There was only one social network … but most of your friends died of dysentery.

Microsoft's produced an Internet Explorer ad that ties an audience of hipsterfied "individuals" to the decade that unifies them: the '90s. Yeah, you may have novelty shoes now, but you still played Oregon Trail, didn't you?

It's the one MSFT ad in a decade that makes you smile -- and not ironically. It may even make you long for the period when times were simpler and Microsoft was, indeed, the shit (the whisper between the lines). If a fond reminder of neon green DOS commands had been tossed in here somewhere, it wouldn't have been out-of-place.

The ad wraps with an invitation to try the new Internet Explorer -- a browser that's grown up, like you. And while the finale music is triumphant and warm, we're brought back to the Current State of Affairs with almost alarming rapidity.

Yeah, we've grown up. We can't try the new IE, because Microsoft's cut it away from the generation that opened its doors and wallets to Mac ... although we still have to reverse-optimise online products for clients that still use IE6, which doesn't endear us to the brand either. Our Word docs still crash and the usability of Surface tablets make us cringe. Our everyday loves and losses revolve around Android and App Store apps. And if we even bother to remember a browser that marks this period, it'll probably be Chrome or Firefox, because they're part of the brigade that constructed the ruling user experience alongside us, instead of forcing us to play by constricting, bug-ridden yardsticks.

Looks like the only thing we have left in common today, old friend, is a general dissatisfaction with what the other's grown into. No hard feelings; that happens. The only problem is, looking fondly back on old times may be fun for a night, but it won't save a relationship. That's another thing we learned growing up.

Via and via and originally posted here.

If you ever wondered why dashing older men keep challenging you to games of Gin Rummy.

- "The Language of Legs", Playboy, 1969.

Just Wait for the Tape Measure Part.

When you think about it, all Mary Poppins did was bust those kids’ balls while demonstrating how amazing she was in her own universe hidden from the rest of the world. I suspect it is the only reason why she was in childcare: among adults (barring our chimney-sweep homie whom she mildly resents and who is obviously in love with her), she would just never get away with it.

This is a moment of clarity.*

----


*Nighttime is a fertile time to reexamine childhood movies because that's what French TV likes to play. The night before last, I rewatched Jumanji and felt soothed by the idea that every family-oriented '90s movie in all of life seems to end with a Christmas scene. I still thought the game was beautifully styled, and it still made me tense to watch Alan and Sarah throw it into the river. What made them think that was going to last? Many recurring evils recur because their accidental vainqueurs seem to think death by drowning is the answer. Consider the One Ring.

The Morning After the Night Before.

What work! Elegant, seductive and curiously timely given Mad Men’s return. After a day when most of the stuff you see and hear sounds verifiably insane and dangerously front-loaded, it feels almost like a wash to see an ad like this.

Not that today was like that. Today I had one of those meetings that actually yields something, with people who are smart and dry witted like vermouth, then got to travel home on a train, which is one of my most favourite things in the world to do. (They remind me of Amtrak trips down the coast with grandma.) So the last 24 hours were doubly awesome because I did those things and got to revisit this.

Other People's Nostalgia

Publicité pour les Gateaux Bamboula par odilederey

One of the toughest things about getting along in a new country is trying to grasp the cultural references: that campy movie everyone's seen, the candy kids ate in the '80s, or the ads and the brands, whose context, though long forgotten, have become part of modern culture's quilt.

Today on Facebook, Osmany Barbosa shared this little spot for Bamboula cakes. It isn't a brand that exists anymore, but the biscuits were evidently so good that there are recipes seeking to replicate them across the French 'net. The ad's got a clear aesthetic that you can easily tie back to the '80s, but it also speaks to France's own colonialist history and efforts to come to grips with racism. Bamboula wasn't the only brand that reflected this struggle; Banania, which still exists today, is still the source of great argument about whether or not its logo and slogan had clear colonialist slants.

From there you can easily take the leap into our own advertising history. Uncle Ben's Rice and Mrs. Butterworth's have both been criticized for depicting African-Americans in a domestic service role, although that has largely changed (depending on who you ask).

EASTPAK Play: Making an Accessory of Man

...and if your life is defined by your backpack, which it often is in high school, that's basically what you are, right? As subject to whimsy as the vermillion knapsack that matches your baby tee.

I didn't really get this ad at first, and my head mostly filled with evil ideas of people with Eastpaks flinging themselves off rooftops and summits. But then I was like "OMG IT'S TETRIS," and my pupils expanded to about 8 times the size of my head. Mariachis and the wolf mask gave it an extra special something, too: Eastpak going into slightly deranged, but still strangely titillating, Burger King territory.

Here's the Facebook, where the vid's being propagated:



110,805 lovers already! And just for Eastpak France. NAHCE. But the whole thing would be cooler still if we really could play human Tetris on the page: as it stands, we're baited into thinking we can (joue le jeu! They even made me Like to get this far!), but really all it does is re-play the ad. Booooo.

Nice work by WE ARE FROM LA and production company Caviar.

Super Mario: Revisited for the SXSW Crowd

It's like Nintendo meets Baz Luhrmann/Fear in Las Vegas! On E!

This is at least one reason why I'm morose about not being at SXSW, even though I wouldn't like half the people anyway and would probably just complain about spending too much money on ice that tastes vaguely of vodka.

The other reason is, Austin is awesome, and if something awful happens to California I highly recommend colonising this city and claiming it for our own.

Retro Stop Motion Post-It Rubik's Cube Thing

This is the magic magics, via @adlawguy and the almighty buzzfeed.

Oh, Why Not

Nostalgia Ravaged in Name of 'Anti-Retro'

The appearance of Citroën's DS3 at the end of each piece above is such anticlimax, especially as you feel yourself get drawn into the grit of the filming, the weight of the sounds. Icons this powerful, speech this rich, shouldn't be used for selling cars -- though to be fair, using them to sell anything is pretty much always a risk, riddled with critique. My heart breaks into a million little styrofoam pieces.

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