Ageism in Birthday Cards: A Mixed-Method Content Analysis

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Ageism is oftentimes sugarcoated within humor. Paper birthday cards are 1 delivery approach in which ageist messages are perpetuated and reinforced through humor. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A convenience sample of birthday cards (k = 227), all indicating a decade of age, were acquired from 7 national retail stores in Colorado Springs, CO. The decades sampled ranged from 21 to 100. With a predeveloped codebook, 3 raters coded the decade birthday cards on various variables, including age group, ageist tone, and humor. RESULTS: Birthday cards intended for age 30-60 contained significantly more ageist messages compared to cards intended for age 21 and age 70-100, which did not show a significant difference from each other. Additionally, birthday cards with humor showed more ageist messages than cards without humor. Characteristics of decade birthday cards were also explored. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Consumers need to learn to evaluate these ageist messages in birthday cards to reduce the perpetuation of damaging stereotypes.

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