We often look back to the past, to our own pasts and childhoods specifically, to reminisce on those good old days and to attempt to dispel anxiety about our future.
Do you have a tendency towards nostalgia? To us, it’s a powerful feeling but, in the past, it was actually considered to be an illness you suffered from. The Psychiatrist Alan R. Hirsch in his report entitled Nostalgia: A Neuropyschiatric Understanding, wrote that nostalgia is “a longing for a sanitised impression of the past…a combination of many different memories, all integrated together.”
Nostalgia seems to be felt acutely in today’s world. Trump won the Presidential election with a campaign to Make America Great Again, a slogan that looks to the past rather than the future. This feeling appears to come as a consequence of a combination of a latent fear of where technology will take us, of whether social media is ruining our social skills and of where we will live when we no longer have a viable planet.
We often look back to the past, to our own pasts and childhoods specifically, to reminisce on those good old days and to attempt to dispel anxiety about our future.
Because when you look at the world through a child’s eyes, it suddenly becomes shinier, happier and less complex. We can take comfort from these nostalgic tendencies, comfort from our childhoods which we reflect on through rose-tinted spectacles.
Many brands have decided to cast younger generations in starring roles in their ads, letting them relay the power of the brand in their own words or at least through their lens. By conveying a brand message through the voices and eyes of young children, you can align it with the feeling of excitement and wonder through which a child experiences the world.
Hearing a brand’s message told through the eyes of a child conjures up a feeling of nostalgia in adult viewers, quite often the brands’ principle consumer. These campaigns remind us what it is to be young, and surely that can only ever be a good thing.
We can all remember that moment before school, when we were so desperately trying to watch/read/play with that thing we really, really can’t possibly put down. But then your mum announces you’re going to be late and hurries you out of the door.
This sense of escalating excitement is captured by AMV BBDO in their latest campaign for BT Sport, Take Them All On. The slot stars a young schoolgirl, Charlotte, tearing around her neighbourhood as she takes on various sporting stars.
"Our hero Charlotte...[brings] to life how immersed we get in our favourite sport, no matter what age" - Dan Ramsay, Director of Marketing, BT Consumer.
From nutmegging Dele Alli, the star of BT’s previous campaign, to acing a smash past Johanna Konta and tackling Sam Warburton, Charlotte demonstrates her love of sport, and her unquestionable skill.
The campaign subtly changes the narrative around and the passion felt for sport, moving away from the stereotype of a sport-watching man. Instead we feel Charlotte’s palpable and infectious youthful love for games that carries her past boys bigger than her on the street, straight past angry teachers and even dodging around her brother in the garden.
As a viewer, we run alongside Charlotte through the neighbourhood, and feel a sense of joyous relief when she finally rushes in to watch the evening’s match with her dad.
By featuring a child as the star, alongside some of sport’s super stars, the brand demonstrates its commitment to conveying the universality of sport, bringing the games into the everyday moments in a child and family’s life.
With a soundtrack of a nineties classic, Elastica’s Connection, the video kicks off the Premier League's 2018/19 season. The campaign launches on TV and will then be supported through online, radio, print, outdoor, cinema and social media.
Agency: AMV BBDO, London
Even now, as a world-defined adult, we can still feel that excitement as we wake each summer morning to bright blue skies. Sadly for many of us we then move from tube to office and back again. But for Boots’ summer campaign, Ogilvy UK set out to persuade us to Summer Like You’re 7. The video follows the summer through the eyes of seven-year-old Livvie as she breaks up from school, plays in the garden and jets off on holiday. The idea was born out of the insight that children experience summer with an enthusiasm and curiosity that is to a certain degree lost in adults. The insight also revealed that reminiscing about our childhood view of summer can lift our mood.
For Land Rover's 70th, Spark44 created an anniversary campaign to celebrate the youth, rebellion and diversity of the brand. And who better to show that off than children? The campaign video sees children from around the world – street-cast from Bulgaria to Nepal - celebrating what it means to be young, from climbing things to asking questions and always maintaining your curiosity. We don’t see a single car for the entire ad. Rather the children capture the brand’s adventurous spirit and instead of longing for the past, look forward to what the future may hold.
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