Historical and Personal Nostalgia in Advertising Text: The Fin de siècle Effect
Abstract
This paper uses literary criticism as the basis for stimulus-side analysis of nostalgia in advertising text. It provides a historical context for modern nostalgia by discussing the phenomenon as a fin de siècle or “end of century” cultural effect. It presents a nostalgia taxonomy by distinguishing between two types of nostalgia — historical and personal — that determine advertising elements of plot, setting, characters, and values inherited from literary antecedents. It analyzes each type in commercial communications, using advertisements, periodicals, and direct mail catalogues as examples. Personal and historical nostalgia advertisements are linked to consumer effects of, respectively, empathy and idealization of the self. Eight propositions are developed for additional research in three areas: content analysis, different gender responses, and effects on consumer values.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
People often look to the past to find emotional sustenance and security.
“People often look to the past to find emotional sustenance and security (Stern, 1992).”
From Hungering for the past: Nostalgic food labels increase purchase intentions and actual consumption (2019) · cites this paper as Stern, 1992
Cites
Possessions and the Extended Self
Belk, R. W. (1988) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/209154 · Cited by 9,064 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Nostalgia: content, triggers, functions
Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Arndt, J., & Routledge, C. (2006) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.91.5.975 · Cited by 1,252 · see citing works
The past makes the present meaningful: Nostalgia as an existential resource
Routledge, C., Arndt, J., Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Hart, C. M., Juhl, J., Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M., & Schlotz, W. (2011) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0024292 · Cited by 463 · see citing works
Feelings, Fantasies, and Memories
Holak, S. L., & Havlena, W. J. (1998) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/s0148-2963(97)00119-7 · Cited by 404 · see citing works
The power of the past: Nostalgia as a meaning-making resource
Routledge, C., Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Juhl, J., & Arndt, J. (2012) · Memory · doi:10.1080/09658211.2012.677452 · Cited by 217 · see citing works
Nostalgia Weakens the Desire for Money
Lasaleta, J. D., Sedikides, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2014) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/677227 · Cited by 199 · see citing works
Nostalgia and the emotional tone and content of song lyrics
Batcho, K. I. (2007) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/20445410 · Cited by 172 · see citing works
Remembering the real me: Nostalgia offers a window to the intrinsic self.
Baldwin, M., Biernat, M., & Landau, M. J. (2015) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0038033 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
Personal nostalgia, world view, memory, and emotionality
Batcho, K. I. (1998) · Perceptual and Motor Skills · doi:10.2466/pms.1998.87.2.411 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
Exploring nostalgia's influence on psychological growth
Baldwin, M., & Landau, M. J. (2014) · Self and Identity · doi:10.1080/15298868.2013.772320 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Hungering for the past: Nostalgic food labels increase purchase intentions and actual consumption
Zhou, X., van Tilburg, W. A. P., Mei, D., Wildschut, T., & Sedikides, C. (2019) · Appetite · doi:10.1016/j.appet.2019.05.007 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Nostalgia and identity in song lyrics
Batcho, K. I., DaRin, M. L., Nave, A. M., & Yaworsky, R. R. (2008) · Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts · doi:10.1037/1931-3896.2.4.236 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
- Authors
- Stern, B. B.
- Affiliations
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- Corresponding author
- Stern, Barbara B.
- Venue
- Journal of Advertising
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 1992-12
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 11-22
- ISSN
- 0091-3367 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-7805
- OpenAlex
- W1969771998
- Cited by
- 445
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 2.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Advertising (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Museology › Literature, Culture, and Aesthetics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › American History and Culture
- Keywords
- nostalgia, advertising texts, fin de siècle, historical nostalgia, personal nostalgia, literary precursors, empathy, self-idealization, consumer values, periodicals, gender differences
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
