On the other, focusing on consumers’ actual needs instead of their assumed age has the added benefit of appealing to all of a product’s potential users. An example offered by Margaret Morganroth Gullette, a cultural critic and resident scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, is the recent marketing campaign for the absorbent underwear Depend.“This is an athlete, 20 reps deep,” an announcer intones in a 2020 ad as a middle-age woman works out outdoors, “and sprinting past every leak.” In another TV spot, a woman who does not appear old enough to collect Social Security leads a business meeting.Not all older people have use for absorbent underwear, but everyone with incontinence does: people who are pregnant or postpartum, who are taking certain medicines, who have bladder conditions or any number of temporary or recurring health issues.“It was making absorbent underwear dignified and part of an ordi …
