Two Ways to Recycle Ads

The green movement has certainly taken off in recent years to the point where brands are finding it to be profitable and good for their image to associate with environmental goals. Now, recycling physical products is certainly a very ecological move on the part of both the company and the consumer, but what about recycling content or ads in particular? It sounds silly and counterintuitive, people do like “NEW!” after all, but they also love nostalgia (see every sequel and reboot in theaters). So for this week’s Two for Tuesday, we’re going to look at how some brands have found creative ways to recycle classic ads.

Automobile Ads

Vintage cars get a huge boost for nostalgia because those classic designs are so different from cars of today and have held that perception of being cool even as time has passed. Vintage car ads used today can be used to boost brand equity if not promote a single product, unless it’s an updated version of a classic model. Consumers will see this technique where a decades-old ad is played alongside an appropriate piece of content, like Mad Men, since it deals with both advertising and the ‘60s.

Another place you’ll see this technique is in Jerry Seinfeld’s web series, “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” Being a web series without traditional commercial breaks, Acura serves as the show’s sponsor giving them both video ads during the show and product placement within the show (including the appropriately random Acura Food Truck). Each episode features Seinfeld, a classic car enthusiast, driving another comedian in a vintage car he’s either borrowed or gotten from his personal collection. The car is always a point of conversation and the combination of classic cars and humor makes a perfect fit for those old car ads, which sometimes appear quaint by today’s standards.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is happiness, we all know that, but some of our readers may better associate Coke with their hilltop commercial, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.” Recently, Google’s Project Re:Brief looked to update vintage ads for the present day, and one of those they selected was Coke.

Coca-Cola’s update used snippets of the original commercial for online video and banner ads but put a literal twist on the content of the commercial by allowing people to send each other Cokes around the world, making use of technology that wasn’t available when the original commercial was created. This not only kept with the spirit of the vintage ad to provide the nostalgia people crave, but it gave the campaign something new that even those unfamiliar with the ad could appreciate. For a full look at this project, check out the video below.

Cover Photo Source: Nicolas Raymond via Flickr

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://wpmaster.sjadv.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Our-Space-Kaz.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kaz is a Junior Executive at SJG. He earned BAs in English Writing and Business Marketing at Illinois Wesleyan University and is currently pursuing an MA in Advertising at The University of Texas at Austin. Outside the office, Kaz consumes gobs of media including but not limited to books, magazines, music, movies and television.[/author_info] [/author]