Of the total, those in their fifties accounted for 19.4 percent, while the comparable figure for those in their sixties or older stood at 4.8 percent.

South Korea is one of the world’s fastest ageing countries, with concerns being raised about its slowing growth potential and lack of safety net for the elderly. A separate survey by the government showed that economic difficulties and health problems were the biggest concerns for aging South Koreans.

South Korea became an “aging society” in 2000, with 7.3 percent of its population over 65. The country is expected to become an “aged society” by 2018, when more than 14 percent of its people will be 65 or older.

Launched at the end of last year on Facebook and Twitter, the campaign features an app that gives Facebook users a small taste of the effects of Alzheimer’s.

Basically, you sign-in and the app appears to goes through your Facebook and erase stuff, supposedly emulating memory loss.

Interesting but hardly motivating. Read the full case study here. Who are they trying to motivate – and to do what – with this campaign anyway? All a bit of a mystery.

What i learned from this however, is the existence of an Alzheimer’s Disease Association in Singapore.

I’ve often said that relative to men, the greater life expectancy, habitual role and passion for shopping means that in the 50+ market, women will be a critical target for marketers. Yet two-thirds of women 50 years old or older feel “forgotten” by the beauty industry and 70% of them aren’t interested in buying products targeted to younger women. Download the entire report here.

In this research conducted by US agency SCHAWK perhaps most interesting finding was that across age groups, there was more similarity than differences across the factors.

I’ve picked the eyes out of the findings below:

• About three-quarters of Baby Boomer women are motivated to follow their own personal motivations and to be fulfilled.
• More than 50% of them are motivated to work, and 70% of them are motivated to have financial independence.
• Almost 25% are working outside the home and almost 60% of working Boomers women believe they’ll continue working into their retirement years.
• The majority believe they’ll work part-time for added income, while others will work for personal interest
  or enjoyment.
• 35% of all Boomers have been divorced, with this group making up the majority of American divorcees.
• 60% of Baby Boomer women were motivated to be in a relationship, representing the biggest gap between expectations and motivations across the age groups.
• Older users frequent online dating sites more than other age groups to find a mate. comScore reported that users of online dating sites who
• Almost 60% of them feel expected to be attractive and feminine.

Ignore the power of 50+ women at your peril.

While the report doesn’t break out the age groups (what a bummer!), we know that attention to nutrition, obesity and it’s attendant diseases are of critical importance to older people.

The report also reveals the stunning fact that more than half the surveyed consumers globally, consider themselves overweight and Asians seem more inclined than others (74%) to exercise as a means to manage their weight.

Both globally and within the region, food label confusion is highest in the Chinese-speaking world and other Southeast Asian markets. Just around one-fifth of consumers in Taiwan and Hong Kong (20% and 21%, respectively) and one-quarter of
respondents from China and South Korea (25% each) indicate they mostly understand the nutritional labeling.

However, among Asia Pacific markets, reported understanding of food labels is much higher in India, Australia, and New Zealand,
where over half of consumers say they mostly understand nutritional data—among the highest reported levels in the study.

Clearly there’s a job to be done in educating Asian consumers about the nutritional facts as well as the marketers who need to do a better job to make their labeling more age-friendly.

Gross replacement rates, showing pension benefit as a share of individual lifetime average earnings, also vary greatly across Asia/Pacific, from 12.7% in Singapore to 80.9% in the Philippines. Those in South Asia tend, on average, to have higher rates at 65% for India and 69% for Pakistan, with Sri Lanka being lower at 49%. In South East Asia both Malaysia and Hong Kong are around 30% whilst China is at 77.9% for average earners. The OECD average is 57%.

Prison is difficult enough to adjust to, imagine being frail, with mobility, hearing, or vision impairments, ore suffering chronic, disabling, and terminal illnesses, or diminishing cognitive capacity.

Here’s a blog I wrote some time ago about the similar problem in Japan’s prisons.

Programmes include talk shows like “Making Medicare Work for You,” documentaries such as “To Not Fade Away” about the early stages ofAlzheimer’s disease and, on a lighter note, reality shows including “Another Chance for Romance” and “Sunset Daze,” best described as a“Jersey Shore” for adventurous senior citizens in Surprise, Ariz.

It will be very interesting to see if boomers watch and advertisers follow.