Retrofied Social Media Print Ads

Posted by Olivia dela Rosa on October 10, 2014


If you're part of the generation that didn't need Google to do their homework, congratulations for braving an Internet-less world, which meant you just didn't really have a choice back then. 

It's kind of amazing to think that Facebook is just 10 years old. Our lifestyles have changed ever since social media sites like Facebook and Twitter came into our lives, completely reshaping the way we interact with the world.

This leads us to wonder, how have we survived our pre-social media days? Just as important, what would social media look like if we them had back then? Like way, way back?

Finding answers, we look at graphic designers who have perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the past through these social media print ads.

Everything Ages Fast Campaign

Just Like How People From “Mad Men” Would Make Them

Brazilian ad agency Moma Propaganda created these retro future ads for Maximidia Seminars. Called "Everything Ages Fast", the ad campaign included vintage interpretation of Facebook, Skype, Youtube and Twitter, and looked like they came straight out of Don Draper's office. Each element of the social media was reimagined to better illustrate the futuristic past: the bulky monitors, handheld phones and a device that would pass as a tablet. The dated-yet-clever copies and vintage typefaces effectively execute the period the campaign is trying to inspire. The whole thing reminds us of The Jetsons' too.

Facebook Vintage Ad

The Facebook Company: Striking, Miraculous, Social Team-Up!
Because nothing is more straightforward than a double-ended arrow. 

 

Twitter Retro Poster

Twitter: The sublime, mighty community with just 140 letters! 
JUST 140 letters. More than that, the letters will fly out of the screen, as indicated in this ad. 

 

Youtube Retro Advertisement

YouTube! The Champion Address On The Internet!
"Send and watch splendid and captivating films, 24/7" Apparently, Netflix is still unheard of.

 

Skype Push to Speak Poster

Skype: The Fabulous Voice System Able To Put Your Family Together
Works seamlessly like an intercom - push to speak.

 

Web Services Covers Therapy 

If Social Media Today Were Reimagined As Penguin Books

Stéphane Massa-Bidal is a designer and art director based in Epinouze, France. Better known as Retrofuturs, he is the genius behind this series of social media posters reimagined as Penguin book covers called "Web Services Cover Therapy". 

Retrofuturs described his creative process on an interview with +81 magazine: 

"'Web Services Covers Therapy' started when I suddenly remembered while walking down the hallway at home an idea that had been rattling around in my head for many years to do something with social networks and Penguin book series. My way of doing things is to apply one code to another and challenge the viewer. My job, and the true role of symbology, is to analyze several phenomenon and find the relationship between them. Facebook and Twitter are already widely known, but I wanted to convey the history behind them."

Facebook the medium

Facebook: "The medium is the message" 
We have no idea what Platypus Services mean. 

 

Youtube Big Brother is watching you

Youtube: "Big Brother is watching you"
"Animal Farm" vibes in the air.

 

Tumblr photo sharing retro art

Tumblr: "A photograph is always invisible, it is not it that we see"
Waxing poetic. 

 

Twitter to be followed or not

Twitter: "To be or not to be followed"
Soliloquy is the way to go. 

 

Wikipedia hardcopy cover retro style

Wikipedia: "I have just got a new theory of eternity"
If it's in Wikipedia, then it must be right. 

 

Linkedin Friends Poster

LinkedIn: "A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have"
Is it just me or is it channeling Machiavelli?

 

Vintage Last FM Music Poster

Last.FM: "Play the music, not the instrument"
Listen with the brain, not with the mouth. Something like that. 

 

Aaron Wood's Propaganda Posters

We Want You!

“Be brief! The enemy might be listening in!”

We found Aaron Wood’s social media propaganda posters more than amusing. A Feeding Hills, Massachusetts-based graphic designer, Wood creates these propaganda posters under the name of Just One Scarf.

In 2012, he took this project in Kickstarter for funding and eventually had them up for sale in his Etsy shop
Below are just some of his work on social media, as he extended this project to food and technology. 
 

Facebook join the cause

 

Facebook poster art

 

register for Facebook

 

Google Communist poster

 

Retro Google Plus

 

Instagram Capture the moment

 

Twitter Poster The Enemy is listening

 

Victory is in a Tweet Poster

 

Facebook Manners and You

10 Breakup Rules of Facebook

Technically, this video project by Kevin Osgood is not a print ad. But the intent is the same: a retrofied ad for a social media - and a good one at that. Presented by Big Fuel, it shows 10 etiquette rules specifically for Facebook, using a couple's breakup as the perfect scenario. Basically the dos and don'ts of online breakups, the comical script, clever production (loved the part when she uploaded his pictures) and a setting that came straight out of I Love Lucy truly worked.

Click to watch the video.

 

Screenshots from the video:

Facebook manners

Seems harmless at first. 

 

Vintage Typewriter

Look at that monitor. Wait, is that ... a typewriter?

 

Facebook status change

This is where the fun begins. Dude has a girlfriend. Dude changed status to single. Dude added a new girl. 

 

Current state of mind

Current state of mind. 

 

Facebook Manners

Just don't. 

 

Vintage USB Port

See that? THAT is the mother of all USB ports!

 

no good ending

Let's see how this will all turn out. 

 

This is how it turned out. 

 

The End

Well, that was fast! I hope you enjoyed these "retrofied" ads that never hit the billboards.
It sure was fun researching and posting these.

Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comment form below!

About the Author

Olivia dela RosaOlivia dela Rosa
Freelance writer and editor since 2011. Major design enthusiast. Resident writer and trendhunter for Printingdeals.


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