The real picture: The changing image of the Boomers

London – At The Flat Age Society Network Evening, held at The Future Laboratory’s HQ on 4 December, senior journalist Rowland Manthorpe spoke to Guy Merrill, art director of Getty Images, about battling the stereotypes of older people in stock images.

Guy Merrill believes that ‘you can’t be who you can’t see’. In other words, you can’t commission and create images that don’t reflect who people are. And this is equally true of the Baby Boomers. 

According to Merrill, there has been a cultural shift. The stock images of old people as grandparents or taking walks along the beach, found both on Getty and in the public’s imagination, are changing. Merrill cites people working for longer as a big driver behind this.

But he believes that Getty and the other businesses he works with have a responsibility to challenge stereotypes and embrace images that might make them feel uncomfortable. After all, Flat Agers are a powerful consumer group. ‘Baby Boomers are a force to be reckoned with,’ says Merrill. ‘People are realising we need to bring them back into the fold.’

For more on The Flat Age Society, read our macrotrend and find out what else happened at the Network Evening here.