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#BizTrends2026 | M&C Saatchi Abel’s Zanele Kabane: How nostalgia is shaping modern creativity
I’m sure your feeds have been flooded with “2016 v 2026” posts, where people are reminiscing on the old days, and almost every post ends with a desperate plea: “Take me back!”.
The truth is, a lot of us miss it
Because the truth is, a lot of us miss it. We miss the “old days” before AI and overly curated feeds.
We miss the music, the creativity, energy - everything felt so much simpler then, because it was.
With so many technological advancements, it’s pretty evident that the feeling of nostalgia has never felt stronger.
I read a Forbes article that stated: “Nostalgia can be defined as a sentimental yearning for the past, typically for a period or place with positive associations. The word nostalgia originates from the Greek “nostos algos”, which means “the pain of returning home”.”
And I think it would be remiss not mention how although nostalgia has always been an incredibly powerful marketing tool it feels more prevalent now than ever.
Vaseline Heritage Day Print ad
The first example of this is the super viral Vaseline Heritage Day Print ad. We saw the LinkedIn think pieces and in-depth analyses.
But we also saw that a simple print ad spread across the globe like wildfire because everyone felt it.
And it wasn’t an innovation piece that broke the category or a new AI-powered something 4.0.
It was a picture of kid and a powerful headline that took us right back to our childhoods. Nostalgia. Boom.
Vaseline captures the spirit of Heritage Day
“Dr Pepper baby, it’s good and nice”
The second example is the viral “Dr Pepper baby, it’s good and nice” jingle.
We all grew up being able to sing “Scott’s Emulsion, I like you, you help me to grow!” or even “I, wanna be a Simba Chippie!”
Jingles made ads memorable and they became the soundtrack to our childhoods.
And now, in 2026, a jingle created by – not a slick new AI generator, not even a Grand Prix award-winning writer, no, just a content creator named Romeo Bingham.
And it was bought by Dr Pepper, a colossal brand, and for a while, you couldn’t scroll your socials without hearing it.
Suddenly 2026 sounded like 2006 and we loved it. Again, the power of nostalgia.
That’s life
So, without making too much of a blanket statement, I do think it’s safe to say that the longing for how things were is very much defining a lot of the ideas that really seem to resonate today.
Now, I do wonder that if we look back too much, we’ll have nothing new to look back to in the next 10 years.
But then maybe the underlying truth here is that it’s less about being nostalgic and more about stripping away the machines and the shiny new things and drawing from our real memories and lived experiences – both past and present - to inform our creativity.
Afterall, that’s how creativity was born before the machine and it’s how creativity will continue to thrive far beyond the machine.
And that’s not just a trend, that’s life.
