MORE things that make people nostalgic around the world (your picks)
Summary
TLDRThe video explores the phenomenon of nostalgia surrounding everyday consumer objects from the past. The host, JJ, highlights how certain items like notebooks, chocolate bars, and kitchenware evoke strong sentimental feelings in various cultures. Viewers from different countries share their own examples, including nostalgic items such as British Freddo chocolate bars, Russian video games, Brazilian kitchen aesthetics, and Taiwanese plastic sandals. The video emphasizes how these objects become iconic symbols of a bygone era, representing cultural identity and consumer trends, even inspiring modern merchandise and quirky memorabilia.
Takeaways
- 📔 The video discusses how ordinary consumer objects from the past have become nostalgic cult items, with the example of Canadian notebooks being highly nostalgic for Millennials and Gen Xers.
- 🍫 In the UK, the Fredo chocolate bar is a sentimentalized item, with its price fluctuations jokingly referred to as 'Fredo flation', indicating the changing economic times.
- 🥤 Ecuadorians have a nostalgic attachment to 'Beba', a sweet beverage in baby-shaped plastic bottles, despite its odd taste, and it has inspired themed merchandise.
- 🇫🇷 In France, the scent of Cleopatra glue has led to the creation of nostalgically themed perfume, shower gel, and deodorant.
- 🛏️ South Africans have a nostalgic connection to a specific mattress pattern, which has been repurposed into fashion items and is seen as a symbol of cultural heritage.
- 🏭 Swiss supermarket Migros' budget product line from the 90s has a distinctive green packaging that is now used on ironic and fashionable items.
- 🏪 A Danish tobacco girl poster from the 40s and 50s has become a minimalist aesthetic symbol and is still popularly displayed in homes.
- 🧊 American 'Jazz Cup' paper cups from the 1990s are now remembered through ironic merchandise and the original designer's unexpected fame.
- 🍦 Deformed popsicle molds, particularly of cartoon characters, are a source of nostalgia and humor in American culture.
- 🇧🇷 Brazilians have a nostalgic attachment to 60s and 70s kitchenware, which is now seen as a symbol of national pride and is used in modern contexts.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the video?
-The main theme of the video is how ordinary consumer objects from the past have become the center of nostalgia, with various examples from around the world showing how people form sentimental attachments to these objects.
What specific example of nostalgia does the host give from Canada?
-The host mentions nostalgic notebooks used by Canadian Millennials and Gen Xers in elementary school, which are now being turned into guitar pedals as a sign of their beloved status.
What is the concept of 'Fredo-flation' in the UK?
-Fredo-flation refers to the nostalgic and humorous tracking of the increasing price of Fredo chocolate bars in the UK, often used as a way to joke about the economy and the rising cost of living.
What nostalgic object from Ecuador does the host mention?
-The host mentions 'Beba,' a nostalgic drink for older generations in Ecuador. It was made from jelly powder mixed with water and sold in baby-shaped bottles. Despite its odd taste, it remains a nostalgic trigger.
What unusual product inspired by nostalgia does the host mention from France?
-The host mentions that in France, the smell of Cleopatra glue has become so nostalgic that it inspired products like perfume, shower gel, and deodorant.
What is the nostalgic object related to mattresses in South Africa?
-In South Africa, a specific floral pattern found on old mattresses has become a source of nostalgia, with the pattern now being used on clothing like shirts and shorts.
How does nostalgia around supermarket products manifest in Switzerland and Canada?
-In Switzerland, the 'Migro budget' green packaging has become iconic and is now used on nostalgic merchandise. In Canada, the 'No Name' yellow packaging evokes similar nostalgic feelings.
What is a nostalgic kitchen item from Brazil that Millennials and Gen Z are fond of?
-A nostalgic kitchen item from Brazil is the 'filtro de barro,' or clay water filter, along with a specific type of ribbed cup known as 'Lago inha glass,' which is part of the retro aesthetic many Brazilians appreciate.
What is the iconic nostalgic object associated with school life in Spain?
-In Spain, the term 'EGB generation' refers to those who went through the Spanish education system in the 1970s to 1990s. Nostalgia for this era includes items like textbooks and school supplies, which have inspired modern-day merchandise.
What example does the host give of a product that sparked public outrage when it changed its design?
-The host gives the example of Stella Artois beer glasses in Belgium, which replaced their traditional ribbed glasses with chalice-style glasses. This change caused significant public backlash, as people were attached to the original design.
Outlines
📔 Nostalgic Consumer Objects and Their Cultural Impact
The video script discusses the phenomenon of ordinary consumer objects from the past becoming nostalgic cult items. The host, JJ, shares examples from various countries, such as Canadian notebooks, UK's Fredo chocolate bars, and Ecuador's Beba beverages. These items have inspired merchandise and discussions about their sentimental value, reflecting cultural and economic changes over time.
🌍 Global Nostalgia in Consumer Goods
This paragraph explores how different countries have their own unique nostalgic consumer items. From France's Cleopatra-inspired products to South Africa's mattress pattern fashion, each item represents a cultural memory. The US is highlighted for its Jazz Cup and cartoon character popsicles, while Brazil and Spain also have their own nostalgic kitchenware and school-related items, showing a global trend of sentimentality towards consumer goods.
🏭 Nostalgia for Communist-Era Consumer Products
The script delves into nostalgia for consumer goods from the communist era in Eastern Europe and beyond. It mentions PRL nostalgia in Poland, Yugo cars in the former Yugoslavia, and Soviet-era LED games in Russia. These items, despite their practical shortcomings, are cherished for their historical and cultural significance, reflecting a complex relationship with the past.
🍺 Consumer Goods and National Identity
The final paragraph discusses how consumer goods can become symbols of national identity and trigger public sentiment. It covers cases like Stella Artois beer glasses in Belgium, Uruguayan chocolate milk cartons, and the Kinder chocolate bar in Germany. These examples illustrate how changes to iconic products can lead to public outrage and a desire to preserve traditional designs, highlighting the emotional connection people have with familiar brands.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Nostalgia Cults
💡Sentimentalized Objects
💡Consumer Goods
💡Cultural Nostalgia
💡Ironic Merchandise
💡Economic Times
💡National Brands
💡Communist Era Nostalgia
💡Cultural Artifacts
Highlights
Ordinary consumer objects from the past can become the center of nostalgia cults.
Canadian notebooks from the past are nostalgic for Millennials and Gen Xers.
Guitar pedals made to look like nostalgic notebooks are an example of capitalizing on sentimentality.
The Fredo chocolate bar in the UK is a sentimentalized item, with its price fluctuations jokingly tracking the UK economy.
Ecuadorian 'Beba', a sweet beverage, is a nostalgic item despite its oddity.
French children have a fondness for the smell of Cleopatra glue, leading to nostalgic-themed perfumes and shower gels.
A South African mattress pattern has become a fashion statement for generations X and Millennials.
Swiss supermarket Migros' budget product packaging has been repurposed for ironic fashion.
Canadian 'No Name' supermarket brand's packaging is used in nostalgic and whimsical contexts.
Danish 'Tobaks/span' poster is a minimalist aesthetic and a reminder of post-war consumer booms.
American 'Jazz Cup' is a 90s nostalgic item now seen in ironic and kitschy objects.
Cartoon character-shaped popsicles are a nostalgic food item in American culture.
Empty Bimbo cans and butter cookie tins are used for storage, reflecting a mix of nostalgia and practicality.
Brazilian Baby Boomers' kitchen aesthetics are still popular among younger generations.
Spanish kitchen items like a specific can opener and glassware are iconic and sentimental.
Spanish Millennials have a sentimentality for the 'egb' education system and its associated items.
Mexican grade school textbook covers are now a source of memes and souvenirs.
East Germans have a nostalgia for consumer goods from the time of the GDR, known as 'Ostalgie'.
Communist-era cars in Poland, Hungary, and former Yugoslavia are a source of nostalgia and collectibles.
Russian nostalgia for late Soviet-era LED games, especially an egg catch game featuring a wolf and bunny.
Transcripts
Hello friends my name is JJ and last
week I made a video talking about the
phenomenon of ordinary consumer objects
from years past becoming the center of
their own little Nostalgia Cults the
example I led with were these notebooks
from Canada which are an extremely
nostalgic item for Millennials and gen
xers up here because these were the
notebooks that we used when we were in
elementary school there is a company in
Winnipeg making guitar pedals done up to
look like these books which is the sort
of thing you see when a nostalgic object
is truly beloved you know people making
and selling all sorts of knick-knacks of
it in order to capitalize on the
sentimentality anyway I asked you guys
to give me some good examples of
similarly sentimentalized nostalgic
objects from your countries and boy oh
boy did we get some fun ones so join me
won't you as we take a little tour of
nostalgia triggering objects of the
world my friend fighty fish
1779 starts us off with this interesting
tale from Great Britain in the UK the
Fredo chocolate bar is very
sentimentalized it's basically a very
cheap frog-shaped bar of chocolate
you'll often hear older people say
things like I remember when a Fredo was
only 10p and the fluctuating price of a
Fredo bar is a common way to joke about
the state of the UK economy and the cost
of living I looked into this and he's
right the Brits even have this whole
concept of Fredo flation as a sort of
pseudo scientific process of tracking
just how things ain't what they used to
be in this 2016 Telegraph story they
published a little chart noting that the
cost of Fredo bars has significantly
outpaced the British rate of inflation
increasing over
4.55% per year if Fredo prices continue
to rise at a consistent rate by 2030 one
of them will set you back and ey
watering 38p they note with considerable
alarm food was by far the most common
thing that you guys identified as being
at the center of nostalgic Cults in your
countries and more often than not it
wasn't even particularly good food as
this example from my friend from Ecuador
illustrates in Ecuador we have some old
timey disgusting sweet beverages called
Beba a weird way of saying baby that are
basically jelly powder in water put into
a SAU baby-shaped plastic bottle I do
not get how they were ever popular but
they still exist as a Nostalgia trigger
for Boomers and genxers I recently found
out that you can now buy Beba themed
merch and I saw a Beba shaped lamp at
the local designer store on that note
some of your examples of modern-day
merchandise made to capitalize on the
nostalgic memories of old products were
pretty bizarre for example my friend
Pierre informs me that a lot of children
in France an grew up using a brand of
glue called Cleopatra and apparently
fondness for its distinctive smell is so
strong that they now sell Cleopatra
inspired perfume shower gel and
deodorant here is one from my friend
Ryan from South Africa a strangely
specific one from South Africa the
pattern from a mattress it was so
ubiquitous that Googling South African
mattress pattern brings it up in all of
its' 7s color themed Floral Glory it
came back into fashion recently being
worn proudly on shirts shorts and
possibly even underwear by gen xers and
Millennials and perhaps to a lesser
extent their children a similar example
comes from my Swiss friend claudo who
tells me about a pattern associated with
the popular Swiss supermarket chain Mig
gr apparently in the 9s they introduced
a line of lowcost products called migro
budget that Fe feat this distinctive
green packaging and now the pattern from
that packaging is often used on ironic
shirts and shoes and sunglasses and dead
spreads this is actually very
reminiscent of something similar that we
have in Canada our dominant supermarket
chain law BLS also introduced a line of
budget products known as no name that
were very popular in the 9s and you
often see its distinctive yellow
packaging style used in similarly
Whimsical contexts by nostalgic
Millennial types another Supermarket
related example comes from my Danish
friend uh Renard one thing that I can
think of in Denmark is the poster with
the tobac span or the tobacco girl this
was an ad that came about in the 40s and
50s from a supermarket group known as
FDB which later became coup which is
still a Mainstay of the Danish consumer
market today so many people even those
who wouldn't have been alive at the time
that these ads were ruined hang these
things on wall as a minimalist aesthetic
that fits really well with the general
Nordic design of grayscale paint beyond
that it just reminds people of the
post-war boom when The Wider world and
the consumer booms of Life came to the
average Danish household that said there
have been debates on the P nature of the
ad since it also calls back to an
orientalizing Viewpoint to boot Africans
and other people of the global South but
for the most part the debate has not
really changed its population the artist
of this design agay siker Hansen was
also responsible for other designs such
as a coffee one for the circle coffe
that's also a common poster in my
childhood home and in many Danish homes
we had both hanging up in our hallway
now obviously the good old us and day as
the world's dominant producer of
consumer goods has produced no shortage
of nostalgia triggering things indeed we
could argue that much of the world's
Nostalgia these days is basically just
Nostalgia for American things whether
that's American cars fashion TV shows
music or fast food that said the US has
also produced a few consumer products
that aren't that well known outside of
the states but are the subject of
enormous sentimentality within the
country the object my American viewers
brought up the most was this the
so-called Jazz Cup this was a cheap
style of paper cup that was extremely
ubiquitous in the 1990s seen in all
sorts of places that were too stingy to
use real cops including the dentist
office School cafeterias outdoor parties
and the break room at your parents
office today memories of these cups live
on mostly in the form of ironic kitchy
objects done up in their distinctive
pattern but my favorite example of this
particular nostalgic cult is the fact
that the graphic designer who came up
with the cup design back in the 9s was
eventually Tracked Down by reporters who
wanted to hear the full story behind
this beloved American original it was an
unanticipated burst of Fame for a woman
who was clearly a little bemused that
this was what her Legacy was going to be
I don't understand it these cartoon
characterface shaped popsicles are
another thing that a number of my
American friends mentioned usually Sonic
or SpongeBob I think anybody under the
age of 40 grew up with these things in
some form and you see them parody a lot
in American culture these days I
remember this one guy did a performance
art piece with this sort of popsicle
done up in the shape of various American
billionaires in order to let you
literally Eat the Rich the grotesqueness
of these things is also fairly legendary
given how deformed the faces often get
not only as they melt but often just due
to sloppy construction at the old ice
cream factory Nickelodeon actually sold
a set of plastic figurines of deformed
SpongeBob popsicles reflecting just how
Central this one weird aspect of them
had become to their nostalgic appeal
another great American example comes
from my friend Rebecca who like many
Americans is half Latino and half white
and she says for lots of young Latino
kids it's the empty booo cans storing
something totally different and on my
white side the butter cookie tin storing
sewing supplies I actually bought a set
of this type of cookies a while ago not
actually wanted to eat them but because
I knew I wanted to store my thumbtacks
and rubber bands in this type of
container other heavily sentimentalized
American containers from decades past
that you guys brought up include this
pitcher with a suction lid often used
for frozen orange juice this blue and
white ceramic pot for casseroles and
using either country Croc margarine tubs
or Cool Whip containers for storing
leftovers in the fridge speaking of
kitchen wear my friend Vinnie Scott dude
from Brazil says most Baby Boomers in
Brazil still have hes that are stuck in
the' 60s and 7s and a lot of Millennials
and genz are nostalgic for this
aesthetic and based on what some of my
other Brazilian viewers have said this
aesthetic inevitably includes a filtro
de Barrow or clay water filter Amber
durx plates this particular sort of
ribbed cup known as a Lago inha glass
and Dish cloths featuring Farm themes
over in Spain Meanwhile my friend WETA
Paddington cites a few kitchen things
considered quite iconic to Spaniards of
a certain age including this can opener
this style of plastic chair and this
type of glasswear which comes in either
orange or green my friend says lots of
people align into camps depending on
whether theirs is green or orange my
family's is orange my other Spanish
friend informs me that a lot of
millennial AED Spaniards have a big Cult
of sentimentality AR rued something
called the egb which was the acronym
used for the Spanish education system
that was in place from the early 1970s
to the early 1990s saying you are part
of the egb generation is apparently a
popular shorthand in Spain for sharing a
bundle of cultural experiences and there
was even a company called yua
a I went to egb that makes schol books
and board games Bas Rune reveling in egb
Era memories talking of school my
Mexican friend Adriano tells me about
this book which he says is a very iconic
Mexican grade school textbook and there
certainly seems to be a million memes
and souvenirs made of it now in the
first video I talked a bit about aaly
which is the stim mentality that many
people from the east of Germany feel
towards the various consumer goods that
were available back when East Germany
was a separate country under a distinct
communist government a number of you
guys from other parts of the former
communist block noted that this kind of
thing is quite popular in your countries
too my polish friend kazia
2750 tells me about PRL Nostalgia which
is the term for their communist
government that lasted until 1989 in
Poland they have PRL style bars and
every year they have a huge car show
called The this for collectors of the
weird old cars from the Communist era a
friend from Hungary says that old
communist IR cars are a source of
considerable nostalgia in his country as
well and mentions some of the popular
makes being Trant wartberg L and the
notorious Kish pulski a friend from cro
Catia meanwhile brings up the infamous
Yugo along with the FICO which he says
was the former yugoslavia's answer to
the Fiat 500 in addition to the cars
themselves people in these countries
often buy and sell all sorts of
collectible knickknacks relating to
these old cars like toys and prints and
vintage ads it's kind of an odd
phenomenon in the sense that absolutely
no one seems to believe that these cars
were in any way functionally superior to
the Western and Japanese cars that are
sold today so it's basically pure
Nostalgia for nostalgia's sake my
Russian viewers named a bunch of
different Nostalgia triggers for kids
who grew up in the later years of the
Soviet Union but what I found Most
Fascinating was my friend who told me
about Russian video games apparently
Game and Watch style handheld LED games
were quite popular in Russia in the late
Soviet ERA with the most popular of all
being this egg catch game which stars a
wolf and bunny from a popular Russian
cartoon of the time this game is the
center of a huge Cult of nostalgia in
Russia and it has been remade multiple
times on Modern systems and it's the
subject of endless parodies including
this one featuring Putin and pencils
which I do not quite understand my
Taiwanese friend Joe burgie says here in
Taiwan Peak Nostalgia is a pair of blue
and white slippers a specific sort of
plastic sandals that sell for around two
bucks us paired with a gaji bag with its
three colored stripes and handles both
were lower middle class Main Stays in
the Japanese Colonial and kmt
authoritarian era and now both have come
full circle and are sold at expensive
hipster shops in downtown Taipei when I
was searching for some images of these
Taiwanese things I came across this fun
wallpaper pattern on Shutterstock you
can see that in addition to the slippers
and bags they have these oldfashioned
scooter helmets on here which I guess
must be another very nostalgic object in
that scooter Centric Society my other
Taiwanese friend glass Yuzu adds that
these circular tin signs advertising
that a store sells liquor and cigarettes
are very heavily sentimentalized as well
he says it's funny because shops are
still required to hang them nowadays but
they have a certain retro feel that
everyone loves another theme that came
up a lot in your examples were Tales of
public outrage whenever an iconic
National brand tried to change something
substantial about one of its most
nostalgic products my Belgian friend
Stan tells me about the old style of
branded Stella Artois beer glasses known
as a rebel which had a ribbed bottom
kind of like those iconic Brazilian
glasses we talked about earlier he says
Stella discontinued them in favor of
chalice style glasses in order to give
their beer a more exclusive Allure for
the international market the new glasses
look more like the glasses that
specialty beers are served in so I guess
they figured the international audience
would associate it with premium Belgian
beers and be willing to pay premium
prices for it when they announced that
decision 10 years ago they were met with
swift backlash from belgians who loved
the traditional glasses but Stella never
walked back on their decision so now the
old ones are highly coveted by enjoyers
of the brand over in South America my
friend adur 1996 says here in Uruguay
back in 2017 the biggest Dairy company
Kona prle made a big deal out of hosting
an open call to redesign their line of
chocolate milk cartons and do away with
the outdated design that they had been
using for decades a design won the
competition made it to supermarket
shelves and a few months later due to
Consumer backlash was tossed away and
they went back to the tried andrue
design that is still being used to this
day it was such a nostalgic object
consumers refused to let it die my
German Friend Martin meanwhile offers a
very German version of this phenomenon
in Germany we have a a chocolate bar
called Kinder Chad with a very unique
design of a portrait of a little boy
smiling this face has changed multiple
times over the past decades with every
generation having a certain child as
their poster boy more recently however
there have been some promotional
packages that use childhood pictures of
German football players thus creating
controversy about changing the original
design of a white blonde boy mainly on
the political right so in the previous
video I said that sentimentality arune
consumer goods is often driven in part
by Nostalgia for good Economic Times
which most countries experienced for
several decades after World War II most
countries but not all obviously some
countries didn't develop an advanced
consumer economy until quite recently
and what's interesting is that these
countries sometimes try to skip a few
steps manufacture a cult of
sentimentality around relatively modern
products my friend from Indonesia gives
an example nostalgic merch isn't much of
a trend here probably because our
country didn't have that much consumer
spending until recently but I've seen a
similar trend of making current consumer
products into merch not driven by
Nostalgia but more national pride and
the fact that these consumer products
are Staples in our households
merchandise that I often see are are
teoto jasmine tea indomi instant noodles
and byon anti mosquito spray local
artists will often illustrate these
Brands and make them into stickers and
postcards and t-shirts and water bottles
though I don't know why anyone would
find a water bottle in the design of
toxic insect repellent appealing
appealing or not these bottles sure seem
to be popular on Indonesian Tik Tok so
hopefully you all enjoyed this little
consumerist trip AR the world longtime
viewers will know that I'm pretty Pro
consumerism in general and a big reason
why I take consumer goods so seriously
is because they can provide such a
revealing window into the lives of
people different from ourselves and
educate us about the culture that they
actually experience culture is too often
imagined as something pretentious or
precious something most Ordinary People
lack the capacity to create or
appreciate but sometimes culture is just
a deformed popsicle and that's okay
thank you all for watching and I will
see you next
[Music]
week Hello friends
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