Staff Reporter, Tech Times

Not every day that grandparents become social media influencers. Perhaps there are ads, and television commercials that feature the older individuals, but they are mostly for the products consumed by their age group.

Reef Chang, the grandson of two elderly, 83 and 84 years old, decided to put up his grandparents Chang Wan-ji and Hsu Hsiu-e over at Instagram to represent their laundry shop's brand. Not bad, the Instagram posts are gaining followers and likes even until today.

This deviates from the usual trend wherein younger models and beauty image models are those who are in-demand to represent these brands. Very rarely, consumers find the elderly in young-looking and stylish fashion, representing businesses or products unless they are products within their age group -- maintenance meds.

Instagram sensation

The Instagram account is named @wantshowasyoung, which now has more than 50,000 followers. It featured the elderly couple wearing fashionable outfits and posting in front of laundry washing machines.

These are also featured on the Facebook page The Idea King.

"Living their best life in their 80s!! Now THAT'S #couplegoals," said one commenter on social media.

PR firm Publicity Asia Worldwide, which has handled celebrities and other brands in Southeast Asia and neighboring countries, believes that celebrities are among the most effective representatives of brands.

It seems that Reef Chang, the grandson whom the idea came from, chooses a different path. He appears to be placing human interest in his story so that he decided to take photographs of his grandparents wearing the clothes washed from the laundry shop.

"Their business is not always busy. They would doze off in the shop, and their spirits weren't high. So I thought since our family has these clothes, I can remind people to pick up their clothes, and remind my grandparents their life can still be great even in old age," Change said in the BBC report.

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Out of boredom

They mixed and matched the outfits, edited the images to enhance, and posted these on social media. The followers and the likes came in as a surprise.

He said they just wanted to break the ice and beat boredom in their community in Houli, Taiwan.

He consulted with his friends to find good matching clothes, from blouses, shorts, skirts, and shirts. They also accessorized these with hats, purses, and glasses.

The Cuban-inspired photographers reminded of the vintage life of the 1980s, the report added.

"Dress like that, I feel 30 years younger," one of the grandparents Wan-ji said.

Wan-ji also started out as a laundry professional when he was 14 years old, as the BBC indicated.

"In the past, clothes were very expensive," he narrated. "When I got married, it cost an ox-cart loaded with 20 bags of rice to pay for my suit. And back then, clothes were so valuable that you could take them to the pawnshop if you needed money."

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Tags: social media influencer grandparents laundry shop grandson
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