ABSTRACT

This study conducted a bibliometric analysis and topic modeling of 50 academic papers published between 1997 and 2025 on the representation of older adults in Korean commercial advertising. The purpose of the research was to systematically identify the intellectual structure and developmental trajectory of studies on elderly representation in advertising and to propose future research directions. Using bibliographic analysis, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling, and keyword co-occurrence network analysis, the study revealed that Korean research on elderly advertising has evolved through three distinct phases: the Market Exploration Period (1997–2009), the Representation Analysis Period (2010–2019), and the Diversification and Expansion Period (2020–2025). Seven major topics were extracted: advertising representation (18.2%), marketing strategy (16.4%), consumer behavior (15.8%), brand communication (14.6%), active seniors (13.2%), digital marketing (11.5%), and social perception (10.3%). Temporal analysis indicated a paradigm shift from early-stage studies focusing on advertising representation and social perception to recent studies emphasizing active seniors and digital marketing. This study systematically maps the intellectual landscape of elderly representation research in Korean advertising and suggests future directions including digital platform representations, intergenerational perception gaps, and cross-cultural comparative studies. The findings provide valuable implications for developing age-inclusive marketing strategies and addressing ageism in an aging society.