Shake it like a Polaroid picture

May 27, 2009 • 3:20 pm • POSTED BY anna hartley

When we were all busy singing “Shake it like a Polaroid picture” along with OutKast a few years ago, we probably didn’t foresee the tumultuous future in store for Polaroid. With Polaroid film costs spiking to around $5 per page, it might be wise to treat the metaphorical photos with a little more care.

Polaroid has always been popular among hipsters who carry the boxy cameras around ironically and snap still photos of things like their feet and unsmiling friends and graffiti-covered urban landscapes. (Wondering if you are a hipster? Click here.) Still, the outdated technology witnessed a decline. By 2007, the Polaroid bigwigs to decide to stop producing cameras, followed a year later by the decision to halt film production as well.

But then, an interesting thing happened. As we all know in advertising (and in life), once something is denied us, we suddenly want it. Word started to spread that there was a finite store of Polaroid film and cameras left in the world, and suddenly a lot of people who hadn’t thought about Polaroid in years were reminded of their childhood photo shoots. Outdated, yes, but Polaroids took on a different, more nostalgic purpose.

Thus, the birth of a niche good.

Now, a group of Dutch scientists are trying to resuscitate the production of Polaroid instant film. (Read about it in more detail here.) Nobody’s going to document their entire life in a photo album full of $5 Polaroid pictures, but that doesn’t mean the good itself has to die. This is an interesting case of the way that a product can change roles within a marketplace by appealing to a new audience and occupying a different role.

While we’re on the subject, to look at a public gallery of uploaded Polaroids, click here.

Hey ya! He-ey ya!