As Mark Twain once said, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. With that in mind, I believe advertising is currently in a rhyming couplet with the mid-2000s.

On the surface, the cultural cues are uncanny: a second-term Republican president in the US, a Labour government in the UK, and we’re five years away from the last recession. Meanwhile, Robbie Williams, the Manic Street Preachers, and the Stereophonics are all topping the charts again; Oasis tickets are the most sought-after in the country; and the biggest movie of the summer is a Mission Impossible sequel starring Tom Cruise.

But in the narrower, more idiosyncratic world of advertising, the similarities are even more striking. I’ve recently seen KitKat ads that look like they were shot by prime Traktor, Rubicon spots that feel inspired by the golden era of Kuntz & Maguire, and Wuthisak Anarnkaporn is currently channeling the surreal brilliance of 2005 Thai award-winners like Suthon Petchsuwan.