BY Armin

Making Retirement Cool

I am by no means looking into retirement yet, but it’s never too early to start thinking about it. At least that’s what the 49-year-old AARP — don’t call it American Association of Retired Persons— is hoping for. AARP, in their words, is “dedicated to enhancing quality of life for all as we age” by “[leading] positive social change and delivering value to members through information, advocacy and service.” To be honest, I’m not quite sure I fully get what they do, but over 35 million people (who are members) do and, if Baby Boomers do plan on retiring at some point, AARP is guessing another 35 million people will too by 2015.

In a push to position themselves appropriately AARP launched a TV ad in the last month featuring the soothing punk sounds of the Buzzcocks and multiple vignettes of people in retirement, people not thinking about retirement, people not even knowing what retirement is, but all having fun fun fun. It works. Despite its multiple bullet-point, why-choose-just-put-all-of-it pitch at the end: “Health. Finances. Connecting. Giving. Enjoying.” The ad is emotive — in that TV commercial sort of way — and gives AARP an attitude and personality. To further enhance the effectiveness and memorability of this ad, and those to come, AARP is working with DMI Music Branding Group to make sure those tunes are catchy. And on brand.

Speaking of brand… the last thing I am mentioning is the new identity, designed by Siegel & Gale. Not nearly as adventurous or risky as the TV advertising, the logo is, in contrast, staid and institutional. A slight disconnect, but nothing of grave concern. I imagine that maintaining the flag motif was a must and, while I’m not a fan of the final result, using the A as the point from where the flag waves was a good solution that simplifies the logo and reduces it to a single unit. Working with uppercase As is always hard, because they create a lot of open space at the top and this logo, with its heavy ligaturization, addresses this problem as best as possible, with a nice and even balance of white space to the heavy letterforms.

AARP is poised to become a cool brand with its TV advertising — targeting a younger audience — and still command trust and dignity through its more mature identity — convincing the older audience, ready to sign up. A tough balance to strike.

And, no, I’m still not thinking about retirement. Buzzcocks or not.

\n\nI am by no means looking into retirement yet, but it's never too early to start thinking about it. At least that's what the 49-year-old AARP — don't call it American Association of Retired Persons— is hoping for. AARP, in their words, is \"dedicated to enhancing quality of life for all as we age\" by \"[leading] positive social change and delivering value to members through information, advocacy and service.\" To be honest, I'm not quite sure I fully get what they do, but over 35 million people (who are members) do and, if Baby Boomers do plan on retiring at some point, AARP is guessing another 35 million people will too by 2015.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners