Trend Setter

From The Wa*ll Street Journal:

The roller-coaster stock market and plunging housing prices have left many consumers afraid. In response, marketers are adopting a softer approach to peddling their wares, playing up comforting images in their ads and focusing on family and the warmth and safety of home.

Some marketers are even reviving old advertising to remind consumers of happier times.

On Monday, Pillsbury, a unit of General Mills, launched a brand campaign about the pleasures of staying in. Dubbed "Home Is Calling," the campaign includes television, print, online and other ads. They feature a variety of characters -- a businessman, a young boy in a library and a woman at a train station -- who click their heels, envisioning a way to get home and eat with their friends and loved ones.

"The economy is so frightening," says Juliana Chugg, president of Pillsbury. "This campaign is an opportunity for us to represent hope in a time when people are feeling scared. To be able to connect home and values like safety, security, warmth and love at home really resonates."

Amid wide-spread economic woes, marketers are ratcheting up images of family and the warmth and safety of home.

I watch trends in the marketing part of my job. This new focus on HOME is a bit ironic. Give the nation everything it's ever wanted and more, then turn the economy upside down, and now sell with a focus on home. Home IS where the heart is - always has been. Perhaps we're catching up with ourselves.

Now to find an article on the trend of turning to God...