It's not just our pop culture that keeps recycling and repeating itself. It's the advertising styles that are used to publicize those sequels, remakes and nostalgia traps, too. We've been stuck in a loop for so long that we're now stuck in a loop within that loop. Earlier this month, Netflix announced an upcoming interactive special called "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt vs. The Reverend." The whole gang from the show, whose last episodes dropped in January of 2019, will reunite, adding Daniel Radcliffe, to finish off the story. Sounds kinda cool! But on Monday, the same day Netflix dropped the full trailer for it that showcases the "Bandersnatch"-style, they also released the "key art" for the show. Key art is like the source code for a marketing campaign. It sets the visual template for everything from a show or movie's out-of-home advertising to its social media and digital ads to thumbnail images for streaming and VOD. The key art is the ad from which all the other ads follow. The Kimmy Schmidt special is not exactly technologically groundbreaking but it is best-in-class.
Only platforms like Netflix could pull off an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure special like this one at scale and with flawless execution. It's at least forward looking. So I was amused when I saw the ad for it:
It's an allusion to the busy, claustrophobic illustration style of 1970s movie posters, used to advertise movies as diverse as the nostalgic-even-then "American Graffiti," blaxploitation films and dystopian sci-fi. My obsession with the overwhelming amount of retro art direction for TV and movie advertising began in the fall of 2019. A giant billboard for the CBS All Access comedy "No Activity" loomed over Canal Street where Chinatown and SoHo converge. I also saw it on buses and on subway platforms. The show has a good comedy pedigree: Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are executive producers. It's a remake of a contemporary Australian show. But the ad for it is a clear homage to the "Animal House" poster:
Forget that a billboard with so much visual information crammed into it is unreadable when it's five stories up in the sky. Why the retro style? It drove me nuts. The show has nothing to do with "Animal House." It's a cop show. It doesn't take place in the late 70s. Why spoof that period? ParalysisWe're in our third decade of complaining about the remake, sequel and nostalgic content loop we're in. It's gotten to the point now that even the sequels to the remakes rely on nostalgia. Talk of repetition is becoming itself reptitive. Nostalgia is no longer one flavor of our entertainment. It is our entertainment. So there's a lot of content that takes place in times we fondly remember. Obviously, some nostalgic content calls for retro ads. If your show takes place in the 80s, an 80s vibe is an understandable option for your art direction. But this is not the only reason for the retro style in movie and TV advertising. Even shows that take place in the current day have retro ads.I trace it back to two moments in the 2010s.
First, over that period, was the realization that movie posters had been relying since the 90s and 2000s on about a dozen visual templates took off on the internet, spawning endless threads on Reddit and social media and providing click-worthy content for news sites every couple years. Not wanting to look cliché, studios, streamers and networks realized they couldn't rely on the same formulae when rolling out campaigns for their new movies and TV shows. The way our shows and movies were produced, distributed and consumed was changing rapidly, leaving marketers of content with tons of questions and not enough time to answer them due to the dizzying pace of new releases in the Peak TV and streaming era. Would thumbnails replace posters? Would anyone even notice the old, cliché aesthetics of posters anymore with so much content out there now or would it be lost in the noise? What comes after the old poster look? Second was the release "Stranger Things." The runaway hit seemed to point to a way out. Its ad campaign was famously retro. No alternate aesthetic emerged that could visually define the late 2010s. Things moved way too fast to answer those questions.
So, my theory goes, we landed on retro. When we don't know where to go next, we can always go back. The social media-friendly "millennial aesthetic" offered an alternative, but I'd argue it didn't supplant the 90s and 2000s aesthetic completely. It's out there (see here, here, here, here, here and here), but the retro style seems to be winning in TV and movie advertising. Below are some of the best examples of the retro style of TV and movie advertising in the 2010s and 2020s. There's no one period drawn from: retro style ads borrow from vaudeville, Saul Bass, psychedelia, Bond, 80s, 90s, horror, action, and more.
The shorter stuff
"The Last Dance" is creating news out of things that happened 30 years ago. (Forbes)
Fucking hilarious that "Trolls World Tour" is going to go down as one of the most important movies ever. (WSJ)
Speaking of, Judd Apatow's "King Of Staten Island" starring Pete Davidson is skipping theaters. Getting kinda unfunny vibes from this one but we'll see. (THR)
I cannot get enough billionaire interiors via Zoom. Would pay to see more of them. (Town & Country)
FaZe Clan is going to be making movies! Movies like "Dazed and Confused!" (?) (THR)
Several group chats I'm in have "Normal People" talk going on in them. (NYT)
If the Biden campaign were smart they'd listen to the "prominent Tinseltown donor" who is suggesting Michelle Obama as his running mate. Politics is entertainment! (Deadline)
One of those Danish shows that media people say is so good called "Borgen" is coming to Netflix. (Variety)
Scary to think this generation's music taste could end up being defined by "chill" and "instrumental" music chosen by algorithm and made by anonymous technicians. "Lo-fi beats to study to" will be their disco, punk, hip-hop, grunge, rave or nu metal. lol. (CNN)
Fortnite is becoming just a place to chill out and hang. Less gun game, more clubhouse/mall/classroom/polling place. (The Verge)
Why is it impossible for me to not read about wealthy wellness routines during the lockdown? (The Cut)
Prepare for the wave of "at least 20" coronavirus documentaries. (Vulture)
I have spent way too much time thinking about and reading about Jared Kushner during this pandemic. (VF)
And I'm concerned that there will be a rise in Hope Hicks content to rival Kushner content. (Politico)