Blue Remembered Hills

"...What are those blue remembered hills, what spires, what farms are those? That is the Land of Lost Content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went, And cannot come again...." As a financial crisis digs in, we tend to head for that very comfort zone of blue remembered hills, with a growing desire for all things past; a nostalgic, and halcyon bygone era where things were simple and trustworthy. This current financial crisis is no different and shows us staying true to form, yearning for all things retro. I'm sure Faith Popcorn, who nailed the cocooning trend would not disagree. It's best illustrated by the current crop of commercial advertising. McDonalds in the US has just pitched in with an evocative, high on feel good and 1970's warm glow ingredients; Pepsico is reintroducing a variation of Pepsi with natural sugar and retro design and we see it in France with Bonne Maman's nostalgic tv ads and iconic packaging; although arguably, they're not jumping on the bandwagon as they've been doing it for years, just like Hovis in the UK. The current obsession with Mad Men, the tv series centred round the advertising MEN from New York's MADison Avenue, set in the sixties is another great example and a great piece of television. However isn't all of this is really just bringing a few consumer trends together? Herein lies the rub. In the race for discovering one's roots, be careful not to devalue your brand. Those slapping on a few sepia tinted shots and smiling grandmas beware, this is not a long term trend. What underpins this current wave of nostalgia is a deeper consumer trend, the search for authenticity. The rise of YouTube and ubiquitous cable tv means that we never leave our music or adolescent tv zone. Thunderbirds is playing somewhere in the world (I wish - God bless Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and Blue Peter for showing us how to build our own Tracy Island). The opening lines came from A. E Houseman, a great poet.