The Problem With Feel-Good Holiday Advertising
It Isn't Always the Win We Think It Is
Every holiday season, brands reach for the same emotional lever: nostalgia dressed up with twinkling lights, a heart-tugging soundtrack and an intergenerational hug at the end. Trending again this year is Amazon’s widely shared “Sledding Grannies” spot featuring older women joyfully reliving childhood thrills. It checks every box. It’s sweet, warm, and pulls at your heartstrings. But it also reveals a deeper problem with how the industry uses older adults as props rather than people.
The issue isn’t that the ad is mean-spirited. It’s the opposite. It’s too sentimental, too easy, too willing to treat aging as a cute narrative twist rather than the empowered, purpose-filled stage of life that it is. Holiday advertising has become a place where older characters exist mostly to make younger viewers feel something: caring, tenderness, and a Hallmark-approved ache. And while that may drive shares, it rarely drives a more meaningful cultural shift in how we portray aging.
In Amazon’s spot, the grannies are incredibly charming. They’re designed to be. But they’re also essentially the grannies of Christmas past. They don’t articulate agency, ambition, or progress. True, they sled down a hill with the help of cushy new online purchases. But the viewer’s takeaway isn’t about the power or potential of older people. It’s about how heartwarming it is to see “old folks” relive their youth.
This dynamic reinforces a familiar creative crutch: the notion that older adults are only compelling when they’re doing something surprising for their age. If they’re active, adventurous or joyful, it’s presented as an anomaly. “Look!” the spot seems to say. “Grandmas who still have spirit!” The subtext, whether intended or not, is that vibrancy in later life is the exception, not the norm.
At a time when people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s are starting companies, shaping culture, controlling 70% of the nation’s disposable income, and living decades past traditional retirement, it’s remarkable how limited our on-screen narratives still are. Instead of reflecting the diversity of older adulthood filled with intellect, humor, sexuality, complexity, and ambition, we often reduce it to a soft-focus trope designed to trigger emotion without challenging assumptions.
Grace Creative is a leading advertising agency redefining marketing to consumers 50+.