Persuading Senior Adults: The Influence of Endorser Age on Brand Attitudes

Afield experiment was conducted to examine the persuasion effects on senior adults of using different aged sources in print advertisements. The results support a next-younger hypothesis, such that seniors' attitudes toward the brand were higher when endorsed by a middle-aged rather than older or younger source. These effects appeared to be mediated by credibility and ad attitudes. The younger endorser was perceived as less credible than the middle-aged endorser, and ads containing the older endorser were less liked than those with the middle-aged endorser. The implications of these findings for selecting sources for senior audiences are discussed.