Repackaging Nostalgia: Coca-Cola As a ‘Classic’ Example
- Sayema Islam
- 8 hours ago
- 4 min read
Coca-Cola is a classic for a reason. It is a brand that encapsulates American western culture. ‘Coke’ has managed to coca-colonise the world, and has become part of our collective past, present, and future.
Despite being a harbinger of the future, the Coca-Cola brand continues to reminisce about the past, and often uses nostalgia as an effective marketing device. The use of nostalgia is not uncommon or exclusive to Coke. Its use as a marketing tactic is apparent in many areas of life: such as Gen Z’s obsession with 90’s minimalism, the constant revival of TV shows, even using AI to restore family home movies, etc. We can’t help but be obsessed with the past.
However, nostalgia marketing is more than an obsession with the past, it’s the rewriting of collective memory.
The ‘classic’ iconography surrounding Coke refers to the myth-making of the brand. The marketing has been so effective that Cola has become synonymous with Coca-Cola. To understand this intentional association with the past, we need to do a deep dive into the way Coke has used nostalgia in its marketing.
A Coca-Cola Christmas:
Santa existed before, but Coca-Cola made him famous. Their affiliation is so well-known that Coke had to dispel the myth that Santa was conjured up by the Coca-Cola team.
Yet the rosy cheeked old man with the great white beard, first illustrated by Haddon Sundblom in 1931, has become the global image of Santa. This image of a ‘Christmas with a Coke’ has allowed the brand to create a tradition, which is reaffirmed annually with the Christmas advert.
Much of the iconography is sustained with the ad, such as the glowing red trucks, and the amber-lit hearth, evoking a sense of stability. Nostalgia fosters the comfort of an imagined past and provides the hope for a rose-coloured future.
‘We all scream for Orange Cream’:
2025 saw the return of the memorable ‘Orange Cream’ flavour. The marketing brings us back with Mariah Carey’s 1995 hit ‘Fantasy’, but also blends the new. Influencers were brought in to celebrate the return of Orange Cream, with influencers Pookie and Jett, who have amassed a combined total of 1.5 million followers, posting a Tiktok and remarking “It’s giving nostalgic vibes.”
Orange Cream paradoxically expands the Coke portfolio of flavours as a revived flavour. It shows us that nostalgia and novelty is tied together. We have a generation longing for a past that they didn’t experience, which shows how nostalgia also represents a desire for escapism that we all share.
‘Share a Coke’:
The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign has been hugely popular, but it’s not new. It was originally launched in Australia (2011), replacing the Coke bottles with popular first names.
The campaign was motivated by Gen Z’s need for authentic connection, and included QR codes which provide access to a digital hub, the ‘Share a Coke Memory Maker’, where customers can upload and share videos with their personalised Coke bottles.
It’s poignant that we have to revisit the past to find genuine connection, and shows that the presence of romanticising nostalgia reveals the ugly state of our present. As we progress further into the digital age, healthy social interactions systematically decline. It’s troubling that human connections have to be manufactured and we have to resort to nostalgia for kinship.
All of these examples aren’t to say that we can’t be inspired by the past or reminisce about the joyful past eras of our lives– but the rise in nostalgia forewarns the current state of our reality. The nostalgia-driven campaigns also reveal how cleverly marketing can obscure the darker realities that societies face.
The Darker Reality of Coke:
The nostalgic Christmas advertisements hailed as iconic have sparked recent controversy, with last year’s ad being made with generative AI.
The 15-second ‘Holidays are coming’ ad returned with the much-loved festive Coca-Cola Christmas Truck driving through a snowy village, and a crowd awaiting it for a perfectly chilled bottle.
When watching, viewers noted that something felt ‘off’: the landscape was too smooth, the animals too wondrous to behold, the few glimpses of people with smiles too unnatural. It is ironic that Coke is trying to recreate the past whilst replacing the very foundations that made it possible.
It’s striking that in an era where people are craving authenticity, Coke decided to deliver exactly the opposite. Although the ad did receive unfavorable reviews, with my favourite being: “Why does the Coca-Cola advert look like AI?” (a comment from someone who was unaware of the use of AI in the ad).
Nostalgia also serves as a distraction, comforting audiences with warm, fuzzy feelings rather than confronting the blood on their hands. Recent boycott efforts led by the BDS movement have reignited attention to Coca-Cola’s involvement in Israeli settlements.
The idea of corporate responsibility has become more salient in the wake of such events, and begs the question: what do companies owe us? Even with the many environmental programmes introduced by Coke, their contribution to pollution is still heavy.
So, nostalgia is powerful: it's comforting, it’s reassuring. It is also manipulative, and it’s important to be aware of that. Nostalgia intends for us to ignore the present reality and bask in the pleasures of the past.
Coke capitalises on our emotions and conjures a false collective memory. Perhaps nostalgia is an inherently human desire, a comforting illusion that helps us cope with the horrors of the world, but we must resist letting its comfort turn into blindness.
Sources:
Reinhold Wagnleitner, Coca-Colonization and the Cold War: The Cultural Mission of the United States and Austria After the Second World War: The Cultural Mission of the United States in Austria After the Second World War, 1994.
https://bdsmovement.net/news/coca-cola-quenching-israel%E2%80%99s-genocidal-soldiers%E2%80%99-thirst
Edited by Hania Ahmed, Creative Editor
