Paper short abstract:

By exploring the narratives and portrayal of older people in telecom ads, this paper argues that media representation of older people in ads that have hitherto featured only the young, are an evidence of digital leisure and thus new paradigms emerging from the Global South.

Paper long abstract:

Telecom companies in the Global South have been facing stiff competition, such that they have had to devise various customer acquisition strategies: lower price points, data coverage geographically, daily data limit being increased, free SMS, lower rates for phone calls, free access to select streaming platforms. While these offers are advertised towards increasing the number of new enrollments, another strategy of customer acquisition is through advertisements that are targetted to newer audiences. One such demographic is older people (those aged above 60), who are featured in advertisements rolled out by telecom companies. This is a shift from featuring younger people in ads, thus revealing the emergence of older people as consumers and creators of digital cultures. Through discourse analysis, this paper is an analysis of various television commercials (TVCs) by telecom companies. The geographical and cultural scope of this analysis are ads created in India since 2019. This paper thus explores the interlinkages between digital divide and digital leisure (Arora, 2019). By exploring the narratives and portrayal of older people in telecom ads, this paper argues that new forms of agency as exercised by older people can possibly bridge that digital divide, and media representation of older people in ads that have hitherto featured only the young, are also an evidence of digital leisure and thus new paradigms emerging from the Global South.