, they’re not invited to go out to drinks,” said Lisa Balser, a 30-year industry creative professional who now consults major agencies and brands on DEI through her consultancy she founded, New and Improved. “I have personally experienced direct comments; I was called grandma by a direct report who was 24 years old when I was 30.” Balser said most of the discrimination happening now manifests in both younger professionals and executives feeling that older employees won’t understand new tech advancements or cultural references. Balser said she’s seen agencies giving older workers the “crappy projects,” instead of the campaigns that require a high level of tech or creativity, as a result of this bias. There is also a certain level of tension that exists between younger generations, such as Gen Z, and older ones because younger professionals want older ones to “get the F out of the way” and retire, while older professionals are saying, “‘we’re not ready to go,’” Balser said. “They’re dismissing each other. It doesn’t have to be that way.” AI is compounding the issue because a lot of younger professionals, and some executives leading big agencies, wrongly think older workers don’t have a place in developing this tech, some people interviewed said. This flies in the face of research that it will take all demographics, races, genders and ages to develop AI technology that isn’t biased. And several people said that rather than hinder, older professionals will be key to helping businesses through uncertainty brought on by the rise of AI, because these seasoned executives have been through past radical transformations such as the dotcom boom, and therefore have critical knowledge from experience to share. Many older professionals have been working with AI for 10 years and are “pioneering” the technology, argued William Charnock, former chief marketing officer of nonprofit Acumen and chief strategy officer of Five0 Consulting, which was founded to advise marketers on how to reach the 50 years and older cohort. “Especially if you’re young, this transition we’re in as an industry is totally new,” Charnock said. “It’s not. We’ve been through these transitions before. I’m 58 and I’ve evolved 10 times in my career.” Layoffs and high salaries Several people interviewed reflected on WPP CEO Mark Read catching flak for remarking in 2020 on an earnings call that the “average age of someone who works at WPP is less than 30 … They don’t hark back to the 1980s, luckily.” That remark struck a chord in the industry because it spoke truth as to what agencies seem to prioritize in talent, which is youth, seemingly above all else. According to public records, Omnicom’s average employee is 27 years old and WPP’s and Interpublic Group of Cos.’ is around 34 years old. They’re concerning stats to some as the industry anticipates mass layoffs on the horizon for Omnicom and IPG, should their proposed merger be approved. IPG Mediabrands already announced plans to cut 103 employees in January. Omnicom, WPP and IPG declined to comment for this story. Tracking the latest Omnicom-IPG merger news and analysis Though there have been no recent studies on how advertising professionals above a certain age are disproportionately affected by agency layoffs, Balser said she personally has at least “spoken to multiple people at agencies that just had layoffs and it sounds like they were very disproportionate of older employees.” “I don’t know whether it’s malice, people really taking it out on older people, or just the economic realities in a constrained business that advertising agencies are in; they’re looking at that bottom line and it’s highly likely that someone who’s older is going to be paid more,” said Ed Cotton, former longtime chief strategy officer of BSSP, who now is a freelance chief strategist and brand consultant at Inverness Consulting. There is the argument that, when companies need to cut costs, some of the people most vulnerable are those with higher salaries. But, at the same time, Balser said agencies are not hiring older professionals even when they agree to lower salaries, which they currently are. She said she’s seen older executives making $175,000 a year apply for jobs that are offering $100,000 a year or lower, and then they’re being told that they’re overqualified. Another indicator of ageism to some, including Cotton and Balser, is that agencies are requiring fewer years of experience for senior executive roles. “What strikes me, from a strategy perspective, is that there are so few senior seasoned strategists employed by agencies right now,” Cotton said. “It used to be that every agency had someone with 10 to 15 years of experience running that strategy group. Now, maybe they have five. You look at the big names in strategy and most of them are no longer employed by agencies.” Advice for older job seekers For older professionals still looking for jobs, Cordes advises taking advantage of social media. Having a uniform, professional presence across every social platform is a good way to get noticed by employers, she said, especially since many recruiters now rely on AI to pull from social sites, including LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter), to make hiring recommendations. Cordes said some people who are “applying, applying, applying” think that submitting a resume is enough. “It’s not. It hasn’t been for years. If LinkedIn didn’t kill the PDF, you know what will? AI,” she said. Employers want to see executives posting thought leadership and “playing in the sandbox” on social media, Cordes said. Of course, some companies prohibit their executives from being too active on social media, so when they are laid off they’re having to learn what it’s like to have a presence across different platforms. That was the experience of Simon Fairweather, the former senior VP, creative director and head of art for Leo Burnett Detroit, who was laid off in December after parent Publicis Groupe shuttered the agency due to the loss of General Motors work. “We had a slow death at Leo Burnett in Detroit,” he said. “We knew for a long time things were winding down. There were some last gasps.” Fairweather said he’s been trying to stay positive as he looks for his next opportunity, and is taking advantage of social media, which he’s been relatively quiet on in the past because of his former employer’s corporate policy. He said the biggest challenge for him when he first started leveraging platforms including X and LinkedIn was: “Why would people pay attention to me?” “It’s about providing value,” Fairweather advised others who may be finding themselves in a similar position as he is in. “It’s social media, so treat it as a social platform. You don’t have to participate in things you don’t want or need to. I’m trying to build [my persona] strategically.” For example, Fairweather said he’s been contributing to conversations on AI, as Publicis was an early adopter of the technology and he’s played in the space since 2017. “You have to be current,” he said. Recent data: US ad employment fell slightly in November A creative director at a major agency with 30-plus years of industry experience, who requested anonymity out of concern he would lose his job, attributed his ability to land his current role to LinkedIn. He said only when he built up his LinkedIn profile did he start getting callbacks and interest from recruiters. Still, he’s struggled, which was why he said he was so cautious of jeopardizing his job now. “You have three to five interviews and eventually you get to someone 20 years younger than you and they end up hiring someone who is 15 to 20 years younger,” he said. This creative director spent some time freelancing and said those roles plus fractional jobs, which have been growing in demand for several years, could be avenues for older professionals to pursue if they are not getting full-time jobs. “More and more people are going to need to work much longer than age 65 and, with this new administration, one of the things that’s getting bounced around is moving the retirement age to 70,” the creative director said. “What’s going to happen to all the people who can’t find jobs now? … Fractional leadership jobs are becoming interesting to me. There are people who don’t want to do 10 hours a day, every day anymore.” Other common advice given to older professionals looking for a job include “shave years off your resume, stay updated on tech, look younger [or] get Botox,” Balser said, adding that she rarely has seen any of those tactics work. Balser recently wrote a blog item on ageism in advertising for the AARP. In it, she said the onus really needs to be on companies to eliminate age-based bias including in the interview process. “Honestly, I think maybe the only place one might work and not age out is AARP,” she said. Sasha Martens, president of industry headhunting firm Sasha the Mensch, said there are certain fields, including B2B, insurance and health care and pharmaceutical marketing, where experience is valued and the age of professionals tends to skew older. Stanol agreed that health care and B2B marketing are two more protected areas for older professionals. “I’ve seen people thrive in these spaces after being nudged out of more traditional roles. These industries reward expertise, and many professionals who ‘age out’ of agencies find a second wind there,” he said. Still, many older professionals he knows have also had to “settle for lower salaries or lesser roles” to maintain full-time jobs, he said. And some agencies also look for a certain number of years of experience in particular fields such as health care, so transitioning into that area may not work out for everyone. See all of the Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards winners here Martens advised applicants to not “be all things to all people,” and position themselves for whatever role they are applying for. He said to create two or three resume versions that can be used “to target specific roles” that fit the desired expertise. Don’t go “overboard with all the buzzwords but something that is concise and highlights what is relevant for the position you are applying for,” he said. “Having these CVs laid out beforehand, you can make small adjustments to different applications, but this way, you are not starting anew each time and trying to make the ‘perfect’ CV for the position you are applying for.” Martens also said job seekers must take advantage of their networks. “As annoying and useless as most online applications are, people are better served by looking through their work history and reaching out to past relationships,” he said. “A contact you have may not have an opportunity, but they are more likely to refer you to someone else.” Niches and startups The current merger wave is also expected to prompt seasoned advertising veterans to continue to depart major agencies to start their own shops—which could be an avenue for an older professional with an entrepreneurial itch. These startups were not necessarily founded as a direct result of ageism, but that’s still talent that larger shops are missing out on and, at least a few were started because of big corporate agencies’ inability to take care of them, said Charnock. “These are entrepreneurial people who just want to do amazing things.” And there’s been a rise in consultancies and agencies such as Five0 dedicated to bringing more attention to older generations of consumers, as well as hiring people above a certain age. Geezer Creative is another ad agency that only hires professionals with at least 25 years of experience. “I’ve heard from countless ad execs blindsided in their 40s or 50s, wondering why their once-stellar careers hit a wall,” Stanol said. “Many tell me they thought they’d retire from an agency, maybe even get the proverbial gold watch. Instead, they’re facing job uncertainty and an industry that seems to value youth over experience. “When they come to me for advice, I suggest reinventing themselves,” he said, noting how some older industry professionals have had success starting their own businesses. Of course, it’s not a walk in the park to start your own company, and Stanol said “few take that leap.” Some independent agencies appear to value older professionals. Gian Carlo Lanfranco, co-founder and chief creative officer of L&C, recalled that when he was working for holding company agencies before starting his independent creative shop in 2020 alongside Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer Rolando Cordova, leaders for the holding company shops then were ignoring professionals with experience over “TikTok experts.” Lanfranco said L&C relies on a cross-generational team that pulls in professionals with years of experience as well as people who are just starting out. “You have to value what everyone can bring to the table,” he said. “That’s when you get the best ideas, when there are discussions [around the idea].” Lanfranco praised agency veteran Greg Collins, who is in his 50s and has freelanced as an executive creative director for L&C since its beginning (Lanfranco and Cordova convinced him to take a chance on the shop when it was opening after meeting him in a grocery store). He said Collins has been behind some of L&C’s most defining, award-winning work including Dole Sunshine’s Piñatex, a leather substitute made from pineapple skin, and, more recently, its 2024 campaign for digital platform Opendoor that got a truck to drive around Nashville placing instant offers on homes. The underlying comedic element of the campaign was Collins’ idea. Lanfranco said L&C wouldn’t have had the success it has had, picking up Grand Prix awards for Piñatex at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, for example, without Collins. He said the best creative agencies right now are independents and the ones that are leveraging experienced talent that clients are demanding to work with. Lanfranco said agencies that do not value experienced executives will eventually hurt their relationships with clients. “Experience is super valuable,” Lanfranco said, noting that clients ask for Collins in pitch meetings. “Erasing people over a certain age is very harmful and it will cost you.” What’s at stake What agencies risk losing by ignoring professionals above a certain age is critical expertise, especially in times of mass transformation. Gallop said the best skill an older employee brings to an organization is a sense of tranquility in tough times or periods of mass disruption, which is what the industry is currently undergoing. She said that as a young agency professional, she’d look to the senior executives in tense meetings or pitches, who always maintained a sense of calm, and that was something she strove to emulate as she climbed the ladder. “I’ve done a ton of pitches at BBH, where [agency founder] John Hegarty was always the one joking and laughing and making sure that everyone decompressed,” Gallop said, adding that whenever young employees feel like “the sky is falling,” an older executive is there to reassure them it isn’t. Several people interviewed also pointed to the fact that America is an aging country and, as such, older consumers and workers can’t be left out. According to the Urban Institute, the number of Americans aged 65 and older will more than double over the next 40 years, reaching 80 million in 2040. “We’ve got a lot of wealth held up in people at the age of 55, so maybe you want to employ some people over the age of 55 who really understand that segment,” Cotton said noting, however, that it will take “a cultural shift for clients” to ask for people above the age of 45 years old servicing their accounts, as well as to want to reach an older cohort of consumers, who have “30 to 40 years [of life] after 50.” Charnock said there are a lot of marketing opportunities to speak to people over 50 in categories including travel, health and wellness, beauty and fashion. While many marketers neglect consumers over the age of 50 in favor of younger generations, there are examples of brands tapping into this cohort. Charnock pointed to the rise in smaller beauty brands catering to menopausal women including Pause, State of Menopause and Kindra. Tackling ageism together Many people interviewed said fostering collaboration between employees of various generations, as L&C does, is the best way to tackle ageism. That goes for having internal conversations on the issue of ageism, as well as creating cross-generational teams to do the work, and then having that reflected in the output, several people interviewed said. Like any DEI issue, Balser said conversations around ageism can’t happen in a vacuum—every employee should be involved. Another way to combat ageism is to rethink jobs, said Patti Temple Rocks, a former agency executive, DEI advocate and author of “I’m Not Done,” a book on ageism. Temple Rocks said companies need to have conversations about what their older executives want in their careers as they age, and make accommodations based on their desires. They have to be more flexible, she said. “I talk to a lot of people who are financially or emotionally not open to retire, but are open to a new idea … [some say] ‘I wouldn’t mind working three days a week,’” she said. “What else could you do to take advantage of this person’s talent?” Temple Rocks said ageism is a result of companies’ “lack of imagination and desire to come up with creative solutions” to the issue. Gallop suggested eight ways the industry could end ageism in an Ad Age op-ed in 2019 including reshaping culture away from just focusing on the youth, using data to make the case for marketing to older consumers and encouraging every professional to publicly post their age across social media, thereby owning it. She said she hasn’t seen any results, more than five years later. Among all the reasons for the industry to solve its ageism problem, Balser cited what must be the most universal: “We will all be affected by ageism, if we’re lucky.” Become an All Access subscriber Get access to exclusive resources including Leading National Advertisers, World’s Largest Advertisers, Agency Report, Agency Review Tracker and TV Pricing Report. Click here

Ageism in advertising—how AI and layoffs are exacerbating the issue

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