Ford Bronco, Blockbuster & Nostalgia Porn For A Simpler World (Cafe Society Dinner Discussion #10)
Nostalgia marketing is tied to missing a deeper connection to one’s community that modern city life is lacking.
Cafe Society is Maxwell Social’s weekly magazine on the intersection of community and society — an anthropological look at the underpinnings of what makes the world tick, written by David Litwak (@dlitwak) and the Maxwell team.
A few weeks ago Airbnb turned the last Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon into a nightly rental. I thought it was a genius marketing gimmick— as big of an improvement that Netflix and having everything a click away is over Blockbuster, there was something nice about a trip to the video store, the sense of possibility of immersing myself in another world on a Friday night, and while no one would actively choose to go back to that world in function, in spirit it’s actually a quite attractive proposition.
Separately, a friend recently mentioned the word Cottagecore. No idea what that is? I didn’t either, but apparently it’s “an Internet aesthetic which celebrates a return to traditional skills and crafts such as foraging, baking and pottery, and is related to similar nostalgic aesthetic movements such as grandmacore, farmcore, goblincore and faeriecore.”
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David (@dlitwak), Kyle, Joelle
Best one yet! Keep them coming!
Great read. Thanks!