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Every now and then, someone posts a grainy ad from the 90s with great adulation. They arouse nostalgic feelings and everyone starts talking about the good old days when ads were so much better and more memorable. I think it could be because of these two reasons;

The Media Landscape; Then vs Now.

We’ve come from a non-24 hour one-tv station era with a very predictable program line-up. Our only screen time was the time behind the furniture of a TV set. We shared it with all the adults so the opportunity to watch those rainbow streaks as the TV station got ready to transmit was by itself exciting.

We were very patient; if the picture was blurry or wavy, we’d patiently tune the knob till it was a little clearer. Even when it wasn’t picture perfect, we didn’t complain; it was either GTV or no TV. The content-ad ratios too were great so there weren’t that many ads clamouring for attention. After months of watching them on TV, it became quite easy to memorize. Those ads carried the spirit of a slower-paced era. They carry the spirit of a childhood we fondly remember. They are the evidence that we belong to a particular club, group of people who share an era in common, they give is a sweet sense of belonging.

Those ads carried the spirit of a slower-paced era. They carry the spirit of a childhood we fondly remember.

Here’s one of my favorites!

Now…(sigh), now we are compared to goldfish because of our diminishing attention span. The best ads are competing with hit Youtube videos, funny homemade videos by our friends, perfectly filtered IG photos and even PornHub. These days, an ad competes with peoples best experiences online!

TV has changed and GTV struggles to catch up. There are more digital channels with a more eclectic program line-up. The best radio stations are quickly erasing the boundaries between radio/TV/Online, offering a close to seamless content experience. Those who are better off are also being smitten by the no-ad world of TV on demand, thanks to Netflix and her ilk. So it’s pretty hard for your ad to be non-intrusive and viewed enough times to register on the emotional Richter scale.

In summary; could it be that we love classic ads because it was easier to love them and also because they carry the spirit of our childhood?

The Evolution of Storytelling

Could it also be that the way #adverts were crafted back then was more relatable and true to who we were as a people? Was the craft purer then than it is now? You can’t deny that with the coming of the internet, the world feeling smaller with content traveling fluidly across borders, arrival of more international ad agencies and businesses as well as regionalization of some businesses, some significant communication culture infiltration must have taken place.

I mean this is a country where our biggest music genre is from Jamaica. Our most celebrated accents are English and American. Our aspirational fashion and movie choices are all imported, surely advertising isn’t immune. Perhaps we are communicating in a less authentic way than how we used to in the past, so when we see ads from an unpretentious era, it connects with who we really are deep within.

These two reasons explain our reverence for classic ads. Although – I must confess- of the two, I’m not sure which is the stronger reason. What do you think?

PS: Originally written in July 2020 @ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-classic-ads-so-loved-benjamin-anyan/

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