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Although the new millennium doesn’t strictly speaking begin until 1 January 2001, the year 2000 packs the bigger psychological punch – and people in some parts of the world are getting hit hard. ‘It feels like something big is about to happen,’ writes Danny Hillis in The Millennium Clock. ‘Graphs show us the yearly growth of populations, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, Net addresses, and Mbytes per dollar. They all soar up to form an asymptote just beyond the turn of the century: The Singularity. The end of everything we know. The beginning of something we may never understand.’

Living in this time of enormous change – a period that spans the second and third millennia – fosters a sense of historical importance that leads to an increased drive to leave one’s ‘mark’ on whatever field or endeavour one is involved in. Individuals will assess their lives in the twentieth century, making pacts with themselves for changes that will be brought about in the twenty-first – the ultimate New Year’s resolutions. For the eve of 31 December 1999, reservations already have been made to ring in the new year on the QE2, on the international dateline and in New York City’s Times Square.

Cause for Celebration?

‘The actual celebration of the arrival of the next millennium isn’t as important in the East as it is in the West. While looking forward to the onset of the next millennium, the current economic situation has put a damper on expectations. The overall attitude is one of hope,’ reports Yoshitaka Abe, CEO & president of DY&R Tokyo. But, he adds, this business climate spells angst. ‘The economic downturn is at the forefront of businessmen’s minds. The ‘millennium bug’ is a worry for computerized companies. New Year’s Eve [of 1999] is looked forward to, but not being made as big a deal of as in the West.’

Stuart Harris, a market research practitioner based in Kuala Lumpur, explains: ‘Overall, the millennium is a European milestone (including honorary Europeans in the Americas) and is an imported concept in much of Asia. The Chinese think of their history in terms of 6,000 years. Buddha’s followers may well have his birth time (around 500 BC) as their reference point, and Muslims (most of Indonesia and half of Malaysia) haven’t yet reached 1,500 years since the birth of the prophet. So, although they’re all counting our years too, I would suspect that they don’t feel it so deeply.’

While part of what’s next is very definitely a sense of globality, reaction to change, including the change of centuries in the West, is deeply local. Millennial angst isn’t the same everywhere. ‘In Canada, consumers’ concerns about changes in the new millennium tend to centre on changes to their personal situation,’ reports Laurence Bernstein, an account planner at Y&R Toronto. ‘They will be older and, therefore, more dependent on government assistance in the form of pensions (which they believe won’t be available) and healthcare (which they believe will be severely cut). Younger people are concerned that when they enter the workforce, they will not be able to find employment or their chances for advancement will be limited due to people retiring later. Therefore, there is some concern and darkness in their view of the postmillennium society.’

‘People in interactive entertainment see the next millennium as a golden Digital Age,’ says Sven Meyer, managing director of Psygnosis, Germany. ‘Most people in this industry see the year 2000 and beyond as an almost unlimited hunting ground for business opportunities.’ Around the world, businesses are rushing to register names associated with the changing century. Companies are getting creative, coming up with such catchy names as ‘nu.millennia inc.’, chosen by a San Diego-based publishing house.In cyberspace, a host of millennium-oriented Websites has been constructed, and many more are in development. Search engine Infoseek currently offers links to more than 50,000 such sites (search term: millennium).

A Mixed Reaction

In the popular square in front of Paris’s Georges Pompidou Centre, a digital clock has been counting down to the millennium since 1987. Yet currently, the mood across most of Europe seems to fall a long way short of eager anticipation. Only the UK, Denmark and, possibly, the Netherlands are looking forward to the big click-over with optimism.

The remaining countries are certainly anticipating change, but for many it’s something to be endured rather than embraced. Even the changes countries have actively pursued, such as the single currency and the European Union, are now viewed with less optimism than they were just a few years ago. In short, many Europeans fear that life won’t be as good for them in the next century.

Edward Appleton, managing director of Y&R GmbH Frankfurt, reports that unemployment continues to be the big headache for Germans, who were previously accustomed to steadily rising living standards. In 1998 the Germans decided change was in order, electing as Chancellor Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder, who has his own website, and whose youthful charisma prompts comparisons to Bill Clinton as well as Tony Blair. Despite this outcome, Helmut Kohl goes into history as the politician who reunited East and West Germany, and brought Europe on track for one European coin.

Citizens of Sweden and Switzerland fear that their cosy prosperity will not last into the new millennium. Katarina Varenius of Hall & Cederquist/Y&R Stockholm anticipates the collapse of Sweden’s comprehensive social security system, while Sonja Huerlimann, an account planner of Advico Y&R Zurich, reports widespread consternation in Switzerland, which is located in the middle of the European Union but is not a member: ‘The overall attitude at the moment is fear, uncertainty, and instability, largely caused by the explosive rise of unemployment, which nobody was aware of a few years ago. Globalization also worries the Swiss people.’

France, too, is entering a period of self-doubt. The centralized structure of authority which has existed since the Napoleonic era, and a widespread sympathy with socialist principles, has led the French to expect the state to sort out their problems and provide for the future. Yet the state has proved powerless in the face of stubborn unemployment. Account planners Dominique Missoffe, Françoise Weishaupt and Claire D’Hennezel at Y&R Paris report a depressed social climate, a sense that things are stuck and increasing numbers of people looking for individual solutions and individual autonomy. The big question for many is whether the country will get behind this reforming, self-help trend and celebrate it in time to use the turn of the millennium as an emotional springboard into global next.

The Spanish are famed for their capacity to celebrate a good ‘fiesta’, which they did for many years following the death of General Franco in 1975 and the restoration of democracy. But as Lola Gonzalez, consumer research director of Y&R Madrid, reports, anticipation of the new millennium is ‘contaminated’ by the fact that in 2002 Spain will enter the EMU (Economic and Monetary Union) with consequent economic, social and labour-market effects. There is also fear that the European Union subsidies will dry up as the EU switches development resources from southern European to eastern European countries.

Italians have long been enthusiastic supporters of the European project, partly out of gratitude for development funds and partly in the hope that Brussels would give them better government than their own politicians. Y&R Milan believes that the country is approaching the millennium with a mixture of fear and optimism. Italians feel poorer than in the recent past and fear that the future will not be better as technology and cheap labour abroad will threaten jobs. On the other hand, these fears are balanced by some positive developments that few would have imagined possible just a few years ago – low inflation, public debt under control, a stable government, agreement on institutional reform and some healthy, big companies.

All in all, the mood of Europe at the turn of the millennium is likely to depend very much on economic news and the progress of the single currency project which begins 1 January 1999. If all goes well, it could well be party time across the Continent, with optimism and millennial energy spilling over into the next century and driving forward Europe’s essential reforms and restructuring.

The Biggest New Year’s Celebration?

In contrast to its Continental cousins, the UK is one of the places in the world in which the dawn of the new millennium is most eagerly, and anxiously, anticipated.

The Scots are famed for their boisterous celebration of New Year’s Eve – Hogmanay – and over the years, the rest of the UK has absorbed their traditions and enthusiasm for the occasion. If it’s important to celebrate properly on a normal New Year, then for many it will be vital to celebrate the turn of the millennium memorably. The big concern, according to Jim Williams, director of strategy & research, Y&R Europe, is not to be left out, not to be one of the sad souls living through the great moment at home alone.

Preparations for a truly memorable event are well under way, especially on the site of the Millennium Dome, a vast and controversial edifice being constructed in the heart of London’s Docklands. For the time being, the focus of British attention is on New Year’s Eve 1999 itself, rather than what lies beyond, according to Landor’s Adrian Day, senior executive director.