Millennial Fever: as the 1990s draw to a close, Millennial Fever is heating up. Here's a look at its symptoms and how marketers can take advantage of them by striking while the iron is hot - includes a related article on Heaven's Gate mass suicide

American Demographics, Dec, 1997 by James R. Rosenfield

An old year turns into a new one, and the world itself, at least for a moment, seems to turn also. Images of death and rebirth, things ending and beginning, populate the media and haunt the mind. Multiply this a thousandfold, and you get "Millennial Fever."

Millennial Fever is driving consumer behavior in all sorts of interesting ways, which means it offers marketing opportunities. But it won't last forever. If you want to strike while the iron is hot, you need to understand the symptoms of the fever and how you can turn them to your advantage.

These phenomena are nothing new. In varying degrees, they characterize every fin de sicle (end of century) period. But the fever has a special intensity this time around, for several reasons. First, it's the turn of a millennium, not just a century. Of all the world's inhabitants, past and future, we are the few privileged to usher in a new millennium. The world was thinly populated in the year 1000, and the year 3000 is too distant even to contemplate.

The omnipresent, omnivorous, obsessive, and influential media are also amplifying this particular era. People magazine features a cover article on "The Greatest Love Stories of the 20th Century." "In the Kitchen of the Future Robots Will Cook" was the tongue-in-cheek (or was it?) prophecy headlining a full-page piece in a recent New York Times. The media are leaping on the millennium with a passion hitherto reserved for the O.J. trial and celebrity divorces.

Seventy-some million baby boomers, already the most commercially influential population cohort in history, will have turned 50 between 1996 and 2014, more or less coinciding with the new millennium. They will have both sufficient motivation and leisure for mooning about the past and fantasizing about the future. Sheer numeric strength means their attitudes will color the entire society.

The information age will also amplify the fever. Spurts of religiosity and interest in spiritualism have figured in other fins de sicle. This time, the outburst of cults and New Ageism have a techno-twist (see "The Cultural Logic of Heaven's Gate," page 50). Symptom 1: Paradox and Oscillation Paradox and oscillation occur inevitably at the ends of centuries. We are, after all, not only in a period of beginnings and endings, but as we get closer to the year 2000, the margin between end and beginning becomes progressively narrower, until the last nanosecond of the old millennium juxtaposes with the first nanosecond of the new one. A preview occurred last summer, when clocks in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shenzhen ticked down the seconds leading to Chinese rule.

The strongest paradoxes relate to time and technology. People seem to be trying on both the past and future for size. Retro-chic and postmodern architecture recap the fashions of the entire 20th century. These tendencies co-exist, often in the same people. Millennial Fever is a phenomenon of inclusion, not exclusion. It's an era of both/and, rather than either/or.

In the world of marketing, "meta-advertising," first visible several years ago, recycles past images and campaigns. Kellogg's revives old Corn Flakes packaging, Exxon brings back "Put a tiger in your tank." AAMCO inserts original black-and-white footage into current ads, Dean Witter runs faux footage portraying old Dean himself, and Ford shows spots with original Mustangs. Coke, the world's master marketer, dusts off old logos and bottles, and, most notably, uses the icon of a vintage bottle cap with the word "Always" worldwide, "Always" encapsulating both past and future.

All of this nostalgia takes place, of course, on the same TV screen where microsecond edits morph impossibly into cyberdelic techno-creatures. And as more of life gets lived on screens, technology goes from the physical to the mental, and the world becomes dematerialized. At the same time, shopping malls get larger and larger, as more people crave physical interaction with other human beings. Bank branches, which were supposed to disappear, are increasing in number. And Generation Xers pierce and tattoo their bodies, simultaneously denying and affirming corporeality.

Marketing Implications: Companies and brands have to show a commitment to the future, but in a relaxed and user-friendly fashion. Be careful about being "futuristic;" don't make it scary. Remember the creepy MCI commercials featuring the little girl from The Piano? That's precisely what not to do. Reassurance is essential. Don't present the future as a brave new world, but the future as a new, improved version of the present. "Welcome to the future of money," says MasterCard, understanding that a warm and welcoming future puts people at ease.

Since people feel destabilized and need reassurance, companies and brands should communicate their heritage. There's never been a better time to remind people how long you've been in business. Coca-Cola, again, is a model of how to do this. Old brands have lots of power here. Companies such as General Motors and AT&T should take full advantage of their longevity. Such sentiment may not have saved the Sears catalog or Woolworth's, but it's tempting to think what might have been if they'd hung in there a few more years.