Tackling graywashing: what drives it, how to recognize and avoid it by Marilynn Larkin, MA

Shortly after the launch of the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA)’s Changing the Way We Age® Campaign, ICAA CEO Colin Milner was researching his book chapter for the World Economic Forum when he had an “aha” moment. “In our ICAA publications and press releases about the campaign, we had rightly pointed out that Boomers and their parents are finally becoming a market force,” Milner says. “But the downside to that development is that many companies are now jumping on the bandwagon with products that are completely inappropriate for older adults.” With that, he came up with a word—graywashing—to describe the phenomenon.