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The promise of living forever has become, in recent years, the trend of well-being and marketing. But deceive death (or at least add it) will have a price…
What was previously mastery of science (and, at the limit, of the super rich) is becoming increasingly a consumer product.
Those who promote this idea, led by the “Don’t Die” movement of the Billionaire Billionaire Bryan Johnson, believe that the death It is not inevitable, but a Solution Problem.
Second Amy Errmannthe global longevity market (which covers genetic therapies, anti-aging drugs, diagnostics and welfare plans) is expected to reach $ 610 billion this year.
In an article at, the marketing teacher at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) explains that the marketing of these products feeds on ancestral fear of mortality and the desire to be young forever.
The expert goes further and states that the promise of postponing death has become a Marketing Gold Mine.
Immortality is being sold as exclusiveaspirational and symbolic. It is not just about living more time-it is about signaling status, controlling biology and becoming in its “best future version”.
Exploring old fears
What is known as “theory of terror management” defends the idea that humans and other animals have an instinctive impulse of self -preservation. But humans are not just self -conscious – they can also anticipate future results – including the inevitability of death.
The message behind the impulse to prolong life takes advantage of this internal tension between the knowledge of our own mortality and the instinct of self -preservation. But it is not a new phenomenon.
A Crionic – The preservation of bodies and brains at extremely low temperatures hoping that medical advances will allow their resuscitation at some point in the future – was first popular in the 1962 Robert Ettinger book, The Prospect of Immortality.
Since then, super rich have invested in several companies that promise to preserve their bodies to an unknown future date. Currently, it costs $ 200,000 to freeze the body, or 80,000 only the brain.
What is truly new is the way death is now being marketed – Not as a destination, but how it fails. Longevity is not limited to living more time; It is about transforming mortality into a design problem-something to be delayed, managing and eventually solving.
The “CEOs” of one’s own health
O “Biohacking” It sells the idea that with the certain data, tools and disciplines, one can improve its own biology-and become in its best version, “Future proof”.
Brands behind the movement of living forever sell control, optimization and an elite identity. Aging becomes a personal failure. “Anti-aging is self-discipline”.
Consumers are portrayed as “CEO of your own health” – Monitoring sleep, correcting the gut and taking supplements.
Do biohacking to the branding
There are currently over 700 companies working in the longevity market. Startups such as Elysium Health and Human Longevity Inc. offer Personalized DNA tests, supplements and health plans.
Estes They are not medical treatments – They are sold as tools to aging “smarter” or “slower”, and are promoted with the language of control over what could once seem uncontrollable.
Bryan Johnson, from “Don’t Die”, spends more than $ 2 million a year on his personal anti-aging experience.
But the true argument is addressed to consumers: buy back the time, a subscription premium at a time. Johnson’s company, Blueprint, offers diagnostics, supplements and exercise routines grouped in monthly plans that start at $ 333 and exceed $ 1,600.
Longevity products promise more than health. They promise time, control and even immortality. But the search to live forever – or at least much more time – raises moral and ethical issues about who benefitsand what kind of world is being created.
Without careful supervision, these technologies risk becoming exclusion tools, not progress. “Because if time becomes a product, not everyone can go through the same payment counter,” concludes Amy Errmann.
