Elizabeth Goodspeed on the delicate art of nostalgia in branding

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/elizabeth-goodspeed-column-heritage-branding-graphic-design-130324

by webmaven • 2 years ago

44 18 2 years ago

keiferski2• 2 years ago

The article reminded me of this scene about nostalgia from Mad Men, which for my money is the single best sequence in the entire series. (Especially if you’re aware of the story at that point.)

https://youtu.be/rq3n2sJ43Hg?si=B5J0vuLjHxSXsbae

resource_waste• 2 years ago

Nintendo/Disney watches this before bed every night.

Telemakhos• 2 years ago

It’s also wrong. “Nostalgia” is not the pain of an old wound, but homesickness, the pain of longing to return home. Nostos, or “homecoming,” is a major theme in Greek poetry like the Odyssey.

keiferski2• 2 years ago

Well, spoilers, but…

The entire premise of the scene is a lie. The family life Don portrays in the photos is an illusion that is rapidly falling apart at that point in the show. That’s kind of the major theme of MM - the illusions of advertising and of life in general.

I’m fairly certain that the writers were well aware of the word’s etymology, but wrote Don’s dialogue to emphasize the artificiality of it.

entropy47• 2 years ago

A visual for anyone else wondering:

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Tf2UyZUq7HHao7LJv3fANo-970...

Animats• 2 years ago

That one visual is far better than the original article, which blithers about this change without showing it.

It's not even clear how that package is used. Do you invert it and snap open the brown plastic flap, or what? Was that just concept art, or did they actually sell that.

What they seem to be selling now is a minor mod to the 19th century design.[1]

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Lyles-Squeezy-Golden-Syrup-325g/dp/B0...

kingkongjaffa• 2 years ago

Its a plastic squeezy bottle, the brown cap has a lid section that opens and theres a hole membrane, you squeeze the side and this pushes the contents through the membrane.

KineticLensman• 2 years ago

Agree that the picture is worth a 1000 words, but per kingkongjaffa, one is a squeezy bottle while the other is a robust tin.

My dad used to have dozens of the tins in his shed, each holding a collection of screws, washers, resistors, capacitors, bolts etc 'that will come in useful one day'. I still can't see the tins without thinking of his re-use collections. That's my biggest gripe with the new container: it's a single-use throw-away plastic thing. The traditionalist press in the UK is also upset by the new image: stylised logo, compared with a 'proper' picture of a sleepy lion surrounded by bees.

unraveller2• 2 years ago

That one visual is far better than the original article, which blithers about this change without showing it.

What do you expect, she showed it to her followers and they hated her for it. It's also on a site that introduces the owner by name every post.

grey_earthling• 2 years ago

It's worth noting that this isn't a direct comparison.

The packaging (tin versus squeezy bottle) isn't changing — they already sell both.

Only the labels are changing, and they're keeping the tin (specifically) unchanged: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68347249

amadeuspagel• 2 years ago

If there was ever a good rebranding that stays true to history it's this one. A dead lion swarming with insects isn't the most appetizing thing. A lion with a bee reminds of the story in a tasteful way. They could have kept the biblical quote.

tgv• 2 years ago

Aside, but the name Elizabeth Goodspeed in the context of branding sounds like a character from a Gibson's Pattern Recognition.

xhkkffbf• 2 years ago

This is especially tricky and maybe entirely impossible these days. For instance, in England now it's considered poor form to simply display nice landscapes. Why? They evoke "dark nationalistic feelings." If simply looking at some pictures of trees and a valley do that, how can a brand manager come up with something that's not a hot button?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/paintings-british-countryside-evo...

unraveller2• 2 years ago

welcome to modernity where there are no emotions left to exploit by art and nobody presents their convictions in case someone finds an emotion to exploit.

Dunedan2• 2 years ago

In 2021, Bahlsen’s redesign was acclaimed by the design community for its clean, bold modernity (even winning them a D&AD award). Nonetheless, the rebrand resulted in a 12% drop in sales the following year. This decline was attributed to a variety of factors: low on-shelf recognition, reduced emotional resonance, and smaller, less appetising photos than the original, “dated” packaging. In other words, even if the branding was good, it didn’t feel right.

Or, you know, maybe sales dropped, because inflation caused by Russia invading Ukraine hit and people spent less money on more expensive foods like Bahlsen cookies.

Dunedan2• 2 years ago

And while talking about Bahlsen: Check out their stylish, yet utterly unusable website: https://www.bahlsen.com/

Elizabeth Goodspeed on the delicate art of nostalgia in branding

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