Take a Trip: Looking Backward and Forward at Brand Woodstock (Aug. 2009) PR Tactics www.prsa.org/intelligence/tactics/articles/view/8213/105

1. ByAmy Jacques
Peace signs.Mud people.Psychedelic
music.Bohemian clothing.Flower power.
These terms continue to symbolize
more than a three-day festival as this
August marks the 40th anniversary of the
Woodstock Music andArt Fair,which
featured the likes of Jimi Hendrix,The
Who, Janis Joplin,Santana and Jefferson
Airplane.Rather,the words evoke a sense
of nostalgia for the larger idea of
“Woodstock Nation.”
“It was the moment that the counter-
culture was branded in marketing terms,”
says longtime Rolling Stone contributor
and music criticAnthony DeCurtis.“The
notion of Woodstock Nation indicated a
demographic niche as much as anything
else.”
Woodstock took place during a peri-
od of political,social and economic unrest
for the United States.When reflecting on
1969,the dark reality of the times is called
to mind,including theVietnamWar,the
draft,civil rights challenges and protests.
Parallels can be drawn today with the
current financial crisis,the economic
downturn and the unpopular wars in Iraq
andAfghanistan.It seems that nostalgia for
the past occurs when the underlying cause
remains relevant in modern times — and
can overshadow the problems of the day.
“Woodstock’s success was born from
the widespread discontentment of that
time and the notion that‘the system’was
failing the populous,”says Patrick
Schwerdtfeger,author of “MakeYourself
Useful:Your Guide to the 21st Century”
and founder of theTactical Execution
company. He notes that today’s economy
has“leftAmericans with similar feelings,
making the events of 1969 equally rele-
vant in today’s world.”
__________________
Looking around,there is a plethora of
Woodstock-related memorabilia surfac-
ing.This summer marks the release of
threeWoodstock-related films including
Ang Lee’s“TakingWoodstock,”at least 13
books,such as“The Road toWoodstock”
written by festival co-founder Michael
Lang (who is also working on a
VH1/History Channel documentary)
and numerous CD releases,re-releases and
compilation discs by artists who played at
the original festival.In addition,Warner
HomeVideo will release a four-hour
director’s cut of “Woodstock:3 Days of
Peace and Music.”And Rhino will put out
a six-CD box set of Woodstock perform-
ances.
As if that’s not enough,there is a
“Heroes of Woodstock”national tour and
a special concert celebration on the site of
the original festival at the BethelWoods
Center for theArts in upstate NewYork,
featuring some of the performers from
1969.The trademark event poster with the
dove on a guitar neck has been repur-
posed numerous times,even as part of a
clothing line thatTarget recently launched
in conjunction withWoodstock.The
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has a special
exhibit honoring the 40th anniversary.
AndWoodstock.com plans to re-launch
itself as a social networking site.
__________________
A large portion of advertising in the
United States today uses the nostalgia
appeal — and it is evident that the 1960s
are popular right now,notes Dr.Michael
Solomon,a marketing professor at Saint
Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. A
financial ad features Dennis Hopper from
“Easy Rider,”the tag line for“The
Bachelorette”is the“summer of love,”
Luvs diapers feature the VW Microbus,
Volkswagen is juxtaposing its newer mod-
els with the classic Beetle and countless
clothing lines are showcasing a return to
bohemia with throwbacks to fringe,head-
bands and peace signs.
Several things are fueling this:the
recession and looking at the past idealisti-
cally when times are tough,the election of
Obama as the new president and a resur-
gence of idealism,the large number of
baby boomers in the current population
and young people’s acceptance of the
branding of a culture — and embracing
“the remix of old classics,”according to
Solomon.
And this idea of remixing old classics
is making a comeback in advertising and
marketing,Stuart Elliott reported for The
NewYorkTimes inApril.To help ease con-
sumers’ minds about the recession,mar-
keters are trying to appeal to fond memo-
ries to help sell products.
“It’s about yearning for the past,a
simpler time,even though the 1960s and
1970s were not simple,”Frank Cooper,
chief marketing officer for sparkling bev-
erages at the Pepsi-Cola NorthAmerica
Beverages unit of PepsiCo,told the Times.
“They just seem simple,looking back.”
Vintage packaging,formulas,jingles
and slogans are cropping up everywhere
from McDonald’s to General Mills cereal
boxes to Coca-Cola soft drinks.And hard
times have often inspired a look back to
happier moments.This is not a novel con-
cept —WorldWar II also experienced a
nostalgia boom as seen with movies like
“Meet Me in St.Louis”and songs like
“LongAgo and Far
Away,”Elliott adds.
Butmarketing
nostalgiacanalsobe
dangerousasitis
suchapersonal
emotion.“Often-
timesthethingsthat
wefindnostalgic
aresouniqueand
idiosyncraticthat
theyneednopack-
agingfortheeffect,”
saysmusicologist
andSyracuse
UniversityprofessorTheoCateforis.“They
speaktousdirectly.Ifonetriestoforcethat
emotionalconnection,thenitcanoften
seemmanipulative.”
Cateforis goes on to explain that part
of Woodstock’s impact on history is that it
solidified the connection between the
1960s and protest music.“Woodstock for-
ever stamped rock music as a genre whose
authenticity could be measured by its
social relevance,”he says.
__________________
However,academics,music and cul-
ture critics and PR and marketing profes-
sionals remain divided regarding the wis-
dom of the branding and re-branding of
Woodstock.
“I don’t thinkWoodstock was ever
about celebrity,and it’s certainly not about
that now,even with all of the anniversary
products/projects being marketed to cash
in on it one more time,”says Jeff Tamarkin
who has been writing about music for
more than 25 years and is currently the
associate editor of JazzTimes.“As so many
have pointed out,it’s always been about
the event itself,the notion of half a million
people coming together and expressing
themselves as one.”
And the infamous“Dean of Rock
Critics”Robert Christgau was not inter-
ested in acknowledging the anniversary
and declined to comment toTactics on the
topic altogether.
“People who are likely to pay for
Woodstock memorabilia are doing so
because they see a lack in today’s rock
music,as well as in the culture surrounding
the music,”Cateforis adds.“Part of the
nostalgia is rooted in the mythical belief
that rock at that time was akin to folk
music,which is to say that it was impervi-
ous to market forces,and sprung from
the voices of a youth generation.”
__________________
Regardless,it is clear thatWoodstock
still resonates with the
population.Whether
it’s the nostalgia
appeal,an appreciation
for the music of that
generation or just an
interest in history,peo-
ple who were at the
original festival and
those who may be
learning about it for
the first time feel
strongly about
Woodstock in one
way or another — and
the brand still holds weight after many
years.
“I wasn’t atWoodstock.So for me,as
for most people,my experience of the
event is mediated almost entirely through
the movie,which I still find thrilling,”says
rock scribe Richard Gehr,a former editor
at Spin magazine and regular contributor
to TheVillageVoice.“The persistent re-
branding of the event,however,is bother-
some. Rather than consider dubious par-
allels between 1969 and 2009,I’d prefer
[the promoters] to simply let it be,as it
were,so people can enjoy that remarkable
event in all its historical specificity.”
n e w s & v i e w s
Take a trip:
Looking backward and forward at“BrandWoodstock”
14 August 2009 TACTICS
gettyimages
Wish you were here: Jimi Hendrix performs
during theWoodstock Music andArt Fair.
Amy Jacques is the associate
editor of Tactics.She holds a
master’s in arts journalism from
Syracuse University’s S.I.
Newhouse School of Public
Communications.E-mail:
amy.jacques@prsa.org.
Itwasthemomentthat
thecounterculture
wasbranded
inmarketingterms.
—AnthonyDeCurtis