Aging & Wisdom Quote by Jerry Della Femina

A lot is doing covert work here: it softens the blow while implying scale, like a shrug that still lands as an accusation. Jerry Della Femina, an ad man with a talent for saying the quiet part out loud, is talking about a business model that profits from inertia. The line is almost a punchline, but the target is bleakly specific: older readers whose memory, routines, or energy for administrative friction have started to slip. Not “loyal subscribers,” not “brand devotees,” just people who miss the cancellation window.

The intent is both brag and critique, a boardroom truth framed as streetwise candor. Della Femina’s background matters: advertising has always been about exploiting predictable human behavior, but this is the rare moment when the industry admits it isn’t merely shaping desire, it’s harvesting forgetfulness. The subtext is that “engagement” can be a euphemism for entrapment. If your retention strategy relies on customers aging into confusion, you’re not building a relationship; you’re running a toll booth.

Contextually, it lands in the long shadow of continuity subscriptions, negative-option billing, and today’s “dark patterns” UX: endless phone trees, hidden cancel buttons, “Are you sure?” screens engineered like hostage negotiations. The cruelty is its casualness. The line works because it turns a benign metric - readership - into a moral tell: the audience isn’t just consuming content, they’re being consumed by the system that bills them.