Y2Camera: Disposable Cameras Are Back
While for previous generations, what you wore served as the leading source of self expression, it's widely known that for emerging generations today, what you post online is the leading form of self expression. While the social landscape continues to gravitate towards video as the dominant format, it's clear that still images remain an important aspect of the digital content ecosystem. Just this past week, it was discovered that even TikTok is exploring a photo-based product to rival Instagram's grid and feed.
Point and shoot cameras from the early 2000s are making a comeback -- they've been on the rise since 2019, with disposable cameras in particular showing a recent spike in sales.
Creatively speaking, we've seen a clear shift over the past few years from social content that is overly curated, or posed, to a cultural affinity for more candid social content. Simply put, looking like you're trying too hard in social became...uncool. Not unrelated, Waiting In The Sky's recent research found that "Unserious BTS" is now one of the highest performing content formats in an Entertainment campaigns's creative content mix. Visually speaking, disposable cameras channel the Y2K-aesthetic that has become visible across pop culture, and they also celebrate content capture that is much less perfected, and so much more candid. Culturally speaking, it's also worth considering how the disposable camera offers appeal as "slow tech" -- for a certain slice of culture, having to wait a few days for pictures to develop is believe it or not, a novelty.
As one user put it on social, "developing pictures from a disposable camera allows us to re-live the fun of that night, be surprised, and maybe even totally shocked by what we got." This recent spike in disposable camera intrigue, and its aesthetic, is a creative opportunity for Entertainment campaigns. Consider supplying disposable cameras to talent on set to leave behind for BTS, or provide them to attendees at experiential events to fulfill your content capture needs (you could even have people write their social handle on the camera for photo credit). Just be warned, the average cost to now develop a disposable camera starts at roughly $15!