Aspirational lifestyle ads – filmed in Spain, but a world away for most

Spain's youngsters face uncertain times, but offer hope for the future

Flatscreen TVs, snazzy smartphones, funky cars designed for city living – big businesses spend big bucks on selling us these things.

Their adverts are uniformly flashy and aspirational, and usually feature good-looking, ethnically diverse friends frolicking across beaches and through attractive cities with wide boulevards, beautiful old buildings and neon-lit backdrops.

Many of these locations are filmed in Spain. The brilliant sunlight, the warmth, the diversity of the landscapes, the vibrant nocturnal streets and the stunning architecture found all across the country lends itself to selling such a dream.

But for millions of young Spaniards raised on this TV and billboard diet of consumption – of living fast and free with friends blessed with perfect teeth and a healthy disposable income – this dream is becoming increasingly out of reach.

There’s a certain cruelty to this. Such adverts have always looked preposterously exotic to Brits and other northern Europeans forced to shiver and scowl their way through their cities and beaches for half of the year. But Spaniards – particularly young Spaniards of the last few generations – have been able to live out a life not too far removed from those seen on TV…

A gregarious, warm and friendly people, Spaniards love to socialise in large groups: to gather around fountains in the middle of their ancient, beloved cities; to seek shade in parks while enjoying a picnic banquet fit for a king’s family; to hop in their cars and hit the coast for a weekend of sun-drenched fun, and to stay out late enjoying the warmth of the evening and the vibrancy of the twilight city streets.

But the bliss has turned into a crisis for millions of Spaniards.

Since the economic downturn in 2008, living standards have been slowly eroded, with 2012 a particularly painful nadir for many. Some 800,000 people lost their jobs in Spain last year. Unemployment stands at 26 per cent across the country. For Spaniards aged 25 and under, that figure is closer to 50 per cent. Average household disposable incomes have shrivelled by 10 per cent since 2008, and the country’s National Statistics Institute estimates that a third of all Spaniards are at risk of falling into poverty.

Thousands of Spaniards have responded by leaving the country to find work elsewhere in the EU. Many have flocked to Britain; loads have gone to Germany. Some have even headed to South America – an exodus that reverses a decades-long trend of Argentinians, Peruvians and Ecuadorians jetting to Spain to find their fortune.

Millions of others, though, cannot leave. The majority don’t want to. Spain remains a remarkable country that is simply having a tough time of it.

In fact, the current woes are nothing new. Older Spaniards can remember even leaner times. It’s the younger generation, the post-Franco babies brought up in a liberal and – for many years – economically robust country who are finding the going tough.

The adverts, cruelly, mockingly, continue to roll. Austerity continues to bite, and living standards continue to fall. But Spain needs its aspiration. It needs its children, teens and young professionals to keep the faith. It needs to protect against brain drain. It needs British, German and Scandinavian tourists to carry on visiting – spending, sightseeing, swelling the resorts. And it needs these foreigners to keep on investing, buying property and snapping up real estate.

There’s no reason why all aspects of Spain’s society has to suffer. The lifestyle remains as wonderful as ever, as does the climate, the terrain and the miles and miles of beautiful beaches.

Things are getting better. Those aspirational lifestyle adverts are still being filmed, and being filmed in Spain. Young Spaniards are still dreaming, and that’s what counts.