Google Takes Retro Ads Digital

What’s old is new again is the idea behind Google’s new interactive homage to advertising.

In celebration of digital advertising’s 18th birthday, Google is working with Avis, Alka Seltzer, Coca Cola and Volvo to bring the madmen who worked on these brands’ campaigns in the sixties and seventies out of retirement. The creatives will be challenged to use today’s technology to give new life to their earlier work, which was considered innovative and groundbreaking for the times. The creatives involved in the project are Amil Gargano, Paula Green, Harvey Gabor, Howie Cohen and Bob Pasqualina.

As Google explains in the blog post about the project, the purpose of Project Re:Brief is “to link advertising’s digital future to its storied past.” Perhaps Google is trying to capitalize on the popularity of AMC’s “Madmen” and its revival of a glossy, romanticized version of early advertising culture in today’s pop culture. Whatever Google has in mind, it’s a fun look back at a cool era.

For those in attendance at SXSW, Google will be showing demos of the campaigns at the Discovery House at the Google Village.

Watch the project introduction video and previews of the Coca-Cola and Volvo ads re-imagined below.

Coca-Cola
Original Art Director: Harvey Gabor

Volvo
Original Art Director: Amil Gargano

https://digiday.com/?p=8236

More in Marketing

The TikTok outage caused TikTok Shop sales to spike, not sink

As it turns out, the hours-long TikTok shutdown on Jan. 18 and 19 did not have a negative impact on the platform’s sales over the weekend. In fact, TikTok Shop sales spiked in the days immediately preceding and following the ban.

Havas acquires sports marketing agency in first deal following stock exchange debut

The deal is first of 10 agencies Havas Media Network aims acquire this year, fresh from its spinoff from Vivendi.

Retail chain WHSmith brings first airport ad network into the specialty retail media race

The retailer hopes to capitalize on the “huge captive audience” of air passengers traveling through U.S. airports each day, notably business travelers.