Algorithmic Nostalgia Vs Modern Realism In Festive Storytelling

A funny thing happens when festive advertising begins. The diyas come out, homes are decorated, families reunite, and someone is almost always returning home just in time for Diwali.

After watching enough festive films, you can often guess the story before it unfolds. And having sat through enough festive brainstorms, I’ve realised that we, as an industry, have become rather good at telling the same story in different ways.

It makes me wonder, with all the consumer insights, audience data and creative tools we have today, why do so many festive campaigns still feel alike?

Rise Of Algorithmic Nostalgia

I think we’ve become so focused on understanding what makes people feel something that we’ve started repeating what worked before. When a family reunion gets the views, we make another family reunion. When nostalgia strikes a chord, we return to it the following year. Eventually, we end up with films that look emotional but feel interchangeable.

I’ve started thinking of this as algorithmic nostalgia - turning familiar memories into a formula for making people feel something.

There’s nothing wrong with nostalgia itself. A grandmother lighting a diya, siblings fighting over the last piece of mithai, or a parent rushing home for Diwali can bring back memories that are deeply personal. The problem begins when we assume that because these moments worked once, they will always work.

Data validates what we already know, and AI makes it easier to reproduce these stories across languages, audiences and platforms. But somewhere in that process, we risk confusing familiarity with relevance.

Think about the Diwali we typically see in advertising - the well-lit home, the perfect rangoli, the family dressed in festive clothes, gathered around a table full of food. It looks lovely, but is that how everyone really celebrates Diwali?

The India celebrating the festival today is far more varied. It’s that 21-year-old in a rented Mumbai flat who can’t afford to fly home. It’s a family celebrating over a video call, with a phone propped against a water bottle. It’s someone working through the festival while the rest of the city celebrates or a couple figuring out how to bring two sets of traditions together.

These stories may not fit the familiar festive template, but they are no less emotional. In fact, they might be more interesting because they reflect lives people actually recognise.

From Familiarity To Authenticity

That, to me, is where modern realism comes in. Not by making every festive film edgy or ironic, but by paying closer attention to the details we often overlook.

I’m not suggesting that brands abandon nostalgia. Festivals will always be about memory, ritual and belonging. But borrowing a familiar memory isn’t the same as finding an original way to tell a story.

As marketers, we sometimes forget that knowing what works and knowing what feels genuine are two different things. When my team brings me a festive idea, I find myself asking could any brand tell this story? If the answer is yes, we probably haven’t found what makes it distinctive yet. I also want to know whether the emotion comes naturally from the story, or whether we’re relying on familiar cues to do the heavy lifting.

Beyond The Festive Formula

This matters even more today, when campaigns have to work across films, reels, creators, retail and commerce, while delivering business results. There is pressure to make every idea work harder and travel further. But in adapting a story for every platform, we must be careful not to lose the reason we wanted to tell it in the first place.

So, in a recent festive brainstorm session with my team, I decided we should start somewhere else. Instead of asking, ‘What can we do for Diwali?’, we asked, ‘What is happening in people's lives this Diwali that is worth telling a story about?’. Because the festive films we remember aren’t necessarily the ones that show us what Diwali should look like. They’re the ones that remind us of what it feels like to celebrate it.

This article was first published in BW Marketing World. Read the original.