Remember that day when...! (Nostalgia)

Definitions

“A wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to ones name or homeland, to one’s family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time e.g. a nostalgia for his college days.” (dictionary.com)

“When a stimulus is capable of recreating a personal event, even after many years, there often follows a bitter-sweet sentiment known as nostalgia” (Dubois, 2000)

“Nostalgia has been described as a bitter sweet emotion, where the past is viewed with both sadness and longing” (Solomon 2000)

Advertisers can use many things to trigger nostalgia such as the 5 senses. Music, images, smells, touch and taste can all trigger memories from the past. I asked mum to think of a few things I loved when i was a little and from this I have made a collage of pictures. It's amazing how many memories came rushing back when putting this together!

As you can see, I was a huge fan of characters such as Noddy, Gordon the Goffer and Lamb Chops and I loved bands such as steps and Spice girls. The pictures of Micky and Minni mouse represent my favourite childhood holiday to Disney World, Florida and the kitten was my first pet named Sooty. (Unfortunatley she got taken to a ‘cat farm’...!) My favourite food as a child was boiled egg with soilders which kept my energy up for Irish dancing!

You may be wondering about the photo of the middle aged man with the moustache… well, aged just two, I was a huge fan of racing (hence the collection of toy cars!) and my first peoper sentence included the words ‘Flat out’ (in a little kid's voice!) and ‘Nigel Mansell’ so I have the potential to be his youngest ever fan!

Making this collage with Mum was great fun, sparking a lot of uncontrolable laughing and story telling. If an advertiser were to use some elements of my childhood (1990’s) in an advert I know I would be very interested in the product and would talk a lot about the advertisement to others. This in itself would create publicity for the product and spark interest amount others around the same age as myself.