Week 5: Super Bowl Ads and the Yearning for Yesteryear

Nostalgia is a powerful tool. Seniors miss their youth, youths miss the golden glow of childhood, the painful slow existence of the now melting into the warm embrace of memory. A couple of weeks ago, one of my colleagues wrote about Swiffer bringing back an old star from their commercials. Recently, the New York Times released a short piece on Super Bowl Ads featuring "Comeback Kids" like Lindsay Lohan and Jim Carrey. Most of these are from the early 2000s, widely regarded as the peak of media - but how much of that is influenced by the memories of the thrill of a new millenium? How much is influenced by the way American culture shrinkwrapped itself to nationalism post-9/11, itself an exploration of nostalgia for a supposed time of peace? 

As the ardent nationalism of the 2000's fades into the more overt fascism of the 2020's, people are beginning to be more cognizant and critical of institutions, and brands begin to face new identities foisted upon them as faceless entities instead of friendly brands - which, do not misinterpret me, I agree with. Companies must be seen as the faceless corporations they are lest they continue to exploit their workers - advertisers seem to be shepherding us into remembering the "good old days" in order to win back our favor and to sell to us. 

In a telling sentence of how corporations view the consumers of today, E-Trade's ad featured "the E-Trade baby [...] returned to save consumers who, god forbid, have been taking financial advice from memes." The disgust for the consumer is palpable from E-Trade. While there are some who have their trust taken advantage of by people purportedly giving out "financial advice" via flashy memes, most people are not taking serious advice from them. There is no real effort to connect to consumers anymore, and there is a certain paternalism from these ads that, after the past two years of companies being exposed, certainly feels like them trying to desperately reclaim the adoration and acceptance they held for so long. 

I do think that we will see many advertisers try to loop us back into their fold by reminding us with people and mascots that we have deemed as a part of past media. Nostalgia has been notoriously hard to define as a force, but that isn't going to stop advertisers from using it as a flanking maneuver to win back good favor.