![]() ![]() There are approximately one million ice cream brands (all with slight variations on their value propositions) you can now order via the internet, and you can even buy chickpea-based cookie dough cups from P.S. ![]() These offerings are various and sundry: whimsical cereals like Magic Spoon and Offlimits, gummy bears given new life by Behave, chicken nuggets made of plant-based meat via NUGGS. Imagine if you could eat like you ate when you were eight: sugary, processed delights packaged in colorful, fun packaging, but with the added benefit of not being horrible for your health. While ads that remind consumers of their youth are able to help move products, actual products that are better versions of the things consumers bought in their youth are even more appealing. Now nostalgia appears to have taken an even deeper step into the brand-building process - in the form of a new wave of direct-to-consumer companies that have decided to model their entire businesses around it. All of these campaigns call back to specific cultural moments in order to connect with consumers and sell them things. Think of The Australian Tourism Board using a Crocodile Dundee parody, Dos Equis and The Most Interesting Man in the World or even the traitorous “Can you hear me now?” guy becoming a spokesperson for T-Mobile after filling the same role for years for Verizon. And in quarantine, Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s Verzuz battles have become a juggernaut by pitting two beloved musicians against each other in virtual duels on Instagram Live.īrands have also long used nostalgia as a tool to resonate with consumers. Throwback Thursday, the practice of posting old photos on social media, has long been a reason for people to share endearing or humorous memories for their friends to appreciate. Theme parties based on specific eras have always been crowd pleasers. Rather than ground us in the past and keep us looking backwards, it is mostly attached to positive feelings: studies have shown that nostalgia can improve mood, make us feel more connected to others and increase vitality. While I dreaded the test itself, it was ultimately attached to a feeling of anticipation for good things to come, a time when there were still mountains of possibility and I wasn’t yet resigned to the dutiful slog of adult life and all the responsibilities that come with it.Īs Huffington Post points out, nostalgia is often a bittersweet feeling, and one that is especially common for people in their 20s who are going through life transitions. ![]() When the dream is over, I awaken with a sense of soft-lit nostalgia, having briefly revisited one of the happiest times of my life. The dream always ends before the test takes place, perhaps a realization of the theory that you can’t actually die in your dreams, perhaps an attempt by my psyche to transmit that feeling of nervous anticipation into the waking world. ![]() I’m back at my small liberal arts college in the Hudson Valley and it’s the night before the soccer team’s fitness test, a two-miles-in-12-minutes ordeal that caused me no small amount of anxiety throughout the entire summer leading up to preseason. I have a recurring dream that’s at once eerie and comforting. ![]()
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