{"id":14974,"date":"2025-06-24T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=14974"},"modified":"2025-06-13T16:33:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T16:33:53","slug":"immortality-longevity-market-anti-ageing-biohacking-wellness-consumerism-elite-health-trend-june-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/immortality-longevity-market-anti-ageing-biohacking-wellness-consumerism-elite-health-trend-june-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Immortality at a price: how the promise of delaying death has become a consumer marketing\u00a0bonanza"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n\n Amy Errmann<\/a>, Auckland University of Technology<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

Living forever has become the wellness and marketing trend of the 2020s. But cheating death \u2013 or at least delaying it \u2013 will come at a price.<\/p>\n\n

What was once the domain of scientists<\/a> and the uber rich<\/a> is increasingly becoming a consumer product. Those pushing the idea, spearheaded by tech billionaire Bryan Johnson\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Die<\/a>\u201d movement, believe death isn\u2019t inevitable, but is a solvable problem.<\/p>\n\n

The global longevity market \u2013 spanning gene therapies<\/a>, anti-ageing drugs<\/a>, diagnostics<\/a> and wellness plans<\/a> \u2013 is projected to hit US$610 billion<\/a> this year. At its core, the marketing of these products feeds off the age-old fear of mortality<\/a> and the desire to stay young<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

But while the marketing is reaching the masses, this is still very much a luxury product. Immortality is being sold as exclusive, aspirational and symbolic<\/a>. It\u2019s not just about living longer \u2013 it\u2019s about signalling<\/a> status, controlling biology and being your \u201cbest future self\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

Tapping into long-held fears<\/h2>\n\n

What\u2019s known as \u201cterror management theory<\/a>\u201d puts forward the idea that humans and other animals have an instinctive drive for self-preservation. But humans are not only self-aware, they are also able to anticipate future outcomes \u2013 including the inevitability of death. <\/p>\n\n

The messaging behind the push to extend life taps into this internal tension between knowledge of our own mortality and the self-preservation instinct. And to be fair, it is not a new phenomenon. <\/p>\n\n

Cryonics \u2013 the preservation of bodies and brains at extremely low temperatures with the hope medical advancements will allow for their revival at some point in the future \u2013 was first popularised in Robert Ettinger\u2019s 1962 book The Prospect of Immortality<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Since then, the super-rich have invested in various companies<\/a> promising to preserve their bodies for some unknown future date. It now costs US$200,000 to freeze your body, or $80,000 for just your brain<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

What\u2019s truly new is how death is being marketed \u2013 not as fate, but as a flaw. Longevity isn\u2019t just about living longer; it\u2019s about turning mortality into a design problem, something to delay, manage and eventually solve. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cBiohacking\u201d sells the idea that with the right data, tools and discipline, you can upgrade your biology \u2013 and become your best, most future-proof self<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This pitch targets high-income consumers<\/a> aged 30 to 60, people already fluent in the language of optimisation<\/a> \u2013 a mindset focused on maximising performance, productivity and longevity through data.<\/p>\n\n

The brands behind the living forever movement sell control, optimisation and elite identity. Ageing becomes a personal failure. Anti-ageing is self-discipline. Consumers are cast as CEOs of their own health \u2013 tracking sleep, fixing their gut and taking supplements.<\/p>\n\n

From biohacks to consumer branding<\/h2>\n\n

There are now more than 700 companies working in the longevity market<\/a>. Startups such as Elysium Health<\/a> and Human Longevity Inc.<\/a> offer DNA testing, supplements and personalised health plans. <\/p>\n\n

These aren\u2019t medical treatments \u2013 they\u2019re sold as tools to age \u201csmarter\u201d or \u201cslower\u201d<\/a> and are pitched with the language of control<\/a> over what once might have seemed uncontrollable.<\/p>\n\n

Don\u2019t Die\u2019s Bryan Johnson spends over US$2 million annually<\/a> on his personal anti-ageing experiment. <\/p>\n\n

But the real pitch is to consumers: buy back time, one premium subscription at a time. Johnson\u2019s company Blueprint<\/a> offers diagnostics, supplements and exercise routines bundled into monthly plans<\/a> starting at $333 and climbing to over $1,600.<\/p>\n\n

Longevity products promise more than health. They promise time, control and even immortality. But the quest to live forever, or at least a lot longer, raises moral and ethical questions about who benefits, and what kind of world is being created. <\/p>\n\n

Without thoughtful oversight, these technologies risk becoming tools of exclusion, not progress. Because if time becomes a product, not everyone will get to check out at the same counter.\"The<\/p>\n\n

Amy Errmann<\/a>, Senior Lecturer, Marketing & International Business, Auckland University of Technology<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amy Errmann, Auckland University of Technology Living forever has become the wellness and marketing trend of the 2020s.…\n","protected":false},"author":1251,"featured_media":14976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/5\/5e\/Silhouette_of_female_face.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[13001,12977,12984,12965,12985,12973,12975,12989,12991,12964,13000,12971,12967,12979,12987,12992,12986,12978,12994,12969,12966,12981,12963,12990,12982,12996,12968,12962,12995,12970,12983,12993,12997,12974,12980,12972,12998,12999,12988,12976],"class_list":["post-14974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-and-body","tag-ageing-and-personal-failure","tag-ageing-as-design-flaw","tag-anti-ageing-ethical-concerns","tag-anti-ageing-industry","tag-anti-ageing-supplements","tag-anti-ageing-wellness-plans","tag-biohacking-movement","tag-biological-self-discipline","tag-blueprint-health-program","tag-bryan-johnson-dont-die","tag-ceo-of-your-own-health","tag-cryonics-industry-cost","tag-elite-health-branding","tag-elysium-health-startup","tag-exclusive-immortality-branding","tag-future-proofing-your-body","tag-health-data-biohacking","tag-health-optimisation-mindset","tag-human-longevity-inc","tag-human-optimisation-culture","tag-immortality-consumer-product","tag-immortality-marketing-strategies","tag-living-forever-trend","tag-longevity-and-consumerism","tag-longevity-and-social-inequality","tag-longevity-as-control","tag-longevity-gene-therapies","tag-longevity-market-growth","tag-longevity-startups-2020s","tag-luxury-longevity-products","tag-luxury-wellness-products","tag-marketing-death-as-flaw","tag-moral-questions-of-living-longer","tag-personal-anti-ageing-plans","tag-personalised-longevity-plans","tag-prospect-of-immortality-book","tag-self-tracking-health-trend","tag-subscription-based-health-products","tag-tech-billionaires-anti-ageing","tag-wellness-as-status-symbol","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t