Bring back the good times

When we're young kids we want so bad to grow up and do all the cool things that older people do. When we're older we yearn for the feeling of being carefree and young again. We would do anything to go back to the simple days when we anticipated play dates not pay days. When summer days consisted of theme parks and thrills not cellphone bills. A time when we could enjoy our favorite ice cream without guiltily making plans to jump on a treadmill afterwards. These days we find joy in the little things that remind us of those good times when we were younger. A concoction of these sentimental memories and advertisements can wind up being a very successful product.
The advantages and disadvantages of nostalgia in advertising depends on the success of the product. In the cases where products can get people to remember times from their past, AND provide great taste, feeling, service it is a success. The advantages of choosing to advertise with nostalgic references is that advertisers already know what was popular with their target audience. If something was popular with a certain group of people before, it will be popular with that same group of people today. This time it has the added admiration because it brings along the same feelings that people can only reminisce about nowadays.
One disadvantage that can come from nostalgia marketing is if the product being advertised, fails to meet the standard of what the person expects. Tapping into the past and bringing forth memories can be bitter sweet, so if a consumer finds that the product being advertised doesn't accurately bring them the same feelings they had in the past it can be a major setback for the advertising campaign.
I think nostalgia campaigns work better when they are used to market items such as candy, toys, or clothing. These are items we have strong connections with when we are young, so they make us remember the most blissful moments of our childhood. Products that might not be so successful with nostalgic highlights would be electronic devices. Society is pretty persistent about progress with technology. It's actually quite brutal. Once the next big thing comes out, or updates become available, anything and everything before that becomes obsolete. I can't imagine an add trying to take us back to the stone age. I did come across an add for internet explorer. It brought back so many memories. I found myself smiling, and saying out loud, "oh yeaaah!" I am a chrome user myself, and I really only ever use I.E. if I absolutely have to. The product was anonymous until the very end, but by then I was already sold on whatever it was.