Ads
I don't watch a lot of TV normally, and when I do, I often get so bored of the toss on my screens that I end up paying more attention to the commercials. And there's been a huge shift recently in how things are advertised; a trend for nostalgia, where it seems like more than half of all advertising now is twenty or more years old.
I think Hovis started it, late last year, with that (admittedly quite good) one of the boy running through a century of UK history. Then Virgin Atlantic had a go, as did Sainsbury's and M&S, in two surprisingly identical-looking campaigns. The 118 people had been dabbling in eighties theme songs for a while now, but this year the media's resurgent obsession with The A Team hit a new low. But not long afterwards, somebody - I think it was NPower first - realised there's no need to shoot all those expensive-looking period scenes, or yank has-been actors out of the Hollywood gutter, when you can just raid the archives and re-edit old material*. And suddenly the shite-gates were open and everybody was doing it; Fairy, Milky Bar and dozens of others.
Earlier today, I spotted this one rear its head again, for the first time in twenty years:
Well, the one I saw today was almost the same as this one. I did spot one critical adjustment for twenty-first century audiences, which was that it no longer says "the sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite" - surely that was the whole point they were trying to convey? The anti-obesity lobby has now CGI'd it out and put in some banal message about "lightening up".
Your guess is as good as mine why all this is happening... but my guess is firmly on the recession. People need reassurance right now, in these uncertain times, so why not give all the grown-ups what they want and allow them to suck their thumbs and pretend they're re-living their childhoods, where everything was okay? I discussed this with Mike S during the week, and he suggested a campaign of Hovis-style feel-good ads, celebrating how British Leyland are as good today as they've ever been. How cool would that be?
I think Hovis started it, late last year, with that (admittedly quite good) one of the boy running through a century of UK history. Then Virgin Atlantic had a go, as did Sainsbury's and M&S, in two surprisingly identical-looking campaigns. The 118 people had been dabbling in eighties theme songs for a while now, but this year the media's resurgent obsession with The A Team hit a new low. But not long afterwards, somebody - I think it was NPower first - realised there's no need to shoot all those expensive-looking period scenes, or yank has-been actors out of the Hollywood gutter, when you can just raid the archives and re-edit old material*. And suddenly the shite-gates were open and everybody was doing it; Fairy, Milky Bar and dozens of others.
Earlier today, I spotted this one rear its head again, for the first time in twenty years:
Click to viewWell, the one I saw today was almost the same as this one. I did spot one critical adjustment for twenty-first century audiences, which was that it no longer says "the sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite" - surely that was the whole point they were trying to convey? The anti-obesity lobby has now CGI'd it out and put in some banal message about "lightening up".
Your guess is as good as mine why all this is happening... but my guess is firmly on the recession. People need reassurance right now, in these uncertain times, so why not give all the grown-ups what they want and allow them to suck their thumbs and pretend they're re-living their childhoods, where everything was okay? I discussed this with Mike S during the week, and he suggested a campaign of Hovis-style feel-good ads, celebrating how British Leyland are as good today as they've ever been. How cool would that be?