The Super Bowl’s ad line up proved nostalgia doesn’t have to make us cringe
If one thing was made clear from this year’s Super Bowl ad line up, it’s that nostalgic advertising is having a moment. Sixteen Corners’ Mike Cardillo considers who nailed it – and who didn’t.
Ah, nostalgia. The memory-seared taste of Sunny Boys, the smell of soggy chips freshly unwrapped from presumably unhygienic newspaper, the sound of spokey dokes clattering on your BMX. Yes, things really were better/simpler/easier then, right?
Nostalgia has become the prevailing brand tactic of the present day. Our movie theatres are subservient to it, our Netflix queues are clogged with it, and now our ad breaks are selling it.
Monday’s Super Bowl LII made one of the most compelling cases for nostalgia being so ‘now’. Ad break after ad break harkened back to the halcyon days of when we could ogle Cindy Crawford without thinking about #metoo, drink Coke without worrying about sugar, and listen to Aerosmith without being deeply embarrassed.
