Kodak moment

• (sentimental moment): Slogan of an Eastman Kodak Company advertising campaign, 1980s.
• (business): In reference to the Eastman Kodak Company's decline when cameras and film were overtaken by smartphones and digital technologies, 2010s.

Kodak moment (plural Kodak moments)

1. (informal) A sentimental or charming moment worthy of capturing in a photograph.
   • 1994, Laramie Dunaway, Women on Top, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 104:

     ‘Don’t you ever stop? This is not going to be a Kodak moment, I promise you. It’s not going to be hugs and tears. There’s no place for a swelling violins sound track.’

   • 2003, Marissa Marchan, A Marriage Made in Heaven and Hell:

     Instead she held his hand and they walked together. I looked at both of them and I knew that it was a Kodak moment. I was so proud of my daughter.

   • 2005, Michael Savage, Liberalism is a mental disorder: Savage solutions:

     These Islamic headcutters in headscarves are so warped, they consider beheadings nothing more than a Kodak moment to share with friends, followers, and foes alike.

2. (business, informal) The situation in which a business fails to foresee changes within its industry and drops from a market-dominant position to being a minor player or declares bankruptcy.
   • 2014 May 25, Patrick Connor, “This is the Kodak Moment for the Auto Industry”, in Cars With Cords‎:

     THIS is your Kodak moment. Kodak moment, in this case, does not mean a moment to capture on film; rather, it means the time in history when an upstart technology changed the game; e.g., digital photography emerged and Kodak chose to ignore it until it was too late.

   • 2015 May 29, Clara Denina, Silvia Antonioli, “Platinum sector faces its Kodak moment in fuel cell technology”, in Reuters‎, archived from the original on 1 June 2015:

     Platinum sector faces its Kodak moment in fuel cell technology [title]

   • 2015, David Butler, Design to Grow: How Coca-Cola Learned to Combine Scale and Agility (and How You Can Too):

     Every large company or brand or product must adapt to be relevant. Every company is right now afraid of having a Kodak Moment.

   • 2015 April 30, Jerry Ross, “The Wrong Kind of “Kodak Moment” Will Big Banks Become the Next Victims of Tech Disruption?”, in LinkedIn‎:

     A “Kodak moment” might better refer to the failure of a once-dominant business to respond to a disruptive new technology—in Kodak’s case: digital photography.

• Hallmark moment