Jeremiah 29:11

I now know why I love the Challenger.

Excerpts from a recent article I read:

Nostalgia ads work, but why?
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SPOKANE, Wash.

When you see pictures of old muscle cars, do you want to buy a new Dodge Challenger?

When Leonard Nimoy finally spreads his fingers in the Vulcan salute, are you ready to buy Aleve?

A nostalgia ad is any ad that evokes a bittersweet recall of the past, Sprott said. It can recall an earlier time in which a person was alive, or even a time before they were born.

But in general, life experiences that people have in their 20s - and the music, cars and clothes that accompanied those experiences - form the basis for nostalgic feelings.

Well I owned my Challenger when I was 17-23 years of age so that explains it.

"Stuff we experience right out of college structures the general preferences for the rest of our lives," Sprott said.

Nostalgia ads are particularly popular during the Christmas season, when the media is filled with ads showing people rushing home for the holidays, they said.

"Nostalgia works when you have a great brand that truly has history," Northrop, executive director of the agency, said.

Yep...the Challenger was a bad car.

When people became nostalgic for their own past, the feelings were often bittersweet, they found.

"The reason it is bittersweet is that the memory is positive in most cases, but we really cannot return to that time," Sprott said. "That's where the sadness comes in."

Wrong, as soon as the Challenger comes out I am buying one.

"You can't return to the high school prom, only experience it vicariously," he said.

Nostalgia tends to be affective rather than cognitive, meaning it is feelings-based rather than thought-based, they said.