Has the phrase ‘anti-aging’ outlived its usefulness?

During the pandemic, Nancy Griffin was stuck at home like so many others. A 30-year veteran of the spa industry, she was eager to explore what it means to age well. So she began a podcast where she interviewed experts in aging. As the months ticked by, one topic came up over and over again: ageism, and how many of her guests were feeling it in their daily lives.

As she listened, Griffin began to ponder the part her own industry played in the problem.

“The spa industry became hijacked by beauty in a big way,” she says. “Beauty, skincare and procedures became a huge part of it.”

She began to think increasingly about what the industry’s emphasis on smooth, flawless skin meant for her and others in midlife and beyond. The underlying message, she says, was that you’re not aging well if you don’t slather on a slew of products, or start injecting yourself with fillers. She says for an industry that was supposed to be about wellness and helping people, there was a lot of shaming going on.

“If we [in the spa industry] come at people and say, ‘once you have wrinkles and brown spots and you’re no longer youthful looking, you’re no longer well … that you need to be corrected, that’s creating stress, which ages us,” she says. “It’s counter intuitive.”

So last year she launched the website Expose Ageism, to encourage spa and beauty companies “to eliminate ageist stereotypes in their marketing and operations,” beginning with the words “anti-aging.”

“The phrase anti-aging is really anti-living,” Griffin says, pointing out that if you’re not aging, you’re dead. Yet those words are plastered on bottles and boxes all over the beauty aisles. As she sees it, most brands are playing on our fears of growing older rather than promoting a more positive view of aging. Griffin began approaching spa and beauty companies in the hope they would come to view things from her perspective.

A large global brand for whom she had done some consulting work nodded privately at her initiative, but would say nothing publicly.

That’s not surprising. According to data website Statista, the anti-aging market for beauty products is worth over $60 billion a year worldwide. Shama Hyder, CEO of marketing company Zen Media, says nixing the term “anti-aging” is a lofty goal, but it’s not realistic.

“Companies are doing this because that’s what customers want. They are catering to the desire to look youthful. Beauty and youth are synonymous,” says Hyder. She says there is room for brands that reject the anti-aging label. “But for major beauty brands that need market share, they have to cater to the majority, and the majority does not want to look older than they are.”

Recent history has also had an effect on consumers’ habits, according to Andrew Csicsila with management consultancy AlixPartners.

During the pandemic, many of us spent a lot of time on video calls, where our own faces appeared in a little box alongside those of colleagues, all the better for us to scrutinize — and criticize. These calls are now a regular part of life. Csicsila says being on video has helped drive sales of skincare products, including those branded “anti-aging.” He emphasizes that it’s not just women buying them, either.

What’s wrong with a little elimination anyway? asks Patti Pao. Pao is CEO of skincare company Restorsea, which uses the term anti-aging sparingly on its website.

“I like being 63. I’d never want to be 30 again,” says Pao, who regularly appears on social media alongside her 90-year-old mother. But she disagrees with Griffin’s contention that the term anti-aging is itself ageist.

“If this was heart disease, everyone would say ‘you gotta take care of it.’ I don’t know why [people] are up in arms. Anti-aging is about looking your best … Age is a natural thing and it makes us better, more employable, wiser, but you need to take care of everything.”

Aging may be natural, but she doesn’t believe that gaining lines and brown spots is.

“Skin is an organ,” she says. “It’s about keeping your organ in its best shape.”

“I believe in being proactive with regard to my health and wellness in a holistic manner but have no interest in worrying about a few wrinkles or denying my true age,” wrote one correspondent. She continued, “I openly share my age because I want people to know what 73 looks like … trying to look younger than you are is prejudice against your future self.”

This view supports Griffin’s belief that if none of us looks our real age, we simply perpetuate bias against older people.

Another reader was also cynical. “I will continue to age. … it is much more productive for me to learn to live with it, challenge myself to live well as I age, rather than getting sucked into some belief that aging can be slowed, stopped or reversed.”

But there were some who admitted to being enticed.

“Yes, I am drawn to anything anti-aging,” one woman wrote. “I keep fit and maintain an active lifestyle. I color my hair … So if some product or service offers me a chance to deny the natural aging process, I’m interested.”

For her part, Patti Pao says she’s prepared to be proved wrong. “I believe if the term anti-aging is as pejorative as some people think it is, it will disappear,” she says.