Aspirational Age

Aspirational Age is a concept from advertising and marketing, and refers to an ideal age whose characteristics consumers aspire to embody. Thus, marketing messages aimed at that target age will resonate with consumers of other ages.
It is said that the aspirational age in Western society is 16 or 17, the cusp between childhood and adulthood. In theory, consumers younger than this age aspire to the maturity and freedom it signifies, while those older than it seek to recapture the (real or imagined) youthfulness and freedom from responsibility of this age. Thus, products pitched at notional 16-year-olds will appeal to a broader target market.