I am a member of LinkedIn Advisors, an invitation-only group of global LinkedIn trainers and coaches, to help LinkedIn corporate best manage and maintain its services from the users’ point of view, via surveys they distribute to us every other month.
Today the survey asked me to evaluate two video ads for LinkedIn Ads. Well, indeed I did evaluate them!
I watched an elderly actor speak about how she just doesn’t understand what her grandson does for a living since he sells space in the cloud. She can’t fathom a cloud being a business. Intended to be funny, but it’s not.
Then I watched an actor about my age, or perhaps younger, speak about the acronyms his daughter uses in her usual conversation and how he feels he failed her, should have been home more, so she could speak in complete words. Equally unfunny.
Shame on the ad writers, actors, producers, and approvers.
These perpetuate stereotypes that boomers and the elderly do not understand the current tech world. The gap between the generations is not funny when exploited.
Worse, ageism and prejudice against older workers is silent but keenly felt, and these proposed ads spoke loudly in volumes, certainly not a good reflection on LinkedIn. It should serve all demographics for education and information and not isolate or make comic relief at anyone’s expense, boomers and elders seemingly protrayed as behind the times and under-aware.
Not funny in the least.
My opinion. And I told LinkedIn what I thought in the survey comments. Wouldn’t you have?
A surprise and not a pleasant one. This 68-y.o. says so.