Olsen, Dennis (2026) Curating age: automation, embodiment, and the design of experience in UK television advertising. M/C Journal, 29 (4). ISSN 1441-2616

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Abstract

This article examines how ageing is constructed as a mediated experience in contemporary UK television advertising. Drawing on theories of experience design, affective design and media automation, it argues that advertising increasingly organises later life through emotionally calibrated forms designed for recognition, engagement and circulation. Rather than treating experience as a subjective response, the article understands it as something actively produced through narrative, visual and affective design within data-driven advertising environments.

Using qualitative textual analysis, the article examines three UK campaigns: Age UK’s If Only You Knew (2023), TENA’s #LastLonelyMenopause (2022) and Age Co’s Feel Good (2024). Across these case studies, it identifies three recurring affective templates: rupture, mirroring and resolution. Ageing becomes legible through moments of crisis, familiar emotional analogies and narratives of consumer-driven fulfilment. These strategies prioritise immediacy, coherence and emotional clarity, while limiting representations of ambiguity, contradiction and ongoing change.

The article argues that such patterns reflect broader shifts in advertising shaped by automation and optimisation. Emotional responses are increasingly anticipated, standardised and embedded within production systems that reward efficiency and recognisability. As a result, ageing is not simply represented but curated through a restricted set of affective forms. Contemporary advertising therefore participates in shaping how later life is publicly understood and felt, as well as how it is visually recognised.

Item Type:	Article
Identifier:	10.5204/mcj.3189
Subjects:	Media > New media and new media theory Film and television > Television
Date Deposited:	18 Aug 2026
Dates:	Date Publication status 14 July 2026 Accepted 12 August 2026 Published
School, department or research centre:	London School of Film, Media and Design
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/15276
Sustainable Development Goals:	Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being	Sustainable Development Goals:	Goal 5: Gender Equality	Sustainable Development Goals:	Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

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