So long nostalgia, the future beckons.
“Oh… some one please bring back them good ‘ol days.
The days of innocence, of simpler times, of warm hugs, and true friendships.”
The lure of sweet nostalgia is undeniable.
It’s always easy to blur and edit our memories with a sepia filter of warmth and simplicity, when the present in comparison feels too hard to deal with.
Millennial nostalgia climbed its peak in the pandemic.
We’ve always been a nostalgic generation. (Yes, I’m a millennial too, and equally guilty of starting conversations like..Do you remember scrooge from duck tails?).
But, why us, what makes us pine so much for our past?Two obvious explanations cross my mind. First, compared to newer generations, we are the first generation that saw the world flip completely over the decades — computers, smart phones, the internet. So, the memories of the past are starkly different from the present. Second, compared to the older generations, we’re better adept at using public platforms to whine and reclaim our nostalgic heritage.
And, it’s not surprising to me, that we have a slew of 90s nostalgic properties created by brands, by production houses, sprinkled all over the millennial pop culture. Whether it be Paper Boat’s long running campaign around 90s nostalgia — drinks and memories, or the more recent “Friends Reunion” movie topping the charts.
Somewhere perhaps, this nostalgic heritage appeals to the more darker corners of our hearts as well.
We feel more privileged as a generation to have a rich legacy, and it gives us license to scoff at younger generations insinuating that they lack depth and truer experiences. Our collective artefacts and memories of the time gone by is perhaps a validation for having lived a life. For, it is only in memories, that life has meaning. And, so it is imperative for us to romanticise those ancient mementos.
And, so we feel sentimental about the imperfections of the past. Being far more tolerant to them, and even glamorising them to a certain extent. A permission we might not give while imagining the future.
No points for guessing the pandemic escalated these feelings by a thousand degrees. A term called “Postalgia” was coined by some, around a phenomenon born in the pandemic— longing for the future to be just like the past. A feeling deeply felt in the light of lockdowns, and social distancing measures, where we collectively all over the world longed to be placed back in the “old normal”. I would like you to see one such ad that nailed the term in its essence.
But, folks, here is the thing of the things.
We can’t embrace the future, if we keep longing for the past.
I’m not here to persuade you against holding on to your nostalgia. I am a millennial after all. But, I’m here to help you take notice of another emerging narrative that caught my fancy and to be honest , admiration.
The imagining of the future.
So let’s see the two examples, before I delve into why it’s important.
The Duetsche Telekom’s scifi inspired campaign shares a vision of digital optimism. It paints the picture of a utopian future where its Amazon forest has regrown 90% to its former size, a dodo bird becoming extant once more, AI-designed fashion and an entire city powered by photosynthesis.
Nike’s best day ever imagines the perfect utopian world of sport for the future. Nike imagines with some fun and cheek, that sneakers will grow on trees, and we will run marathons on Mars, but also imagines that a wheelchair tennis legend will debut her first video game, that the world will respect and acknowledge the mental health of athletes, and sport will be declared a human right.
“Because tomorrow could be the best day ever for sport, if we can just imagine it.- Nike”
And, that is just my plea.
We are no strangers to the millions of dystopian fictions that pop up on all of our “Top 10 in India watchlist” on Netflix.
But, what we have lacked in our collective conscious is a good utopia. An imagining of the future that we can be inspired by, that we can strive towards, that we can benchmark as the ideal outcome to our present actions.
A piece that gives us hope and gives us momentum.
As custodians of culture, I speak to my community of advertisers, storytellers, filmmakers, marketers — lets at least begin to imagine what a perfect and idyllic future would look like, what it means for us, given our challenges right now, what do we want to solve for that we can reap fruits of in the future.
You know, instead of staying sappily entangled with the charms of the days of yore?
As an ad woman, I believe I service a profession of selling optimism and positivity. So why not focus on constructive optimism, a narrative of hope, instead of selling some long lost vestiges of a beautiful by-gone past?
