A few companies have turned to nostalgia, as if hoping to hit delete on 2020. Aldi makes reference to decades-old movies like “E.T.” and “Home Alone” in a seasonal marketing campaign, and a Gucci commercial shows a holiday party set during the 1990s.
Hershey produced an altered version of its popular holiday ad, which since 1989 had featured a ting-a-ling bell choir of Hershey’s Kisses. The changes it made to the commercial — like the addition of actors — drew the ire of fans who are seemingly weary of the many disruptions to their lives. The company quickly promised to continue airing the ad in its original version.
At time of high unemployment, Target has put an emphasis on affordability, said James Fraser, the head of strategy for the New York agency Mother, which works with the company.
“The balance we’ve been trying to manage is how to acknowledge the realities and challenges of Covid without stripping away the magic of the season,” he said. “How do you maintain that the holidays are a time of togetherness and joy, an opportunity to take a breather from the realities of the day to day, without being tone deaf?”
The pandemic caused $63 billion in spending to disappear from the global advertising market this year, according to the WARC research group. Since the crisis became a fact of American life in March, ad makers have had to revise their strategies on the fly.
“In the beginning, everyone wanted to show, ‘Hey, we get it,’” Mr. Fraser said. “But in the summer, there was a shift toward pretending that nothing was happening. Now, most brands have reached an acceptance of the new normal, the limitations on our lives, while still presenting a picture of hope.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/business/media/holiday-commercials-coronavirus-pandemic.html
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