Why iconic brands are slowing down in the fast-paced attention economy

Long-form storytelling and cultural confidence are helping iconic brands like KOKO and Reebok stand out, says Holly Platt-Higgins, creative, VCCP Roar.

It’s likely you’ll have seen a crop of long-form ads causing a stir this week. From McDonald’s to Reebok, all the way down to the well-worn streets of Camden, several iconic brands have been making a surprising strategic move: slowing down. But why?

In the era of AI slop and famously short attention spans, why are some brands directly rebelling against the attention economy? Is it simply the desire to make something so beautiful, so choice, that it can’t be branded AI? Or is something more interesting going on?

The ad that caught everyone’s eyes was KOKO’s 125th anniversary ad. It’s so simple, so smart, so self-aware. The way all good creative is.

KOKO’s one-minute forty anniversary ad not only recognises the history and evolution of a building that has somehow managed to burn down twice, but also celebrates, in equal measure, all the people who’ve partied in it.

The ad’s stylistic choices, the lighting, the music, the layering of disposable photos on top of each other, all speak to the venue’s current place in culture, the people who are actually in the queue on a Friday night. But the ad’s narrative, the movement from the ravers to the rockers, the Kebab shop owner's hairstyle changing subtly in the background, all ensure that the people who once were in the queue on a Friday night for KOKO feel included too.

And that’s why it's a great ad: it holds KOKO’s past and present in the same hand, celebrating its place in today's zeitgeist while honouring what it meant to previous generations.

It’s the same story for Reebok.

Its recent ad featuring Off Campus star Belmont Cameli (a TV show theoretically about hockey, but mostly about shagging, which Cameli does a lot of) doesn’t ignore the fact that Cameli’s dance performance with The Kid LAROI went viral for reasons that were not, in fact, musical. Cameli’s glasses coming off in the ad just before he steals the show, taking to the stage himself, reads to me as a knowing nod to the current cultural conversation.

But this isn’t just Reebok slapping a celeb in their ad to buy them some cultural cache. Cough Pepsi Kendall Jenner cough. Reebok’s got dance heritage.

The Reebok Freestyle was a trainer designed specifically for women when the aerobic dance craze took over in the 80s. (Thank God I wasn’t around for that.) But it was so insanely popular that it accounted for half of Reebok’s global revenue in 1984. The Freestyle was the trainer that helped the brand become a contender against the likes of Nike.

Now, to me, the song in its new ad sounds pretty 80s. Belmont’s vest and shirt combo? It’s not giving Uniqlo, that’s for sure. And you’d be forgiven, or at least I hope I will be, for thinking that the sock in the final shot, just as the Reebok logo shows up, looks a little bit like a leg warmer all bunched up like that.

So, I reckon the reason these iconic brands are using long-form to tell their stories is because taking your time, refusing to be rushed, signals a certain level of confidence.

And that’s exactly what we're seeing here. Two brands genuinely confident that they have a compelling story to tell, one that’s worth listening to, and crucially, one they themselves understand.

KOKO and Reebok have incredible histories, undeniably, but they understand how that history relates to the current culture and, more importantly, their place in it. That’s where the magic comes from, and that’s why they can afford to take their time: they know exactly what they’re saying.