Why nostalgia is winning hearts and minds

Is it illogical that in a hyper-digital era, nostalgia keeps trending? Probably not, because when times are tough, people take solace in the familiar. 

We wrap ourselves up in a comfort blanket of what we know and love. Or obsess about decades that seemed simpler, even if we were too young to have actually lived through them.

When times are tough, people take solace in the familiar. 

For a sign of these contradictory times, let’s look to the recent Super Bowl. Alongside the sport, over 100 million eyeballs tuned-in for the much-loved spots this year and star-studded A-list cameos, tightly-tuned scripts and light humour were served up with hefty, school dinner-sized portions of nostalgia. 

Brands took consumers back to relive seminal movies and TV shows, from John Travolta recreating the iconic Summer Lovin' scene from Grease for T-Mobile, to Alicia Silverstone returning to the role of Cher in Clueless for online shopping site Rakuten, and Breaking Bad stars Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston hitting the desert once again in Frito-Lay’s Pop Corners spot. 

Above: Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston returned to the screen as Jesse and Mr White in a Super Bowl spot for Pop Corners.

For Uber’s membership programme, Uber One, our team at Special US enlisted the skills of multiple-hitmaker Sean 'Diddy' Combs, as he attempted to make a hit song alongside a cast of pop royalty responsible for some of the catchiest tracks in recent history, from Montell Jordan’s This is How We Do It, to Kelis’ Milkshake. It delivered humorous script writing alongside the inescapable joy of a hugely hummable hit song. Nostalgic music is suddenly the cultural zeitgeist. Just look at the Netflix series Stranger Things, which brought Kate Bush’s 80s hit Running Up That Hill back into the mainstream.

The power of timeless storytelling 

What does every great story have at its core to pull you in? Well, it has a challenge for the protagonist and, in the case of Uber, Diddy was tasked with making a hit to keep viewers hooked. And across the board, by leaning into the craft of timeless storytelling, brands dished up joyful entertainment for Super Bowl LVII at a time when the world can seem bleak and complex to navigate, engaging consumers across generations, and at scale. 

Nostalgic music is suddenly the cultural zeitgeist. Just look at the Netflix series Stranger Things, which brought Kate Bush back into the mainstream.

Iconic ads are like a classic film, a novel, or a chart-climbing song; they create enduring entertainment that stands the test of time. But, most importantly, they answer a client’s challenge through a creative idea that can cross channels. Human creativity is at the centre, the bravery to take a risk, and the craft of making great work, to cross any medium. 

Above: Kate Bush's song Running Up That Hill (Deal With God) became a hit in 2022, 37 years after its first release after featuring in Stranger Things. 

Nostalgia’s rise 

Nostalgia has been trending for the last few tumultuous years, reinforcing the concept that people seek comfort when their reality is challenging. TikTokers are obsessed with nostalgia, and hashtags like #throwback #retro and #vintage are finding favour with the digital native Gen Z. The 90s was really the last era before tech took hold of people’s lives, and 90s nostalgia has risen in popularity, seeing the resurgence of the Blackberry, flip phones and cassettes being played and mixed again.  

Perhaps, to move forwards, we have to look back.

But nostalgia is also about the enduring nature of timeless creativity. Pundits predicted the extinction of cinema, paper books and vinyl, but it never happened. Print is proving that it’s not yet dead. Why? Because these artforms are timeless, they’ll never die out, even if they’re reimagined through Web3 or digital. And perhaps, to move forwards, we have to look back.