Advertising in winter..

There seems to be a discussion going on in Holland about all the recycling being done in Dutch advertising.. Cora van Mora is back, Martine Bijl is back for Hak and one of the most succesful campaigns ever (for Campina) is being plainly copied by a competitor. Leon Bouwman of Adformatie wrote about it in de Telegraaf. Well, no suprise for the steady visitor of my log. (S)He'll have read that we're in the closed, reinforcement timeframe, looking back and repeating cultural icons, to gain new steady ground after a period of upheaval. And, very interesting, all those advertising campaigns returning now, stem from the last timeframe of reinforcement, between 1983 and 1989. Leon and Suzanne, who complained about all the recycling in Adformatie, will just have to have some patience. A new timeframe will come, eventually..

In the mean time, I have been studying on the exact changing moment of the spring and summer timeframes, sometime 1971, when the revolution of the 60s went up in smoke, all the heroes disbanded (Beatles) or just died (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison). The doors to freedom had opened, and in the seventies everyone would jump out and claim some space for himself, leading to the paradox of extreme hedonism (glamrock! Disco!) and total seriousness (conscious raising groups, feminism, gay liberation, the social academy even given curriculum points for men who knitted, and everyone desperately looking for the nuances in communication: "can I say that, or will it be offensive to anyone.."). Lots of long, long long democracy meetings..

Enough to work on, to get the book rolling..