Spotify’s Witty Wordplay Posters Invite You to 'Listen Like You Used To’

Spotify’s new OOH campaign in the UK is encouraging people to go back to their musical roots and ‘Listen Like You Used To’.

The quirky ads from creative agency Who Wot Why centre around a series of copy-driven jokes that play on Brits' nostalgic listening habits.

Playing with British cultural references, lyrics, artists and track names, the posters target music fans who laid down the foundations of their musical tastes between 1979 and 1999.

The overall message of the outdoor ads is that while your life, and the world, may have changed since you first listened, the songs you loved remain as classic as they were back then.

Featured artists range from Brummie reggae act UB40 to ‘90s American alt-rock legends The Smashing Pumpkins and all the way back to the glory days of punk rock in one ad that references The Clash’s 1979 ripper ‘London Calling’. Fast forward 40 years and the punk rockers have ended up 'conference calling'.

Spotify’s been serving up copy-based realness with its billboards for a few years now. The music streaming platform transformed users' odd listening habits into 2018 goals. And before that it used data from listeners and pop culture topics relevant to events in 2016 to say ‘Thanks 2016, it’s been weird’.