RETRO TAKES ON TECHNO - A SIGN OF OUR TIMES

Globally the battle is between the past and the future.

In the Middle East and Asia, some Islamic values are at loggerheads with modernity. By the same token some traditional Anglicans find the idea of a female bishop bizarre. Someone said apparently:

“You might as well ordain a pork pie as ordain a woman bishop”

I rather like pork pies. But they are a little old fashioned and reminiscent of summers past.
As is the UKIP argument that the EU is sucking us dry, that immigrants are a drain on the economy and that fings aint wot they used to be.

Yet UKIP is doing well and we need to understand what their problem really is (not as some do hope it’ll go away). All traditionalists of whatever persuasion are saying in slightly different tones of voice “can’t we go back to things as they were?”

The trouble is that “the way things were” wasn’t really as good as it is today. Nonetheless stick with that nostalgic urge and try to empathise with it.

Jerusalem, green and pleasant lands, steam trains, pipe smoking, bosses and workers, Nottingham Forest, flat caps, Bill Hailey, Hancock, ‘O’ levels, Aberdeen Angus Steakhouses, Max Bygraves,  capital punishment, Watney’s Red, Jensen Interceptors, Woolworth, corner shops…..

The struggle between past and future is playing out in the marketing arena too. This is not just Farage v the Westminster Bubble. This is the High Street fighting back against the monolith out-of-town warehouses. Small shops trumping Tesco; big companies being attacked vociferously for being bad citizens; Jamie Oliver’s “Comfort Food” suggesting a retro-trend in diet (like the resurgence of pies); the revival of the fountain pen; an old fashioned, Midnight Mass, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen-type Christmas; the return of the epic story….has anyone reflected on the resemblance the long form TV series has to Victorian novels (which were also serialised, cliff hangers and all). This is Brave New World v Nostalgia.

There is nothing new with retro-marketing but there’s an increasing groundswell of opposition to new-fangled technology and, of course, Indian Call Centres and the “press 1 for accounts, 2 for complaints, 3 for other services” style of customer service. We increasingly call for personable, well- brought-up human beings not remote call centres.

Just as the UKIP, Tea Party, and Golden Dawn factions of this world tend to be vociferous minorities so too the retro-entrepreneurs are unlikely to usurp the Goliaths of the retail, energy, financial or fmcg communities. But they’ll bite their ankles very nastily and make them take notice.

This is a world where the entrance price for a troublemaking new brand is low. A website, a storytelling champion, a bit of news, a cacophony of tweets does it.  And one of the marketing strategies working well right now is based on authenticity and nostalgia.

So yes, the past, it seems, is alive and surprisingly well.

Technology moves on but traditionalism has a powerful voice too.

WE CAN CHOOSE THE WORLD WE LIVE IN - really we can

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” says Marcellus at the beginning of Hamlet and indeed with three hours the Danish game is over, Norway takes over, all the key players are dead and “the rest” as they say “is silence”. Does any of this feel familiar?

I was talking to a one-time senior Civil Servant recently who said he could understand the economic woes as a consequence of things being out of balance but that the corruption within the police force had shaken him to his core.  I’d argue when there is a complete blurring of what is right and wrong anything can go wrong and it is.

We have institutionalised corruption and breakdown across the board and it’s a cultural issue. Brand Britain is ruled by the urge for power and money. Nothing else matters it would seem.  We are being taught to admire monsters as our role models. But who else could run Barclays than Bob the bankers cry. It’s a bit like lamenting the passing of Fred West as a landlord.

Time for a reshuffle…..

First MPs – as Jefferson said “a little rebellion is sometimes a good thing” – they need to throw out corrupt practices like whipping and start to think. And the manners need to improve. Sorry Messrs Ball and
Osborne you’re being locked up for rudeness.

Press – bye, bye Digger and Dacre and a culture of sensationalism.

Church – a female Bishop or two and a bit more smiling – gaiety even might help. Best chance the church has had for a century to be taken seriously and all it can do is be fixated on genitalia.

Law – the judges are a bastion against extremism – smart and not driven by cash but ambulance chasing attitudes amongst the rest should be punishable by scorn (scorn is worse than death in the new world order.)

Police – root out the rotters.

World bodies –remove the apparatchiks who’ve ruined world sport, banking and politics. Sepp Blatter is a cartoon metaphor for Danish rottenness as is the unfortunately obsessed Dominque Strauss Kahn.

What an example to set a new generation.

And the banks. Well sad. Root and branch reform needed. Imprison all the banking boards just in case. And resort to 363. 363? Yes. Borrow at 3% in the morning. Lend at 6% at lunchtime. Be on the 1st tee at 3pm. Banking is simple. Honestly.

Shakespeare would have had a ball with all this.

And if you think it’s all too hard look at the recovery in Iceland. Prime Minster Johanna Sigurdardottir, well done. And gosh you’re a woman and a lesbian ….Church are you listening?