Journalist mobilized social networks with the hashtag #issoé50, which aims to break the stereotype imposed on women 50+
How do you imagine a woman of 50 years or more? Perhaps as a figure of a woman with gray hair, sitting in a chair doing her knitting or even serving the table, wearing an apron during a family lunch. The #issoé50 movement was born to show that this view is wrong.
Silvia Ruiz is a journalist, author of the column ‘Ageless’, at UOL, an influencer, as much as she has admitted to not liking the term, and creator of the movement that has taken over the networks in recent weeks.
“I had no intention of becoming an influencer, but I think that because I share my life and my routine with aging, a lot of people identified, started following me and I created a community around that” , said the journalist.
It all started when Globo launched the call for Ivete Sangalo’s 50th anniversary special and in the first few seconds of the video, the narrator says “we know it doesn’t seem like it, but our Veveta turns 50”. “It is not surprising that Ivete is a 50-year-old woman who sings, dances, is active, beautiful, taking care of herself and super well. She has a lot of women like that, she is no exception,” said Silvia.
As soon as the call went live, Silvia used her social media to talk about what it’s like to be a 50-year-old woman, showing several women of that age along with the hashtag #issoé50.
“I had no idea, but this hashtag went off in minutes. Nothing goes viral if people aren’t feeling it inside of them. 45-year-old and 50-year-old women can’t stand to be invisible anymore,” the journalist pointed out.
Silvia also commented on the relationship of advertising with older women and the way they are portrayed and remembered only in Mother’s Day campaigns, wrinkle products and the like.
“Where are the women in the lipstick campaign, in the clothing campaign, in the bank campaign, in the car campaign? The 50+ audience is a giant audience, consumer and with much more money than millennials”, pointed out Silvia.
According to IBGE data, the silver economy, as the economy of people 50+ is called, moves BRL 1.8 trillion per year. The survey also pointed out that people over 50 represent 25% of the Brazilian population, in addition to having 56% more income than millennials.
“Brands need to look at this, I want to see in the bank’s advertisement that I have a person my age, in the campaign for the car that I drive”, added the journalist.
The search for brands
With the repercussion of the #issoé50 movement, Silvia revealed that her phone has not stopped ringing. “Brands discovered me, saw that I have an audience, a brand and a community around it. I am being sought out more and more by them,” she said.
The journalist also pointed out that, before reaching the age of 50, she had never noticed the lack of representation of this part of the population. “This is another frontier that we need to break. Not fighting ageism is not fighting for our own future because everyone will age”, added Silvia.
Despite the demand by companies, Silvia stressed the importance of consumers being aware of campaigns that bring representation, to ensure that it does not just go from a video to TV.
“There are companies that are going to be serious and there are those that are going to do it for the hype. We need to be aware as consumers, as media, as the press to charge and say ‘okay, but what are you doing for real? I loved your campaign, but what is your company really doing?’” warned Silvia.
