CDs, DVDs, and VHS are having a moment
Culture is chronically online, hyper-connected, and algorithmically influenced. Screen time is at an all-time high, fast becoming the default disposition. And with every pendulum that swings, you begin to feel a pull back in the other direction. Gen Z has consistently had a sense of anemoia, nostalgia for a time they were never alive – from a love for Y2K fashion to shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Friends that came before them. Vinyl sales, for example, have grown 300% in the last decade. While there has been an ongoing romanticism of our not-so-distant past and an allure of record collecting for a while, these forces appear to be intersecting to drive a growing sense of joy in collecting analog media: CDs, DVDs, and VHS are having a moment.
In a landscape of endless feeds, so many series, and bottomless Reels – there’s emerging value and fun things happening with slower Entertainment in physical form. While the resurgence of vinyl may have resulted from the explosion of access to music with the introduction of platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, the growing intrigue around physical media like CDs and VHS tapes feels less like nostalgia and more like rebellion—a quiet protest against algorithmic control over what we watch, hear, and discover. As algorithmic discovery becomes the primary mode of learning about new Entertainment, hand-selecting physical media empowers audiences by giving them back some sense of control in pop culture discovery.
Gen Z was said to value experiences over things. Now, they’re curating experiences through things. For previous generations, displaying books on a shelf was a way to express identity. Now, we’re seeing vintage(ish) media—CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes—taking on that same role, showing up in Zoom backgrounds, living rooms, and creative spaces as curated cultural statements of taste. For upcoming campaigns, marketers should look to these analog spaces—consumer products, physical media, unexpected partnerships—as fertile ground to deepen emotional connection. Take the Criterion Collection’s mobile truck, for example—a traveling pop-up that lets fans physically browse and build their DVD collections. It's proof that when done right, analog can become an experience in itself, creating new ways for audiences to connect with Entertainment IP.