Journal Article 3

Journal of Advertising, 43(1), 73–84
Copyright C 2014, American Academy of Advertising
ISSN: 0091-3367 print / 1557-7805 online
DOI: 10.1080/00913367.2013.815110

Exploring the Boundaries of Nostalgic Advertising Effects:
A Consideration of Childhood Brand Exposure and
Attachment on Consumers’ Responses to Nostalgia-Themed
Advertisements
Darrel D. Muehling and David E. Sprott
Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA

Abdullah J. Sultan
Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait

images from the past (Vasquez 2012). In addition, nostalgia has become a popular trend in social media, with the recent introduction of BuzzFeed’s “Time Machine” (Parekh 2012) and
Twitter’s “Throwback Thursdays,” where images and memories of the past are incorporated in company websites and posted on personal web pages with the intent to evoke nostalgic thoughts and feelings.
Given its pervasiveness in the marketplace, it is not surprising that nostalgia has captured the interest of scholars who have investigated the phenomenon in a variety of research contexts, including self-concept (Belk 1988; Davis 1979), brand loyalty
(Olsen 1993), brand meaning (Brown, Kozinets, and Sherry
2003), charitable giving (Merchant, Ford, and Rose 2011; Zhou et al. 2012), retail atmospherics (Orth and Bourrain 2008), literacy criticism (Stern 1992), and emotions (Bambauer-Sachse and Gierl 2009a; Holak and Havlena 1992, 1998). In an advertising context, a growing body of empirical research suggests that the effects of nostalgia appear to be rather robust—signaling to marketers and advertisers that nostalgia may be an effective means of appealing to a variety of audiences (Marchegiani and
Phau 2010). In particular, recent research has demonstrated the positive effects of nostalgia-themed advertising on consumers’ responses to the brand sponsor (e.g., see Marchegiani and Phau
2010; Muehling and Pascal 2011; Pascal, Sprott, and Muehling
2002; Reisenwitz, Iyer, and Cutler 2004). These researchers and
others

References: is consistent with the biased retrieval of memories inherent in nostalgic reflection (Leboe and Ansons 2006) ad exposure). Research by Janata, Tomic, and Rakowki (2007) has shown, for example, that the autobiographical memories it (see also Barrett et al. 2010). Using MRI data, Janata (2009) observed these results with tasks requiring low memory retrieval Holak and Havlena 1992; Sierra and McQuitty 2007), empirical studies on the topic have found no significant correlation between age and nostalgic responses (Holbrook 1993a; Holbrook and Schindler 1991). Further, a number of researchers have successfully employed younger (i.e., college-aged student) samples to demonstrate the effects of nostalgia on marketing outcomes 2009; Wildschut et al. 2010). The general position of these researchers is that people of most any age (beyond adolescence) will have had prior experiences about which they may become 2010; Reisenwitz, Iyer, and Cutler 2004). Therefore, one might expect that the effects observed in our study may have been even more pronounced had a more mature adult sample been used (Kusumi, Matsuda, and Sugimori 2010) of attachment (e.g., Park et al. 2010) or associations in memory (e.g., Keller 1993) might provide a deeper understanding of how prior brand experiences differentially influence responses bygone era (Goulding 2001). In keeping with this notion, future researchers may also wish to explore prior brand association effects by using various types of nostalgia-themed ad treatments.