Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

Nostalgia Sells

Aired July 14, 2001 - 13:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of market researchers are using nostalgia as inspiration. DaimlerChrysler has reported success with its PT Cruiser, which has echoes of the '50s, but of course nostalgia can stop with the looks. The rest of the vehicle is pure 21st century. And if you cruise through K-Mart these days, that flashing light is not a police car. The store chain has relaunched its blue- light special, and kicked it off with a $25 million ad campaign.

What's behind all this return to yesteryear? Let's get the thoughts of Diane Brady, she is an associate editor with "Business Week" magazine, and she joins us from New York. Hi, Diane.

DIANE BRADY, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, "BUSINESS WEEK" MAGAZINE: Hi.

KELLEY: What makes something nostalgic? I mean, how do you know if it's going to be popular? What do you look at?

BRADY: Well, I think what makes something nostalgic -- first of all, if it's not around anymore then you have a chance to miss it. I missed "Fantasy Island" because it's not on TV anymore. If it was still in reruns, maybe I wouldn't be so nostalgic.

I think the second thing is marketers are using the songs of -- you know, if not my youth, then somebody's youth -- to basically play on the emotions of consumers. We live in the time of missile shields and cloning and eight different types of PalmPilots -- people feel nostalgic for what they think were better times.

KELLEY: So, would it be age maybe and just the big baby boomer generation, they're trying to appeal to that generation?

BRADY: Always blame the boomers. But I think that...

KELLEY: I'm not blaming them, I'm just asking.

BRADY: ... I think, I think it always appeals to a lot of -- there's differences. For the boomers for sure, they're careening down the road to retirement, and there's no question that they are feeling nostalgic for the icons of their past. But for Gen-X, they are taking a lot of these products with sort of a bit of kitsch, a bit of an ironic twist. For the younger generation, I think they just simply like the look.

I mean, with the cars, for example, we are not talking about Mercedes or high-end Jaguars, these are $15,000 cars, they're small, they're sporty, they're good-looking. They're not the tanks that you can drive into battle, we're not nostalgic for those cars from the early '70s or '60s. So you know, they're cute.

KELLEY: Yeah, I wouldn't blame them, because I'm one of them, Diane. And here's the Bug, I mean, this has been hugely popular, hasn't it?

BRADY: Yeah, and the Bug, is very evocative. The Bug was distinctive when it was around the first time. You know, it's -- it's love, it's hippies, it's listening to The Beatles and smoking pot, whatever people associate with it, but it was a cute car. It was flower power. But now it's back, and not -- probably not as clanky as it was in the '60s, it's got all the year 2000 amenities with the look and the cuteness of days past.

KELLEY: And you know what else is interesting about that, Diane, when you talk about the boomers, and people, you know -- and maybe it makes us feel young, or we just liked it before, but also the younger generation, what's the appeal there?

BRADY: I think there's -- I think there's a little bit of irony, a little bit of kitsch. I mean, retro is always popular. I think it's part of the humor. There's a lot of fun. I think of Austin Powers. I think "Wallpaper" magazine.

Nostalgia is just a human instinct. I mean, Renaissance Italy, they were nostalgic for ancient Greece, and they didn't even know what it was about. I remember being in China, there was nostalgia for communist cultural revolution cuisine, which believe me, would not make it onto the Food Network. For some reason, there is an instinct in humans to be nostalgic and emotional for an earlier time. And for the younger generation, I think they like to absorb a lot of these icons and make them their own.

KELLEY: Yeah, just kind of fun and hip for the younger folks, and then maybe those of us who might be a little older, makes us feel younger. Just kind of nice, you know, all the way around. What else is hot? We've talked about the cars, we've talked about the blue- light special. What else is kind of trendy in the nostalgia era?

BRADY: It seems there is a lot of different trends. I think that packaging you see -- Cracker Jack redid its box with that little dog, you know, the raisins have new packaging. I think certainly you're seeing it with low-end consumer products: shavings cream, Coke came out several years ago with the plastic bottle shaped like the old retro bottle, and in some cases the sales increases were double digit. It was a very big success for them.

We are seeing it also with just sort of the look and the feel of clothing. Retro is always in. You know, Gucci had a big hit with doing the '70s look in the last year or so.

So, I think it's permeating everywhere, and in some cases you're seeing completely new products that are simply being sold in a nostalgic way. My son is seven months old, he was wearing an Old Navy t-shirt that said "1998" on it, which seemed very retro to me, but Old Navy is one store that's really played on its 1950s image, and believe me it hasn't been around that long. So, everybody has discovered that old sells.

KELLEY: Yeah. I should have saved some of those '70s clothes. Diane Brady, who is associate editor of "Business Week," thanks for talking to us. It was fun.

BRADY: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com