Communist nostalgia as persuasive argument in Romanian

advertising products
“Being inhabited by an incomprehensible longing
is still a sign that there is an out there.“
( Eugène Ionesco - Notes et Counter - Notes , 1962 )

1. The evolution of advertising techniques in the second half of the

twentieth century

One consequence of globalization is the establishment of a reference system, the

consumption of brands, that is common to all the inhabitants of the planet and, therefore, to
the citizens of the European Union too.
The advertising spending will explode in order to lead the public taste. This is a
concerted action known as "branding."
The promotion of a brand requires more and more a lifestyle, an attitude, a set of values, a
"look", an idea. This ideological coordinate of the brands has determined the use of new
technologies such as video clip.
A successful process in the fields of trademarks was inaugurated by the company
Nike in 1985 that associated its products with the image of a personality well known to
consumers in order to induce them the idea of being integrated into the fashion modern
currents, and to make them feel that they also belong, within a note of complicity of
friendship, by means of the product, to the world of idols of the day.

2. Trends in Romanian advertising market in the early twenty-first century

2.1. The e-marketing
By the end of the twentieth century the international world has witnessed the
emergence and implementation of large hypermarkets, which has led to a revolution in the
field of advertising through the use of the Internet that has become a new, specific, Media.
A 2001 study by IAB France and Ipsos-ASI noted that in one case of two, the Internet
contributed to the expansion of the reputation of the brands advertising that, in eight out of
ten cases, the new media has improved the image of brands, and that, in seven out of ten
cases, the e-publicity has significantly led to the desire of audiences to subscribe to
electronic newsletter on trade marks.

2.2 The retromarketing or marketing of communist nostalgia in Romania

 After the revolutionary enthusiasm of the 90s along with the incrimination of
communism and the revelation of its darkest areas subject to public opprobrium,
paradoxically, an opposite trend, called "communist nostalgia", began to be manifested in the
cultural production and advertising of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
These include film productions of Hungary, of Czech Republic and of the former
GDR, of which the most famous being, Good bye Lenin! (Wolfgang Becker, 2002) was a
huge success throughout Europe.
The nostalgia arises from a vague feeling half happy, half-melancholy to a dark
period, of course, because of the totalitarianism that is because of an existential danger in
the event of disobeying ideological constraints. It is also a time of hope and solidarity in the
resistance, and even of a kind of social security, which tends to be idealized in the new
capitalist, democratic, but quite uncertain economic era.
There are some Romanian brands that remain bound not only to the products they
present but also at some period, and this belonging to a history, a culture or a period can
become a strong psychological capital that has attracted the interest of the companies of
advertising. Even if the retromarketing models of the major brands such as Adidas, Danone,
Renault or Volksvagen, referring to a more quiet and safer time, cannot be applied ad
litteram in Romania, the Romanian designers of advertisements are still trying to resurrect
the memory of the past associated with the communist idea of pleasure of the taste and with
the opportunity to consume occidental and notorious products during a period of shortage.
Brands such as salami Victoria whose video clip is linked to the interminable queues
in front of food stores formed by people from even 5 AM exploit this idea of people solidarity
in pleasure, exacerbated by the rarity of products.
The success of this type of advertising technique was also demonstrated by its use
during the election campaigns, and we can not find a more eloquent example than the video
clip of a famous Romanian businessman, Gigi Becali, who had used during his campaign for
the presidency of Romania the figure of a popular Romanian Voivode, Michael the Brave,
brilliantly interpreted into a film by a famous Romanian actor. A large part of the Romanian
Communist brands have disappeared. There are cases in which products have been
successfully resurrected from the memory of names of the time of Ceausescu: the chocolate
Rom Tricolor of Kandia Excellent, the beer Bucegi, the Braiconf textiles, the footwear Guban
or Antelope, the fridges Arctic.
Of course neither the marks nor the products mostly have any link with the communist
era. They embody all requirements of the current market, focusing on the functional
attributes of the product (quality, price, usefulness, presentation etc.). Their promotional
communication takes into account all these characteristics but also involves "emotional
attributes" of their history: "tradition, aboriginality", etc. (as explained Dan Petre, director of
research company D & D Research).
A product that has played on strongly and successfully on the idea of "pursuit of
communism lost" (to paraphrase the title of the novel by the writer Ioan Stanomir, "Looking
for the lost communism") is the chocolate with rum Rom Tricolor.
In this case the advertising is focused on both the nostalgia of those who had lived during the
communist era but also on the unique experiences, exceptional by their absurdity, revived in
the videos.
At the beginning of 2005, a brand of the company Kandia-Excellent, Rom Tricolor,
has reinvented an image that has already existed on the Romanian market since 1964. This
new image evokes with humor, in a satirical note, many aspects of typical communist society
such as: police abducting from the streets girls wearing miniskirts in order to bring them back
to long and formless dresses, of Soviet style; as well as young men who were imitating the
fashion of long-haired rockers as a reaction against the communist short hairstyle for cutting
their hair in the cells of the Securitate, the Romanian political police. Both videos start with
the moment when the young girl or the young man bites of a chocolate stick Rom Tricolor,
which plunge them into the atmosphere from the time of Ceausescu. The experience of
being abducted by the political police, and for the girl in the video of crossing even
Ceausescu in person during one of his famous working visits surrounded by the pioneers, is
creating a strong surprise and an emotion which refers to the adrenaline of video games or of
extreme sports practiced by young people. Nowadays, without any doubt, older generations
watch these odd experiences of the two young people with a detached humor and, perhaps,
even with a slight nostalgia. At the same time, they could not deny that they are really
relieved to have escaped from situations similar to those of two videos.
In any case, the sensations experienced at the sight of the packaging of chocolate
are strong for everybody, which is clearly explained and transmitted by the slogan of the
brand: "Thrills of 1964!".
Both videos also exploit, within a parody adapted from a contemporary perspective on
the communist period, the Communist revolutionary music and even the national anthem of
Communist Romania before 1989, replayed on modern rhythms. The authentic Romanian
spirit and the proletarian flavor represent real spices of the videos.
We must also note that the group Kandia Excellent was recently purchased by the
world leader in the chocolate industry, the British company Cadbury, which has appreciated
and retained the brand Rom Tricolor, a very popular product, apparently, among young
people from UK.
Certainly, the brand owes its success to its inspired campaign, which, moreover,
made the advertising agency that has initiated and carried it out to win the Ad`or and the
Golden Hammer prices. The two videos have been also broadcast on major national TV
channels : Pro TV, Antena 1, Pro Cinema, Acasa, Prima, MTV, Realitatea TV and TVR 1.

CONCLUSION
Brands in time

To sum up, I would say that some brands remain in the memory of people as
representative for the times when they were in vogue.
On the other hand, the historical brands inspire the confidence, give the impression
that they had passed the major test of time and had embraced traditional, perennial values.
In a nutshell, consumers, particularly those in urban areas, are in a permanent quest
for authenticity and security, through the sense of continuity that they most often find in
products suggesting an archaic note.

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