In 2014 I became preoccupied with the idea of successful ageing and cognate concepts such as positive, productive, active and healthy ageing. It seemed to me that these concepts shared something – a family resemblance, if you like. I found myself wondering: what do these concepts that seek to encapsulate ‘ageing well’ have in common? I had of course come across these concepts before then, many times, but perhaps there was something about another birthday bringing me a little closer to ‘old’ that set off a keener interest in the concepts. I was also aware that yet another ‘Centre for Successful Ageing’ was about to be opened in a local hospital, and I started to marvel at the longevity and prevalence of this concept that had always struck me as bordering on marketing lingo.

A Web of Science search, using the key words ‘successful’ and ‘ageing’ (or the US spelling ‘aging’) resulted in staggering 2,743,785 hits, despite the search's being limited to recent publications. It is evident that in addition to policy makers and salespeople who promote successful and active ageing as a way to achieve their aims (reforming old-age policy, selling stuff to older people), academics and researchers have generated a huge corpus of work around these concepts. There are also many academic works that challenge the concepts of successful and active ageing; yet the literature lacks a comprehensive, theory-oriented critique of these ubiquitous concepts. Perhaps this is not surprising in view of the fact that people who conduct research on ageing are one of the vested interests that drive the use of these concepts.

There is one book in particular that made me quite determined to marshal a comprehensive critique of successful ageing, active ageing, and related concepts. The book is entitled Winning Strategies for Successful Ageing (Pfeiffer, 2013). I found this book so astonishing that I felt I had no choice but to take to task the concepts that incorporate ‘models’ (noun) of ageing – and those who ‘model’ (verb) ageing in the sense of presenting ideas and ideals of how to age well – hence my term ‘model ageing’. The following are selected highlights from Pfeiffer's manifold exhortations and advice for older adults who want to age successfully.