I read this week that an ad agency in Australia called “Thinkerbell” is addressing the age issue in agencies–that is, that people over age 50 rarely work in agencies. I couldn’t find any specific statistics, but I did read an Ad Age article that indicated it was ‘rare’ to see someone over the age of 45 in an agency. The article also said that people rarely retire from an ad agency as instead they are ‘squeezed out.’ I’ve read a lot that ‘blames’ the rise of digital advertising, indicating that people of a certain age don’t ‘get’ digital. That might be true, but I think advertising has always had an age problem (I left the agency business when I was 35, and I felt very, very old when I did).
Now Thinkerbell is starting an internship program for people age 55 and older. The article I read indicated that the agency thinks there are a lot of people who could contribute to the agency with their past (non-advertising) skills. I think it is a great idea, but I wonder how many people my age would be interested in being an ‘intern’. I wish they had given this a better name, because I think the label of intern disrespects the life experience someone over 55 brings to the workplace.
We will revisit how this works as we learn more.