Nostalgia contrasts with present day to make Smartphone Free Childhood's campaign hit home

Set in a 1990s video rental shop (rebuilt for real in Slough) Smartphone Free Childhood has created a disquieting moment of reflection.

Much as we’re all smitten with streaming services, our yearning to revisit the good old days mixing with neighbours at the video store is hard to suppress.

A new film campaign by Smartphone Free Childhood and Arts & Sciences taps into this urge, recreating a fully functioning video store to contrast past and present forms of childhood entertainment.

The ad begins with familiar scenes of a family browsing video store aisles, debating film choices, before reframing them against today’s smartphone ecosystem, where children have unrestricted access to vast amounts of unsavoury content, often shaped by algorithms rather than parental oversight.

Rather than relying on dry stats or expert intervention, the campaign uses nostalgia and contrast as its primary tools.

The film, set to hit cinemas, was produced pro bono by Arts & Sciences, directed by David Dearlove and produced by Kwok Yau, with leadership from managing director James Bland and executive producer Charlie Orr.

The project’s eerie visuals and production were made possible through editing by Stitch, post-production by Black Kite, sound design by 750mph, and a score by Twenty Below Music.

Video nasty

By physically reconstructing a shared cultural memory, Smartphone Free Childhood’s effort invites audiences to question how quickly norms have shifted. 

The result is poignant and instantly translatable.

While most campaigns use nostalgia to provide comfort, this one uses it to unsettle.