Here is the very catch bar that I consumed.
Catch Bar from 1980
Here is the original add from 1976, complements of good old you-tube
Shortly after this flashback to the 1980’s caused by my experience I came across this article in the Financial times Advertisers make pitch for the good old days.
This article highlights that advertising is trying to reignite this ‘Nostalgia’, with such exmaples as
· Mars repackaged its Starburst sweets under the old name of Opal Fruits for a promotion in Asda.
· Guinness will this year re-broadcast eight of its ads dating back to 1955 to mark its 250th anniversary, while last year Lego replayed a famous 1981 ad to celebrate its 50th birthday.
· Cadbury has sold 70m Wispa bars after reintroducing the chocolate snack in October after a campaign for its return on Facebook attracted 40,000 signatories.
· Hovis has resurrected its cycling delivery boy and cobbled street last seen in Ridley Scott’s famous 1973 advertisement, which was itself an exercise in nostalgia. The new ad won the “campaign of the year” award from the trade magazine Campaign.
Also in this financial times article there are the following quotes:
“In times of uncertainty people like to hark back to the finer things of the past,” explains David Kershaw, chief executive of M&C Saatchi, an advertising agency.
“A lot of brands thrive on long-term relationships,” adds Heather Alderson, commercial strategy director at BBH, for many years the agency behind Levi’s ads. “In a way that’s why you have brands at all. Great advertising from your own childhood can help you do that.” The threat to consumer goods brands of customers switching to supermarkets’ own-label products means this is a good time to remind people of their historical attachments, she says.
Based on this trend, which appears to be brought about by a combination of the global economic downturn and the anniversaries of several iconic brands, will we see more and more of these examples?
It would be great if you could add your own examples of this trend into the comments.
Another question that springs to mind is that will this type of strategy work or will it just fool people in the short term?
One thing is for certain, brands do trigger emotional responses, it is whether we act on them or not that will convert this emotion into a sale.
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Great find Mark - that brings me back - my sister is actually the Girl on the stairs!! Don’t know how she actually managed to catch it ‘cos she was always crap at that stuff. Don’t think she got paid, but I recall having boxes of Catch bars in our house for quite some time after!
Update - she now tells me she got £100 too - she never told me that at the time! Still, working for chocolate when your only 5 years old seems like much better pay. Wish I could work for Chocolate now!
Mark, Catch Bar has never really gone away. Over the past thirty years it was manufactured in different parts of the world and subsequently had a number of Irish distributors. However it has been recently growing in popularity and one Catch Bar is now purchased every three minutes in Ireland. Catch is sold in many countries throughout the globe and is a particular favourite in Taiwan.
Mark, I spotted a web page http://www.catchbar.com
that gives some detail about Catch Bars.
I love these chocolate bars. Can they still be bought??