In 2024, I predicted GAP’s comeback. Now comes the hard part.
The past, present, and future of the brand we all love and hate.
My post was titled “This is how an iconic brand failed at nostalgia marketing.” As GAP hasn’t really capitalised on their legacy and music, while everyone was already using nostalgia as a brand strategy.
What I said in 2024… wasn’t a prediction.
Nostalgia goes through 4 different states in marketing:
First, The Original definition: “A longing for something far away or long ago, or for former happy circumstances.”
Romanticism Nostalgia: It squeezes the juice out of nostalgia because romanticism kills everything in the long term. But brands get everything they need in the short term.
Performative Nostalgia: It makes people recall a product/content as nostalgic, but they never fully experience the feelings associated with it.
Value Nostalgia: This one makes you act on your nostalgia. #NostalgiaCore makes you search on YouTube, or artists like Sabrina Carpenter & Halsey make you rewatch 2000s music videos.
Nothing but Nostalgia: Campaigns that ride too hard on the wave of nostalgia but forget their current missions and goals.
The most abused states are romanticism nostalgia and nothing but nostalgia. Brands like SKIMS and McDonald’s use both when they want consumers to feel nostalgic.
However, these brands are already doing good business, and their other ad campaigns are magical and huge.
For GAP, the brand’s presence (pre-2024) in terms of ad campaigns and product development hasn’t been the best. What they have to bank on is their history of being loved by consumers, and their editorial ads from the 90s and 2000s were widely appreciated.
Many Gen-Zers love GAP clothing they inherited from their parents. But...
GAP’s quality declined, and the Yeezy collaboration took the brand too far away from its original roots. Also, they have low activity on social media.
GAP is still doing only 1 post a day on every platform. They never adapted to the needs of fast-moving social media platforms like Reddit & Twitter.
For now, we are ignoring what they didn’t do:
Late to every fashion trend, plus no original trend like Levi’s got their big break with Gen-Z; GAP didn’t in the last 3 years.
Decline in quality and product innovation.
A fashion piece can be boring to one and exciting to another. GAP never went to others for “boring” tag removal.
Logo fiasco.
Your reason in the comments.
These things happen, GAP can’t compete with fast fashion or whatever. But they had one element to make consumers escape and buy their products.
I forgot to include the worst but biggest state of nostalgia in marketing.
Digital Nostalgia: It is not tied to your memory, the digital version breeds on your identity. Our digital identities are quite fragile. The internet moves fast, and sometimes you feel lost if you don’t keep up.
My friends feel lost every day, me too. The internet is always ahead of you. That’s why we like to hold onto trends and content that define us.
Digital nostalgia doesn’t make you remember better times or memories to make you happy. Rather, it helps you remember content and ideas that make you look cool and feel included.
The best brands (0.1%) know this, and they have been going back into the internet archive to make you react.
You feel like now this brand will help you keep up because they know you, you are no longer lost. I feel at home. That’s digital nostalgia-daily work for brands, but sales and awareness will increase.
Lastly, nostalgia is the noise we seek to be reminded of being in good times. The noise we seek to escape. Millennials and Gen-Z put on their favorite shows again and again, watching Sex and the City or Gilmore Girls for the 10th time while scrolling or shopping.
That nostalgic noise is making us happy. Brands use your favorite 2000s graphic design, millennial aesthetic, Y2K, and more elements to create this nostalgic noise. It helps them keep your attention and build brand memory.
Going back to GAP, it’s 2024. What is the brand doing with nostalgia?
GAP went back to its roots by having established celebs wear their products: Anne Hathaway wore their white shirt dress.
Good, but no homage paid to their OG covers everyone loves. Maybe next time!
GAP x Jungle starring Tyla leaned a bit into nostalgia and their roots by having that khaki vibe through stage background and visuals.
Their Fall campaign from last year with “culture shapers” forgot their brand thrives on having backgrounds that depict lifestyle, not boring ones.
They do the opposite of “Show, don’t tell”.
Every caption focused on their brand history is too literal and boring. Words like “Heritage”, “Pride”, and mentioning ‘90s in captions don’t awaken the feelings a brand needs. You need to be indirect, talk about stories from that era, use phrases from the ‘90s.
GAP is good at Future Nostalgia: Their partnerships with PALACE and ongoing “GAP Kids” ad campaigns make the older demographic reconnect with a brand they love.
Good if their goal is to keep the same customer base and not make money in the short term. This brand play is good for the long term.
GAP never revived their most millennial-coded ad campaigns. If they did, GAP would be getting the same exposure that Mark Zuckerberg gets for being the most average millennial fashionista.
Mark Zuckerberg is the perfect example of how fashion speaks if we allow it to do so. As a GAP fan, I believe they have been lazy with their approach to nostalgia and fashion. They could use “romanticism nostalgia” to promote their old clothing lines. Capitalize on the old editorial work.
Brands like M&Ms are also reusing their ad work in the name of sustainable advertising; GAP can also add that to boost campaign credibility.
Value Nostalgia for GAP is to do CDs and physical media with ‘90s media and music.
Do better social listening to know when to capitalize on brand faces like Anne Hathaway. That means launching a Devil Wears Prada reel when the news of the upcoming part 2 broke.
Performative Nostalgia: Doing branding like Vacation Sunscreen and Spotify’s campaign “Listen to What You Used To”. They can launch a new ‘90s-inspired collection.
Digital Nostalgia: Not to judge the social team, maybe they have strict guidelines. Making the brand sound boring on social media.
GAP will benefit heavily from Digital Nostalgia if they do it right.
How did they fail at Nostalgia in one sentence?
They didn’t have the GUTS to reuse their iconic work.
Too many brands are like GAP, they are not scared of consumer backlash. They are scared of Marketing backlash.
What’s next… GAP in 2026
As you can tell, my write-up was more of a critique of nostalgia marketing, but it was a fair assessment of where GAP stood in 2024. They had just started with musical campaigns and were following the fast fashion to high fashion playbook by styling celebrities like Anne Hathaway.
At this year’s Met Gala, GAP’s looks got positive attention, and that’s Zac Posen for you. The designer has the talent to make fast fashion look like it belongs at the most prestigious fashion event.
I don’t think GAP is doing enough to avoid falling into fast fashion categories, though. Yes, they are doing red carpets, but Zara is out here doing wearable art and seasonal campaigns that feel high fashion. If there is someone GAP should be paying attention to, it is Zara.
People are obviously loving the musical campaigns, from Katseye to Young Miko. Nostalgia remixed for new generations is paying off. Some people call it world-building, but it’s really just legacy play.
GAP’s problem is similar to Calvin Klein’s. Both brands now have an identity built around hiring the sexiest or trendiest celebrity for new launches with mega budgets. That’s the default state.
When that becomes normalised and feels less like a cultural event, they will need a new positioning. Nostalgia and generational marketing are two roads that may feel never-ending, but eventually, you run out of fuel.
GAP’s obvious plan should be learning from Zara. They are constantly blurring the lines between luxury and fast fashion marketing. The less obvious move is funding artists instead of sponsoring the next breakout star.
Because, as we’ve seen with Peloton making a musical and theatrical ad with Hudson Williams, and Saint Laurent rushing to hire Connor Storrie, everyone has figured out the game of treating new artists with mega budgets. That has been the playbook, brands becoming the new magazines, putting stars on the cover and in the campaign.
The next move for a brand with a musical history is to fund the artists who may go on to shape pop culture. I’ve heard they have already hired a chief entertainment officer. My fingers are crossed that they do the right thing.
The nostalgia playbook is not going anywhere. It will get played out, though. So GAP probably is not going to struggle for a while... my guess is until around 2028.
Brands need to fund culture, hijacking isn’t enough.