Brands tripping down memory lane in a retro revival

The '50s, '60s, '70s and the '80s -- complete with bad hairstyles and hippy fashion -- are back on Indian television screens. And it's all thanks to the advertising industry's quest for arresting and different visuals. Of late, the major source seems to be Bollywood films of yore. While retro elements have been used in an intermittent fashion principally by music channels like MTV and Channel V, it has been embraced in a big way over the last six months or so by large clients like Close Up, Coca-Cola, Kit Kat, Halls and news channel Aaj Tak. The jury is out on why retro sizzles. McCann-Erickson president Santosh Desai believes it is a need that is being fulfilled through many ways and advertising is just one of them: "An idea that people are familiar with and have grown up with, presented in a new idiom." On the other hand, marketing guru and author Seth Godin is dismissive of the trend. "It's laziness, lack of creativity and the opportunistic use of new nostalgia." However, some retro-addicts have very good reasons. In the case of Aaj Tak, it was the lack of time and budgets that fuelled the decision to go in for a black and white film. Apocalypso director Pradeep Sarkar says of the films that are acknowledged to have spearheaded the current interest: "They spoke of corruption and other issues. If they'd been made in a more contemporary way, people wouldn't have accepted them as sportingly." Retro is also considered a useful tool in bridging the generation gap, by exposing a younger audience to something that defined cool for an earlier generation -- particularly useful, say Indian creatives, in categories that have me-toos and no clear USP. They expect the younger target audience to be captivated enough by the creative to take time out to familiarise themselves with the concepts being referred to and satirised. One of the most high-budget and visible ads that flogs retro chic to the hilt is the commercial for Vanilla Coke. Though uncomfortable with the 'retro' label, Prasoon Joshi, national creative director, McCann-Erickson explains, "The idea was to show a laggard in marketing parlance, a person stuck in the past appreciating the product, and the most handy cues to suggest living in a time-warp were costumes from Bollywood." He sees retro as a sign of the times, where the role of a creative director is similar to that of DJs, compiling and presenting the most exciting elements to cater to an audience with a short attention span. Joshi confronts the accusation of creative laziness head on: "I'd rather be considered lazy in this market than distastefully original." However, with an increasing number of clients and agencies cashing in on nostalgia, leading to several cookie-cutter commercials that look like promos for films from the '70s, the danger of overkill looms large. As Jagdeep Bakshi, vice-president and general manager, J. Walter Thompson, puts it, "The trouble with the retro phenomenon is, it can be interesting for some time only, when there's something unexpected in it, but as more and more people do it, that newness is gone." Besides, it is a phenomenon that more evolved markets seem to have done with a while back -- industry folk are unanimous that the trend was best exemplified by Diesel's campaign styled after spaghetti Westerns. Trendspotter Irma Zandll strikes another cautionary note: "Retro could appeal only to an 'indie' demographic -- people who like to do things differently from the mass, and account for a small segment." A more significant trend now appearing, especially in the UK, is old ad lines and concepts getting a new lease of life -- everything from 'Just one Cornetto' to the Smash Martians and the Milky Bar kid seem to be on the comeback trail. In India, one of the only lines to be revisited and updated successfully was 'Hamara Bajaj' for the popular two-wheeler maker. Says Lowe national creative director R Balakrishnan, who brought the line back: "People like to take a break and return to an idea. It came back to a great reception."