You’ve probably seen it by now: Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are back for a Freaky Friday sequel (or as it’s formally known as, Freakier Friday). The original was peak 2003 – questionable low-rise jeans and (even more questionable) chunky highlights.
So why is Disney digging back into the vault? And why does it work? Because they’re not just selling a movie, they’re selling a memory. That’s nostalgia marketing in its purest form.
What is nostalgia marketing?
Nostalgia marketing taps into the emotional connections people have with the past. It’s not just about simply remembering, it’s about triggering the feelings and experiences tied to a specific moment in time. It works because above all, feelings sell.
Think:
- The smell of brand new gel pens.
- Your first After Eight on Christmas day.
- Waiting all year for the Argos catalogue to drop.
Burger King’s retro rebrand
Back in 2021, Burger King quietly dropped their 20-year-old shiny, digital-era logo and brought back a version inspired by their original 1969 branding – complete with flat colours and chunky, 70s-inspired typography. It wasn’t about playing dress-up in vintage clothes, it was about reclaiming their heritage and signalling a return to ‘real’ ingredients, flame-grilled authenticity, and a simpler time when fast food didn’t need a glossy lens flare to sell itself. Because that’s exactly it: fast food isn’t glossy, or flashy, and why should they pretend to be?
It resonated with long-standing customers who remembered Burger King ‘back when’ – and looked fresh to younger audiences drawn to their retro aesthetic approach. All in all, it landed well, and even more brands are looking to leverage nostalgia’s emotional pull.
Claire’s Accessories: when nostalgia meets reality
Of course, not all nostalgia stories feel quite so triumphant. Take the recent news of Claire’s Accessories going into administration.
For millennials and Gen Z, Claire’s was a rite of passage woven firmly into our childhood. Remember your first pair of earrings? And that slightly terrifying ear-piercing gun?
That’s the sting: even if most of us haven’t stepped into a Claire’s for years, there’s still an emotional pull. Its decline feels like watching a little piece of your childhood fade away, and it’s a reminder that while nostalgia may sell, it doesn’t guarantee survival if the brand can’t evolve with its audience.
Still, there’s value in recognising the role it played, and for many, the pink-and-purple chaos of Claire’s will always live rent-free in our memories.
However, if we peel back another few layers, it’s important to identify exactly why it works:
- Familiarity builds trust. In uncertain times, people gravitate towards what they know. A familiar brand look, product, or cultural reference feels safer than a brand-new unknown.
- Emotion over logic. We like to think we buy with our heads, but we don’t. Nostalgia bypasses the rational brain and heads straight for that illogical, spontaneous part.
- It’s a shortcut to identity. If you grew up with a certain brand, music, or movie, seeing it again connects you instantly to a version of yourself you remember fondly.
- Childhood innocence: people tend to remember the simplicity of childhood more fondly than the messy reality. Brands that tap into that rose-tinted memory facilitate their customers’ metaphorical time travel back to their younger years.
The recent nostalgia wave, and COVID’s role in it
Since around 2020, nostalgia marketing has been everywhere. From Y2K fashion comebacks to “heritage” packaging revivals, brands have been digging into the archives. But why now?
Because COVID was an era of uncertainty, isolation, and (let’s be honest) boredom, people looked for comfort wherever they could find it, often in the past. Streaming platforms leaned into old favourites, toy brands reissued classics, and every other fashion retailer seemed to think 2004 Paris Hilton was the blueprint. Post-pandemic, that craving for familiarity hasn’t gone away. In a fast-moving, tech-saturated world, the past feels like an anchor.
But it’s not all rose-tinted…
Nostalgia marketing isn’t just dusting off an old logo or running a sepia-toned ad. If it feels lazy, opportunistic, or completely detached from your current brand reality, people will call you on it. Take Burger King: before their full heritage rebrand, they rolled out a retro-style campaign without updating the broader brand experience. The throwback visuals clashed with their then-current branding, making it feel more like a gimmick than a brand-wide shift. The trick is blending the familiar with the new:
- Keep the emotional pull, but evolve the story
- Respect the original audience, but invite new ones in
- Make it feel intentional, not like you ran out of ideas
So here’s how to use it yourself.
If you’re thinking about playing the nostalgia card, ask yourself:
- What era or moment are we referencing and why?
- Does it align with our current brand values, or are we just dusting off an old logo because it feels easy?
- Are we adding something new to the conversation, or just recycling for the sake of it?
The truth is that nostalgia is powerful, but it’s also fragile. It’s difficult to get right, but when you do, you’ve tapped into a deep emotional well that builds instant trust and cultural cut-through. Get it wrong, and it feels like lazy pandering – the brand equivalent of clickbait.
The trick is balance: use nostalgia as a bridge, not a crutch – honour what people loved in the first place, but package it with relevance for today. That way, it proves your brand still has something to say instead of just triggering warm memories
Nostalgia done right is about moving forward with a little help from the past. When you strike that balance, you don’t just get a gimmick. You get growth.