Seriously, what’s with all the references to the eighties and especially to the nineties? Are we trapped in a nostalgic vortex that prevents us from focusing on the future? The last couple of years there has been a marketing movement that’s bringing back all the trends and products from those decades. From toys, clothes, remakes, DVD sets with our favorite cartoons, series, and movies, to fashion, food, music, and, yes, tattoos. Now, what’s the deal with this? Well, tattoos are all about expressing who we are, what we like, or all those memories that made us the person we are today. So, from that perspective, having a tattoo with our favorite character makes some sense. But is it really a form of showing our identity or is it just part of the nostalgic trend we’re living in?
Longing for the past is part of human’s condition. Moreover, looking at our childhood is a natural phenomenon we use to be aware of who we were and how we’ve grown up. More importantly, it’s looking at those times when we had no apparent problems and life was just about having fun. It’s longing for the simplicity of life. Just take a look at any other generation, like your parents or your grandparents, and think of how they speak of “their times.” That’s another important thing to notice: we always speak of “our times,” as if the present wasn’t part of ourselves, or as if we were stuck in that precious past.
While this longing is completely normal and natural, this blast from the past we’re experiencing nowadays has suddenly taken over many products. So, why is this happening in this particular way and at this particular time? The answer is simple: it’s all about marketing. Many brands and companies use their consumers’ emotional link with the past, as well as collective nostalgia, to make them buy products that take them back to “their times.”
Important brands are always studying the preferences of their target audience, and this particular generation has proven to be one of the most moldable ones. In an interesting comparison, just like the people of the fifties who would buy anything just because it represented modernity, this generation will consume anything that brings them back to their past. While marketing has always used this type of strategy, nowadays it’s easier for them to do their research because most of the people are constantly sharing their lives and tastes through social media. Before internet became as widespread as it is today, brands had to make surveys and other kinds of studies to see the interest of the people. Now their job has become a bit easier, since we all share our preferences and dislikes.
So, why are we obsessed with the nineties in particular? Again, it’s all about this marketing strategy. The reasoning behind it is that reliving icons and brands from the past makes us feel happy. But the case of millennials is not the same childhood nostalgia of other generations. We lived in a transition era: from the simple and modern eighties, to the digital evolution of the 2000s. We, nineties kids, were born in a period of modernization with TV and VCRs in almost every house, yet we were all far from that fast access to information. That’s why we created an emotional bond with cartoons or movies, because they were the things we had immediate access to. Think of children nowadays. There are so many trends appearing every day that they don’t really connect on an emotional level with them. They enjoy, consume them, and then pass to the next one. That was not our case. We still long for those moments, and continue to consume those products because they make us feel the excitement of that time.
With all the horrors we’re currently facing and all the complexities we have to face to succeed in this competitive world, nostalgia is the place where we find shelter and where we go back to those simpler times. So, I guess that getting a tattoo of Reptar or Catdog can be our own millennial way to go through life.
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You might want to see these Tattoos That Only Look Good On Millennials.
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Source:
Forbes
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