'It isn’t ageing, it’s ageism’: making ageism more talked about and more difficult to ignore

From the conversations we have with friends and family, to the headlines we read in the media and our experiences at work, ageism is so ingrained that we often don't notice it. But ageism has damaging consequences – it can impact our work, our health and who’s valued. It can make us feel unimportant, or patronised, and can leave us with low self-confidence, feeling isolated and excluded. Over time we can internalise these negative views of ageing, limiting what we believe we’re capable of and the opportunities we pursue. In other words, while getting older can have its challenges, ageism shouldn’t be one of them.

Building on the momentum of our launch year, in 2025 the challenge was to get beyond awareness: we needed to show people the real effects of ageism and the ways they could create change. Our ‘It isn’t ageing, it’s ageism’ mass-advertising campaign spotlighted real experiences of ageism, and called on people to take real action - starting with noticing ageism.

In June, we saw an incredible number of people celebrate Age Without Limits Day with the theme ‘Celebrate ageing, challenge ageism’. Throughout the year, our press coverage and new research highlighted the harms of ageism, and we continued to use our digital channels to create deeper engagement with the issue. We featured a growing number of our supporters’ stories on our channels, and supported our volunteer campaign Champions to take action on ageism in their communities across the country. We also built relationships with people and organisations who wanted to join us in ending ageism, including influencing cultural gatekeepers to change the way ageing and older people are depicted in advertising and the media.

We achieved a lot:

• 31% of adults saw at least one element of our ‘It’s not ageing, it’s ageism’ campaign in the 12 weeks it was live (that’s around 12 million people!).

• 87% of those who saw the campaign in the 12 weeks it was live took action, including talking to friends, family and colleagues about ageism, and thinking more about their own attitudes relating to ageing and older people.

• More than 80 groups and 10,000 people took part nationwide in Age Without Limits Day.

• There were 15,852 downloads from our free, age-positive photo library and we hit a major milestone: over half a million downloads since we launched the library in 2021.

• There were 650 mentions of Age Without Limits in the media.

• We worked to change the way older people are represented in culture and the media - leading to a report from the Advertising Standards Authority, guidelines for advertisers, and our ageism advice being added to the Editors' Codebook and journalism courses.

• Our online audience grew to over 18,500 people.