Nostalgic objects around the world

[@hyoga4345]

"Nostalgic Canadian Middle Class Knickknacks" is a contender for the most JJ sentence in existence.

[@phoenixadeney732]

Omg yes

[@jester333]

that's not even a full sentence! WE CAN DO BETTER!!

[@judgesaturn507]

Add 'award-winning' to it

[@buttershy_]

this might be the most JJ video to ever exist. like if you asked someone to make a caricature of a JJ video, this would easily be a result. and it's a banger

[@Oliver_Rrode]

Welp, you’d be wrong

[@hpesoj00]

In the UK there is a WW2 motivational poster displaying the words "Keep calm and carry on" that was plastered on every consumer item imaginable throughout the early 2010s. It's funny because the poster was never really displayed during the war itself, but its design conjured up general feelings of nostalgia for wartime Britain.

[@JJMcCullough]

Oh yes and it’s been parodied up the wazoo

[@simonbone]

@@JJMcCullough Same thing with "We can do it!" - an image that was not widely seen during WWII, but (re)discovered in the 1980s, and now erroneously believed to be a ubiquitous symbol of the US war effort, and women's contribution to it.

[@gregblair5139]

My example from Israel (I posted separately) was the asimon (telephone token).

[@averyeml]

I wonder if its relative minor appearance during the actual war is why it became the popular thing- like it was there enough to make people go “ooo, the vibes of the era” without the baggage of more war-torn and common iconography that could be more directly attached to the actual horrors of war

[@ImSomethingSpecial]

It also was a really popular meme template for years

[@Fitzsimmons.]

Talking about complicated nostalgia, I had an anthropology professor named Dr Gediminas Lankauskas who studied post-soviet nostalgia in Lithuania. While most older people would agree that today is better than the USSR, they still have many good memories from the Soviet days. They went to their first soccer matches, had first loves, went on trips/vacations, enjoyed their favourite treats, etc. He breaks down the human realities that can follow complicated histories. Someone may be glad Lithuania is independent and democratic now, but still hang a portrait of Lenin in their home.

[@ErickC]

-Frieza- Putin once said "Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain." I think there is a lot of truth in that statement.

[@rustix3]

Yeah, the Soviet nostalgia is a big topic. The same thing as in Lithuania also exists in other post-soviet countries.

[@nadinegriffin5252]

My husband went to the USSR on a school trip in 1990. We have a frame in our home office full of Stalin and Lenin pins and a small flag. 😆 We are Canadian Conservatives.

[@terig8974]

This made me think of the music video for Laibach's rendition of The Sound of Music. They were the first western country to perform a concert in North Korea and they wanted to portray the people as regular human beings living human lives. There's something about it that gets me choked up. Maybe some day they can have that complicated sense of nostalgia too.

[@timohara7717]

Maybe too complicated

[@gamingshowerthoughts9723]

The East German example covers it near enough, but one of the most extreme examples of Nostalgia is for the Soviet Union and for Yugoslavia. There's cafes in Russia and a whole TV channel devoted to Soviet Nostalgia, and on youtube there is countless compilations of "Sovietwave" music and old radio broadcasts that has people from all over the world and all over the political spectrum pouring their hearts out with emotion.

[@Uhwatchdogsforthewiiu]

What are some names of the tv channel I’d love to watch that stuff

[@veggiet2009]

McDonald's in the US just did a novelty cup series that celebrated different eras of McDonald's novelty products and Happy meal toys. They had a cup that had depictions of the Jurassic Toys and the iconic transformers toys, and another cup celebrating beanie babies, for example.

[@JJMcCullough]

Yes! I bought one. The Canadian ones are slightly different

[@jonhanson8925]

@@JJMcCullough I was going to point out that you can see the Hello Kitty box in the bottom left corner of the video

[@ksaylor83]

Omg how did I miss that?!

[@RodrigoGarcia-ze5em]

​@@JJMcCullough Something i wanted to comment is that eastalgia in gwrmany is specially interesting because dictatorial nostalgia is something actually quite common in older generations of many countries. In serbia there's Yugonostalgia and in both Spain and Portugal there's sociological francoism and sociological salazarism. It would be an interesting topic for a video to mention nostalgic objects from different dictatorships accross the world.

[@Detah_]

Bit sad I didn't get the shrek glass

[@benjaminrobinson3842]

6:07 - As an example of how specific East German nostalgia can get: the "walking man" is from their traffic signals. They used a different design from the West (which looks like the USA one) and Easterners quickly began to miss it when the design was replaced by the "normal" one.

[@bahnspotterEU]

The East German "Ampelmann" has become a quite beloved icon though, to the point where new ones were installed in former West German towns too.

[@klammersiebter1697]

Actually Germany has three traffic light signs: East, West and Euro. But there is no nostalgia wits the West-Ampelmann since Western Germany didn't cease to exist.

[@eldeion4146]

I've bought an Ampelmann rubber ducky just yesterday.

[@nicktankard1244]

Ampelmann is still in use in Berlin. It's so cool. I loved seeing it when I lived there

[@ulaai]

I didn't even know that the Ampelmann is an East Germany thing! I'm an intl student living in Thuringia so I see it everyday 😅

[@macaronisex]

“I have to confess, the purpose of this video is engagement bait” We stan an honest king

[@ryantannar5301]

I took a semester of German in college and the teacher told us about a movie from Germany called Ostalgie. I haven't seen it but now that I remember it's a thing I am going to find it. The premise is that a woman in East Germany has a medical emergency. Her son is taking care of her and is told that she needs to be kept from anything shocking until she recovers. The issue is that the Berlin Wall fell while she was in the hospital. The movie consists of the son trying to hide the rapid westernization from his mother until she feels better. This isn't easy when Coke ads are going up in view of their apartment windows and such.

[@arvinshaygan8643]

That sounds so interesting, what a cool concept for a movie

[@Anastas1786]

In English-speaking countries, the title is _Good Bye, Lenin!._

[@JJMcCullough]

I’ve seen it, it’s quite a clever movie

[@CedarCeaser3708]

I’ve seen said movie in german class and it’s title is ”Good bye, Lenin!” not Ostalgie. Anyway it’s well worth a watch with how funny and genuine it is.

[@ryantannar5301]

@@CedarCeaser3708 I was definitely told it was called Ostalgie, but I can't say the teacher was correct at all. I'll have to hunt it down.

[@microharman]

I think pre-consumerism example of nostalgia was how people used to talk about "Mom's cooking" when i was young.

[@benjaminwatt2436]

isn't that something people do as they get older? personally I miss my mom's chicken and dupplings. its a dish you don't see anywhere and deffinately doesn't taste like my moms

[@arthurpendragon8192]

@@benjaminwatt2436 what's a duppling? do you mean dumplings?

[@indyfan9845]

Here in Central Pennsylvania, a lot of older folks (40+) are becoming increasingly sentimental about teaberry ice cream. It tastes a bit like a mix between strawberry and mint (mostly mint). It's a flavor that is slowly dying out as out-of-state brands become a bigger and bigger part of the grocery stores. Young people tend to hate the flavor and say it tastes like Pepto Bismol. I'm basically the only person under the age of 40 who likes the flavor. The few local brands that do sell teaberry make such a cheap version of it, now that the kind you buy at the store tastes awful and isn't worth buying. You can really only get it at local ice cream places. At my house, the old owners back in the 50s made teaberry ice cream in the basement and sold it during the summers. Whenever I tell people in my town in their 70s, 80s, and 90s where I live, they always say they remember buying teaberry ice cream there as kids.

[@ntheory]

Oh yeah I didn't know it was a PA thing. A few years ago I was curious and got some Turkey Hill teaberry ice cream and it was like eating toothpaste. Bleh.

[@appa609]

How do you make it?

[@indyfan9845]

@@appa609 You can buy teaberry flavoring to add to ice cream. It's available online. There's no chunks or anything in it, so just make it like vanilla ice cream, but substitute the vanilla for teaberry flavoring.

[@nadinegriffin5252]

I'm obsessed with rum raisin ice cream. I can hardly find it anymore. 😢

[@redundercover7383]

I remember having teaberry gum when i was a kid up north, do they still have that?

[@Etchacritic]

The Lisa Frank brand (colorful, neon folders and school supplies with unicorn designs) is something that makes a nostalgic resurgence every 10 years or so. There was even a movie this year called "Lisa Frankenstein" which retells Frankenstein through a teenage comedy set in the late 1980s.

[@waywardlaser]

Life's greatest irony might be the longing to be an adult when you're a kid, only to feel the opposite way once you're grown up.

[@appa609]

There's a brief period between the ages of about 15 and 22 when you're thrilled to be your actual age

[@terig8974]

@basilcurrie8138 It's not just you. I dreaded becoming an adult as a kid because it seemed to impossibly difficult. Now I prefer being able to make my own choices.

[@EuropeanQoheleth]

@@appa609 I wasn't.

[@EuropeanQoheleth]

As for myself I hated being a teenager and I hated my 20s eve more, my 30s are worse yet.

[@iammrbeat]

Nostalgia is just getting out of control. It's a crazy phenomenon that I think illustrates the increasing scarcity of our time among the poor and middle class.

[@QUEfrang]

great explanatioin

[@shinyagumon7015]

I think a lot of "Ostalgie" is also rooted in the idea of German regionalism, where people feel strong pride and what region they come from and the East kind of defines itself partly based around the GDR because that's just what most people in it experienced. Also a lot of the food invented during this time has also just become standard East German cuisine.

[@HappyMan0203]

Kinda similar then to here in the US, where a lot of people feel almost a stronger pride in their home state over the country, and are often nostalgic of memories in said state. The very stereotypical example would be Texas, and imagine in Germany there's a similar sort of thing in like Bavaria.

[@shinyagumon7015]

@@HappyMan0203 Hit the nail on the head.

[@JimmyTheTurtle892]

Not only that. From what I have heard, many people in former East Germany also feel like the integration into West Germany was done way too hastily, and quite a lot of people see it as almost an annexation rather than a reunification. And indeed, economically, East Germany was kind of left behind in terms of its infrastructure, a wealth gap, and many/most young people move(d) to the bigger cities, especially Berlin, and even specifically to the former West at alarming rates, causing both a brain drain and generally a population decline. This has fostered a certain degree of resentment towards the former West German states and the capital Berlin, and thus feeds this specifically East German flavour of regionalism that you already mentioned.

[@bahnspotterEU]

@@JimmyTheTurtle892 Truth is though that the East today is very well set up in terms of infrastructure. Most of the cities there look better than many western German cities, a lot of work was put in to get the East onto the same level of development as the west. I can‘t comment on more deeply-rooted issues that may persist, but they are certainly not lagging behind the west in terms of everyday quality of living.

[@JimmyTheTurtle892]

@@bahnspotterEU I don't know former East Germany well enough in terms of its infrastructure. I'm sure things have improved massively in many ways since 1990, but what I wrote about were just general impressions I have from interacting with German literature, press, social media, and to some extent talking to Germans in real life too. The problems/disparaties were definitely more defined in the 90s than nowadays though. There was also a lot of deindustralisation in those early years. Also, it's important to understand that the biggest depopulation/brain drain affects/affected the countryside. Cities like Dresden, for example, have to my knowledge done great since the reunification. On the otherhand, rural towns are still very much aging, although this is of course not unique to eastern Germany - the towns in the very west of Germany that I frequently visit today, primarily around the Mosel river and in the Eifel Mountains, also see a lot of young people moving to middle-sized cities in the area like Koblenz or Trier in search of higher education and/or job opportunities. I haven't had the time to see if it is a proper, reputable source, but I will at least mention that the IFO Institute suggested in 2019 that the population in eastern Germany has fallen back to 1905 levels, and partially attributes it to internal migration, as well as the lack of immigration of guest workers that West Germany had in the 60s and 70s. If you want to check the spurce for yourself, it can be found (in German, but Deepl can help if necessary; the abstract is in English) as: Rösel, Felix, "Die Wucht der deutschen Teilung wird völlig unterschätzt", ifo Dresden berichtet 27 (03), 2019, 23-25.

[@landon2614]

Not sure if this is big for anyone else, but the U.S. used to have these toys in our gyms that were basically just a flat square piece of plastic with wheels on the bottom, just big enough for a child to sit on and scoot around. Sometimes they would have a handle on two sides, sometimes not. Nobody knows what they’re called apart from maybe “scooters” even though they don’t look like traditional scooters. They are now largely absent from school gyms, mostly in think they just fell out of fashion.

[@quinnjohnson9750]

I know what you are talking about and we called them "scooters" as well. They were all fun and games until you got your fingers run over lol.

[@ziggylegion1604]

im 29 and i found a jurassic world themed one last year that i got just for fun and memories lmao

[@geronimowindow]

I remember seeing both types during my elementary school years, at first it was just the ones without handles that were kinda worn down and dinged up but later they got new ones with handles the sides and ball-likr casters to roll on, those also felt heavier

[@noofzoof]

We had them in Canada too!

[@geronimowindow]

@noofzoof yes, I grew up in Canada as well and can confirm that

[@raaniatahseen695]

I'm from Bangladesh, but have lived in Zambia for a better part of 18 years, and is now currently going to university in the UAE, and I can say that I definitely have nostalgia for times past. In my adopted home of Zambia, one thing that will be very nostalgic is Munchos and Jiggies, which are flavored corn snacks sold relatively cheaply. I remember wanting Munchos to take in my lunchbox badly, and when I finally go to do so, I was incredibly happy. Munchos back then were way more flavorful and tasty, but today they aren't really the same. Same goes for Jiggies. The quality just decreased a lot, and I don't know whether that's actually true or just the nostalgia talking. In Bangladesh, Potato Crackers and Meridian brand shrimp chips. Those stuff were my CHILDHOOD, and I remember eating packets and packets of these growing up. There were also shrimp sticks that came with a packet of ketchup inside. Good times!

[@_D_P_]

That is an interesting trio of countries. I can't imagine many people make that exact series of moves.

[@landryharmon1891]

I just came back from China and found a store in Guangzhou, possibly a chain, that felt like I had stepped into one of your videos. The name of the store roughly translated to the Guangzhou Memory Cooperative (广州记忆供销社), which recalls the days when cooperatives were more commonplace to aquire household goods prior to the opening up of China towards a market economy. The front of the store had an intense retro branding, from mailboxes to old phones to cigarette boxes. The store had a bunch old toys, like a Chinese paper yoyo. Of course a lot of snacks and candy. Just like you mentioned with East Germany, there is also a nostalgia for their communist past with a selection of these tin cups from the Maoist period all containing propagandistic slogans from that era. From what I've found online these kinds of shops have become a popular trend post COVID in China, which maybe highlights the emotional aspect of your argument for the longing of simpler days of childhood. I think this is combined with the reality of a slowing Chinese economy and an increasingly disillusioned youth that is "躺平" or lying down.

[@constipatedwonka8061]

I think the nostalgia for soviet products peaked sometime around the late 2000s or early 2010s. That's when you saw entire grocery stores pop up in post-soviet countries, which modeled themselves off of grocery stores from the 80s and had many soviet-like items or stuff that was straight up just imported from Russia. But now due to a current geopolitical situation, Russian and Soviet culture have massively fallen out of favor, especially in regards to music, with Russian music disappearing almost entirely from radio stations in eastern European countries. Any sort of admiration for the soviet era has now come to be viewed as unpatriotic and with distrust, even though many still privately sentimentalize it. This sort of sentimentality didn't go away from Russia itself or the global Russian diaspora, which is how the "Atomic Heart" video game became prominent last year. This sense of sentimentality may quickly evolve into general European sentimentality for the 2000s, when there was unprecedented peace and prosperity on the European continent and popularity for eurodance music, which was very clearly capitalized on by Eurovision songs this year like "Europapa" and "No Rules".

[@Waldzkrieger]

In a lot of cities I've been to, theres a certain fondness for old public transit stuff, like the old DC Metro trains, the old NYC subway maps, cable cars in SF, and the PCC trolleys in Philly. I'm pretty sure "old people reminiscing about the streetcar" is a cultural trope in America.

[@theseanwardshow]

I'm also from Canada but I'll give you a few: * A certain kind of cassarole dish, white, with a golden-colored flower design on it, and a clear lid * a certain orange Tupperware pitcher with a lid that had a button on the top that every house seemed to use for Kool-Aid * The 'Big Mac' jail structure from the old McDonald's playplace * "Treat of the Week"

[@toedCarnivore2]

In Sweden, most of our iconic brands have barely changed in appearance since the early/mid twentieth century. Some consumer goods brands that hasn’t changed a lot are: Arla (the largest dairy conglomerate), Ögon cacao, Solstickan matches, Kalles kaviar (low grade caviar in a tube) Trocadero soda . I think that we are probably more partial to retro design than most other cultures, which I believe you mentioned in your video about Sweden. One non-Swedish brand with a lot of nostalgia surrounding it was the energy drink Jolt Cola. Jolt Cola was created in 1985 in Rochester NY but was launched in Sweden 1995.Jolt Cola was heavily affiliated with late 90s and 00s gaming and more specifically LAN-party culture. Jolt cola was pretty much synonymous during this period with Dream Hack, Swedens and the world’s largest LAN-party (I believe). If I remember correctly 30% of Jolt Colas sales were during the days that dream hack ran. In 2009 Jolt Colas was discontinued in Sweden, but it’s still fondly remembered by millennial gamers across the nation.

[@Tyrisalthan]

I remember the Jolt-cola from the trips to Sweden we did in the 90's and early 2000's. Kalle's kaviar is also pretty familiar, even though it is sold in Finland also, I first tasted it in Sweden.

[@briangoldberg4439]

i like it when you do these kinds of videos. cultural explorations like this are clearly your strong suit, and they are fun to watch

[@techedsoda]

JJ standing up is uncanny

[@nixxie2390]

We're so used to him being all bouncy on his chair... I must have realised he had legs down there somewhere *LOL*

[@techedsoda]

@@nixxie2390 JJ has what?!

[@jljordan1]

@@techedsodahe made a video about it! 😅

[@techedsoda]

@@jljordan1 Which is that?

[@tenneseeangel1293]

Now that you mention it is very uncanny 🤔

[@GalacticPossum]

Hasbro is making good money selling repro '70s/'80s Star Wars toys. The card is even printed to look like it has wear. The same toys are available in better for, but nostalgia sells.

[@yusufgungor5978]

There used to be a drink in Turkey known as Oralet. It's not widely consumed anymore but was first introduced in the 1960s as the country's first "Instant beverage" as it was an orange flavoured powder that you would mix with water (they later made other flavours like: Lemon, Cherry and I think even Banana). It was so popular that it became an alternative to the other 2 Turkish drink "Giants": Coffee and Tea, and was offered in many traditional Turkish coffee shops as well as in stores for consumers. Nowadays, it's extremely rare to find a coffee shop that serves Oralet except in holiday areas, and is now seen as a drink for old people or people from small villages.

[@geraldpederick5909]

In Australia in 1980, the Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book was published. It was ubiquitous in many households in the 80s and 90s, featuring cakes that used packet mix cakes decorated in quirky ways to create now iconic cakes. The nostalgic demand for this book means it went into reprint in 2010. My daughter had a recently written kids book that references this recipe book.

[@infamoussphere7228]

It's hard for me to accurately think of Australian nostalgia because I was a weird, slightly outside-of-popular-culture kid in the 90s. IE I didn't watch much in the way of TV or movies and I didn't really have the latest cool fad toys. So I have very little idea of what a nostalgic Australian thing actually would be other than just...I don't know, the concept of fairy bread. The Women's Weekly Cake Book is a very good pick! I have a lot of nostalgia for Teen Power Inc and I wish I had all the books, but I think I might be the only one.

[@jakezanoni]

​@@infamoussphere7228wow, I had one Teen Power Inc book, The Case of the Disgusting TV Star. Fun memory jog.

[@xianbc]

I'm Canadian and have a copy of that exact book you've described. My mom bought it to make cakes for my brother and I when we were children. Pulling it off the book shelf always makes me warm with nostalgia. Especially the yellow ducky cake with the popcorn feathers and potato chip beak.

[@liamannegarner8083]

The best thing ever is that now people around the world have seen Bluey, and you can reference the duck cake!

[@quickstixproductions9880]

In Scotland we used to have frog shaped bins in pretty much every primary school through the 00's. Another thing from the time was a charity organisation called Bernardos which had the money collection bins where you put in a coin and it would roll down a spiral. At every Jungle Gym too we had a really cheap brand of soda I believe it was called Panada. It was much worse than other brands really but that distinct cheap artificial taste is very nostalgic for me.

[@BOABModels]

They still have some of those frog bins in the park near where I grew up in England. Panda pops are pretty iconic too.

[@Sillykat420]

@@BOABModels Blue raspberry panda pops felt like the most decadent thing ever to me as an 8 year old who was rarely allowed sugary drinks

[@guyburgess7832]

When I was a kid, I truly knew I was having a great day if I had a bottle of Panda Pop. Absolutely disgusting, but all mine.

[@katashworth41]

The horrors of Panda Pops, managed to taste both disgusting and of nothing at all.

[@Croz89]

Panda Pops were iconic for being in tiny half sized bottles and being very cheap, like 20p a bottle cheap.

[@torch-bearer9129]

A recent example that I fell for hard is the new Collectors Glasses from McDonald’s. Growing up in the 90s and early 2ks I remember our kitchen filled with the novelty collectors mugs and cups from various fast food restaurants advertising the new films. So when McDonald’s brought new ones to market I had to have them even though they are not the exact same ones like the Batman bugs or the Disney cups that still hit that nostalgia itch.

[@ksplatypus]

Besides the large number of Mexican food and candy products that I'd find nostalgic, the one thing I can point to as being highly nostalgic as a Mexican is the TV show El Chavo del Ocho. It's a comedy show that aired from 1971-1980 that was hugely popular in Mexico and in other parts of Latin America. Despite me being born in the mid 90s, I still watched it all the time with my family as a kid and so did just about everyone else I knew. Tons of cultural references come from the show. They rebooted it as an animated series in 2006, but I don't think it was very popular. Most kids just watched the original, live-action version despite it being from the 70s

[@SlapstickGenius23]

The animated reboot does have an English dub. The first two seasons have gotten it, but not the third season.

[@AmandaNievi]

El Chavo del Ocho is a huge source of nostalgia in Brazil as well! It's one of the most iconic childhood characters for my generation.

[@chloelovex]

in the usa, i see so much nostalgia for children’s books. maybe it’s just the public domain of it all, but i see winnie the pooh and alice in wonderland on literally everything now. kids’ cutlery like zoopals plates and the 90s dixie cup design. as well as the most random discontinued food products, like character popsicles.

[@ashkitt7719]

Can confirm with the Zoopals plates. I went to a bbq yesterday and they used Zoopals plates. To be fair it was also a meetup for furries so that also probably had something to do with it.

[@foreignparticle1320]

New Zealander here. Our canon of 'quintessential national consumption symbols' is generally termed "kiwiana". And yes, most of it concerns food and drink items, but here are some notable non-edible things that spring to mind: 1. A children's wooden toy called "Buzzy Bee". There is in fact a (nationally) famous photo of Prince William playing with one when he was here with Charles and Diana in the early 80s. The image and design of the toy is reproduced frequently. 2. A brand of matches called "Beehive"; the key elements of its design have been artistically appropriated many times. 3. The logo of a supermarket chain called "4 Square". 4. While food-related, it wasn't technically edible or a food brand. A large paper cup that was used by milk bars and dairies to serve to-order milkshakes had a stylised cartoon of a giraffe + the words "the longest drink in town". It evidently only became a brand in its own right fairly recently, being applied to milkshake syrup. However any Gen-X and Millennial who grew up in NZ gets strong nostalgic pangs from seeing the design, which is prolifically reproduced on merchandise these days.

[@Thesungod95]

clicked for PARLE-G from India, I still eat regularly

[@artem.epifanov]

they are sold in Calgary Coop for some reason

[@homuraakemi4559]

They sell them in most Canadian grocery stores. I used to eat them quite a bit as a teen

[@kutter_ttl6786]

​@@homuraakemi4559I've started seeing them in Dollarama, too. I guess they're getting more mainstream, or maybe a lot of Indian people just shop there.

[@KittyOfChess]

Same here. I’m an ABCD, and I grew up loving Parle-G.

[@OliverBlench]

JJ, could you please continue your series of identifying mysterious flags

[@yokelengleng]

Agreed

[@newsreelhistory2237]

In the UK people are nostalgic for the old nationalized British industries from the 80s and before. Things like British rail or old defunct car brands. People have old posters or merchandise from these companies. It's meant to remind people of a time before private companies and a global economy like you said.

[@minuteman4199]

It wasn't a time before private companies. Those state owned companies were all created by stealing them from their private creators and owners.

[@Croz89]

Apart from British Leyland. I can't envision why anyone would be nostalgic for that. Maybe the marques that existed before they were all merged into that car industry ruining monstrosity.

[@Ryan-ho4hf]

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 its 70s colour themed floral glory. It's come back into "fashion" recently, being worn proudly on shirts, shorts and possibly underwear, by Gen Xers and Millenials (and perhaps less so by their children).

[@wristsintact]

Yeah, Versus Socks released a pair of sport socks with this pattern on it.

[@neskey]

haven't watched this yet but kids from the 80s to 00s living in the levant region are quite nostalgic of having your soda poured into a clear plastic bag with a straw instead of being kept in it's glass bottle, those bottles were actually quite expensive to import and the clerk would send them straight back to the bottling plant for a rebate, we didn't complain though!

[@jskalpaditoelbfj6326]

thats really cool and interesting

[@jljordan1]

That makes sense now that you explained that bags are used.

[@thomaswilliams2273]

I saw that when I visited Mexico City.

[@officialxverzusz]

Here in Hungary one of the most nostalgic things are cars Trabants, Warburgs, Ladas, "Kis Polszki", and so on They were the most accessible cars during the Kádár-era of Hungary, which was the era of "soft dictatorship" following the 1956 October Revolution, lead by head chairman of the Hungarian Socialist Worker's Party, John Kádár (Kádár János)

[@officialxverzusz]

But for me, a 19 year old Hungarian dude IT'S TURBO GUM 15 Forints a piece You get a not so good piece of bubble gum BUT you also get a card in the packaging with a sportscar on it! I loved buying them as a kid and they are still around

[@infamoussphere7228]

I was learning Hungarian (my Grandma's hungarian, when Duolingo had it I thought it'd be a good idea - Hungarian Duolingo was in beta and it was hopeless, but that's a whole other story!) and I wanted to listen to some Hungarian music. I clicked on Santa Maria by Neoton Familia and the comments were absolutely full of weepy nostalgia from not only Hungarians, but other people from former Eastern Bloc countries like Georgia and Poland. I, on the other hand, was laughing at the video, which to my eyes looked so much like a parody of a bad 70s music video from the Eastern Bloc that it would have been unparody-able. The song was a bop though.

[@officialxverzusz]

@@infamoussphere7228 Neoton Família is PRIME Hungarian oldhead music

[@tianming4964]

As soon as I saw the Canadian notebook in the thumbnail so many memories come back

[@suorastas1]

In Finland it’s Moomin everything and lots and lots of coffee packages

[@CafeNervoza]

Also the old coffee thermos called Airam if I recall correctly.

[@Croz89]

I swear Moomin is cyclical. Every couple of decades or so there's another bout of Moomin Mania. The last one was in the 1990's.

[@bahnspotterEU]

Yep, saw a whole train wrapped with Moomin characters when I visited this summer

[@ashkitt7719]

@@Croz89 There's been a trend of Moomin Mania recently that's been more explicitly political, depicting the characters as militant Antifascists and such.

[@Croz89]

@@ashkitt7719 Urgh... that really doesn't sound in the spirit of the characters. Even Snufkin, who could be considered to be borderline anarchist if you squint, I can't imagine being a member of Antifa or whatever, he's way too laid back.

[@redtyrant24]

I great example of Nostalgia I can think of is sports teams doing throwback uniforms. Living in Maryland anytime the Baltimore Orioles wear their caps with the Oriole and not the Mascot on it there will be a large amount of older people reminiscing about the days of the great players they grew up with and how that logo reminds them of that

[@mikeandersen5492]

The explosion of throwback unis over the past decade is quite astounding

[@mikeandersen5492]

This may be super niche but I’ve been seeing all the instagram posts from Midwest themed accounts about storing leftovers in cool-whip and country crock containers. Definitely happened a lot in my household growing up.

[@takedownarrow9173]

I grew u up in the 2010s and let me tell you, those sequin pillows which flip over to a different design -👌peak American nostalgia! Also swapping EOS lip balms where you would swap caps, you know who was besties because they had those swapped!(and probably the same diseases💀) Dang I’m on a tangent 🫥but one more thing which is kinda rural Ohio of me 🫠but did anyone else have a favorite radio station their parents would play with a THEME SONG!Where the theme songs go?! I loved them!!!!😭❤

[@pokemi545]

3:40 My english teacher made that animation he's the coolest english teacher ever!!!!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩

[@R3troguy]

For Denmark, there is a strong nostalgia cult around the old brand Jolly Cola. Founded in 1959, it was the country's single most popular brand of cola all the way up to the mid-80s, and is remembered most heavily for its very patriotic branding and racy TV ads. It fell off pretty heavily after it was taken over by Coca-Cola and almost disappeared entirely, but for a Western brand of soda to outrank Coca-Cola for that long is pretty unique. It survives these days as a discount soda brand that mostly survives off its cheapness and nostalgia value. Whenever I travel back home to the Faroes (where Jolly is still dominant), friends beg me to bring back bottles since (at least according to them) we still use the old recipe (and until recently, we also used the old labels). When a friend of mine gave it to her dad, he exclaimed "It tastes just like the 80s!"

[@TurtleMarcus]

Many Norwegians who used to or through Denmark in the summer, are nostalgic about Faxe Kondi. It will always be "that Danish soda" you couldn't get in Norway. No one cared about the taste, it was just a memorabilia, a sign that you travelled outside the country. Of course nowadays you can get it on most of the larger supermarkets in Norway.

[@terablast]

11:00 Hilroy actually still exists! Or, if they've been bought up, they're still making those exact notebooks with the same design! You can buy them at Staples, at least here in Québec you can

[@MJ28RAMS]

Middle School planner notebooks that US public schools would give out during the 2000s. Always had scratchy lenticular covers.

[@jljordan1]

The millennium one for the 1999-2000 school year was burned in my memory

[@DaBigPig265]

In Brazil, there's this specific set of kitchenware containers with a cow design on them that's pretty ubiquitous in this sort of consumerism nostalgia

[@viniscottdude16]

There’s a bunch of nostalgic kitchenware here: - Filtro de barro (clay water filter) - Duralex dishes (plates with a brown tint) - Dishcloths with “bucolic” designs (chickens, cows, etc) These are just a few, but most Baby Boomers in Brazil still have houses that are “stuck” in the 60-70s and a lot of Millennials and Gen Zers are nostalgic for this aesthetic

[@mariaisabel-rb1gc]

​@@viniscottdude16 duralex 🙌🙌

[@juliobastosjb]

That's the first thing that came to my mind, too! Until the 90's our kitchens design was very unique.

[@christianames2161]

You should make a video talking about popular shows from Canada! My buddies love Trailer Park Boys and I've learned so much random cultural stuff about Canada from Letterkenny and Shoresy

[@npcimknot958]

There was this jackass show called kenny vs spenny it was insane LOL. Can’t belive it was real lol its more extreme than jackass

[@jzmc7562]

Those canada notebooks were still pretty ubiquitous when i was in elementary school in the 2010s

[@pablocasas5906]

I'm from Argentina, and to think about it, I can't name a product or even food which has a sort of nostalgia attached to it, but one example that I've seen recently maybe has a bit of it. Here in Argentina many people like to drink a mixture of Fernet Branca with Coca-Cola, most people mix both in a big glass, but poorer people like to just cut a big plastic Coca-Cola bottle in half and just mix both, ans recently I've seen plenty of stores selling drinking glasses that resemble a Coca-Cola bottle cut in half, either made from plastic or glass. It's kind of weird since I've seen those in stores in high-end places but the idea of using a Coca-Cola cola bottle as a drinking class seems like something associated with lower classes

[@matthowerules]

Man, you make some of the coolest videos on this platform.

[@felipeitoanuatti]

I only ever noticed a consistent nostalgic cult around two objects here in Brazil. The first is the Recreio kids’ magazine, and the second are the mini craques (big-headed figures of Brazil’s 1998 World Cup team made by Coca-Cola, they’re not bobble-heads).

[@DanideLouro]

Anything made by Coca Cola in the 90's, actually.

[@NathanaelFosaaen]

Even within the United States, we have some very region-specific versions of this. In the Carolinas it's brands like Cheerwine and Blenheim sodas, Bojangles chicken, and Duke's Mayo.

[@thepostapocalyptictrio4762]

Yes!! I have Cheerwine and Duke’s mayo in the fridge right now. Greetings from Tennessee

[@ztl2505]

In the same way JJ describes Canadian nostalgia for a time before American brands dominated, I think Americans have a similar nostalgia for highly regional brands before everything started becoming pretty much the same everywhere. For Michigan I immediately think of Stroh’s Beer, Better Made Chips, and Vernors and Faygo pop.

[@thepostapocalyptictrio4762]

@@ztl2505 I’ve drunk Vernor’s before. Apparently, I’m discovering I am a connoisseur of regional soft drink.

[@jakeandhenryvideos]

Ale-8 in Kentucky and Skyline in Cincinnati is my regional pride

[@ashkitt7719]

@@ztl2505 For New York it's Wise potato chips and pseudo-Greek coffee cups.

[@guillermotellaveledocoll1149]

Venezuelan GenXer here... Hello! In my country, there is also a growing nostalgia for the old consumer society of the 60s-90s. Our local industry -fueled by subsidies in an attempt at import substitution industrialization and Middle class expansion subsidized by oil-rents- was dismantled by the parallel forces of imported global brands and our own Socialist regime. There is nostalgia for that era's architecture, locales, and brands. Add to this the growing Venezuelan diaspora (over 8MM Venezuelans displaced all over the World, mainly from the formerly upwardly mobile professional Middle Classes.

[@Arian545]

In Norway there used to be a specific road sign for crosswalks that featured a silhouette of a man in a hat crossing the road, but they decided it was bad for the sign to be gendered, so they replaced with a generic human shape instead, so whenever I see one of the few ones who still have not been replaced I feel weird type of nostalgia about it.

[@Croz89]

AFAIK that's a pretty universal road sign throughout much of Europe (but not the UK or Ireland), I think some countries still have a hat on the figure.

[@Biittle]

​@Croz89 You should look up European crossing signs. There is a different design for different countries, which I think is really fun. The old norwegian on for example is pretty anatomically accurate as opposed to an iconographic depitcion of a man.

[@Max-Television]

We Swedes solved that by adding a sign with a woman on it. The original designer made a sign with a woman on it in in the 50s, but the government considered her siluetten too sensual and sexy to be used, so they made another one.

[@Synthulhu]

nice pfp love that album.

[@Croz89]

@@Biittle Yes, but they are fundamentally the same design, just with slight variations to the figure, no?

[@J-Dragon1141]

I'm not sure that this is quite old enough for nostalgia yet but I'm sure if it isn't already American Zoomers will have a large wave of nostalgia for things like Webkinz or Neopets. Webkinz was a computer game that launched in 2005 where you bought a real stuffed animal in the store and then it would have a code on it to put your pet into the game. While not shut-down it has definitely lost its popularity, so I wouldn't be surprised if I saw it make a comeback on tiktok. Neopets is a similar and older game released in 1999, but it's pets were only virtual. I think that given the trend of Gen Z starting to wear stuffed animals as a part of their fashion, it probably will not be long till people start to think about it again.

[@quinnjohnson9750]

Zoomer nostalgia is already a thing. Been that way sense 2020 at least.

[@rebeccafisk4200]

Neopets saw a huge boom during the Pandemic. Some of my earliest memories are from standing around the house computer watching my sister or my cousins playing Destruct-O-Match and Hasee Bounce and waiting for my turn!

[@AA-bc9wz]

This may be an older gen z thing since I would say there is more nostalgia for things like Poptropica than Neopets (which would be the early aughts when a decent chunk of Gen Z was just born). Then again, the internet is vast and wide, and I imagine nostalgia is influenced by the people you grew up with so I may be misrepresenting things entirely.

[@jaii7]

Like Parle G (although the biscuits aren't that commercially popular nowadays) Maggi (which has become the de-facto name for instant noodles) is another cheap commercial food item that (although genuinely popular as well) has acquired an irony cult where stuff like maggi pie, maggi burgers, maggi smoothies etc have become a pineapple pizza like meme. The milk cooperative Amul has become an authentic nationalist Swadeshi symbol (being a cooperative and a leader in the 'White Revolution' for milk production) and has evolved over the years while staying relevant. However, many elders are quite nostalgic about its humbler days, with Amul purposefully keeping the packaging for its more classic products (like butter) old-fashioned with the iconic mascot. (There's also this old 'amul doodh peeta hai india' advert that still gets played nowadays, much to the delight of millennials and genXers who never fail to make reference to some childhood memories abt it)

[@GaryJamieson2005]

The thing that pops up for me in terms of nostalgia from Scotland is the Oor Wullie comics which were comics written in the Scots dialect so is basically unreadable for anyone who wasnt raised here. My grandparents had multiple issues of the comics that I read while growing up and I still see some mini statues of Oor Wullie on his bucket in glasgow today.

[@Ryan-ho4hf]

Oh wow, core memory unlocked! Somehow a book of Oor Wullie managed to find its way all the way down to South Africa and I have many memories of young me reading and rereading these weird words. I didn't struggle too much with them but maybe I just read way too much as a kid.

[@The_Libationist]

I remember visiting the GDR museum in Berlin and they had an exhibit which was an entire mock up of a traditional ‘commie block’ apartment. It was funny walking around the child’s room of an East German boomer. Made me feel nostalgia for a time I never lived through.

[@肉骨粉]

This is hyper specific, but the whole "nostalgia for a time you never lived through" sounds like a fascinating topic.

[@LucasBenderChannel]

Oh yes! It's one of the most creative and immersive museums I've ever been to! Just sitting in a mock-up Eastern living room, flicking through Eastern TV channels? Good stuff.

[@gerardacronin334]

It’s a really fun museum to visit. You can even pretend to drive a Trabant.

[@The_Libationist]

@@LucasBenderChannel really is. Top spot in Berlin imo

[@The_Libationist]

@@肉骨粉 I think you could describe it as empathetic nostalgia. Although they are not memories I have I can see those old photos, go into those old rooms, and imagine being an old man looking back on my life in the GDR. In a similar manner I’m sure I will look back at this point my life in 50 years.

[@mistersauga716]

Born and raised in Canada but my parents are from the former Yugoslavia and there's a ton of nostalgia about the old regime, especially among those who resent the more overtly nationalistic direction Yugoslavia's successor states have taken since the 1990s. By far the most common type of car in Yugoslavia were those produced by the state-owned Zastava company, which were still ubiquitous in parts of the former Yugoslavia well into the 2000s. The "fico", based on the italian Fiat 600, is very sentimentalized in my family as a symbol of the past; and while visiting some family friends in Croatia last summer, I noticed that they had a little die cast Zastava 101. Zastava also produced the Yugo, which was infamously sold in international markets. The company has since been acquired by Fiat/Stellantis if I'm not mistaken, but the cars they produced are a symbol of the old communist regime both in how simple/barebones they were and in how ubiquitous/widespread they were (they were literally everywhere, with few other options being available). I'm sure a similar dynamic is present throughout the countries of the old Eastern Bloc.

[@williamdavid3933]

As a Pennsylvania native I can say that Yuengling beer was such a big deal. Local beer/alcohol culture would be fun to hear about.

[@infamoussphere7228]

in Finland it was apparently this drink called "kotikalja." Which is basically a small beer/low alcohol beer/kvass, but they served it at kids' birthday parties?!

[@jorgearriaga1875]

J.J. I wish you could make a topic talking about the "horse culture" in this continent, horse racing, cowboy shows, jockeys, all the gist, I think you could really make the best out of the topic

[@zuffin1864]

I feel like JJ unintentionally became counter-cultural by just being normal, in a wholesome way. I love this channel, and want another Jreg crossover so much lol

[@DeviilReaper]

10:54 As I may understand your thought process in assuming that the items that are no longer being sold are replaced by a similar superior product, this may not actually be the case - if we take the Canadian coloured pencils as an example & assume that they are actually a superior product, but due economic or foreign policies, the US product is able to be sold for little to no additional taxes in Canada, this product could outperform the sales of the Canadian brand simply by having the price lower than the Canadian brand. So a consumer might not see or see little difference in the two products but would simply choose the cheaper option. In this scenario, the superior product has no real way of competing.

[@MrMultiPat]

I'm also a Canadian like you but my parents are Portuguese so I was exposed to many Portuguese consumer goods as a kid. One famous toy is a duck in a sailor suit that looks a great deal like Donald Duck. A famous food brand is Pimenta, the Portuguese red pepper paste, which has a really iconic label with a white background and a red pepper in the center.

[@retroroy8720]

Russian nostalgia for the Soviet Union is very morbidly fascinating, but also kinda makes sense given how turbulent things were in Russia during the 90's under Yeltsin.

[@locorum9103]

Yeah it's not like life for average Russian people has gotten better since the 1980s lol

[@AduckButSpain]

"Israeliana" (influenced by the word "Americana") is a term to describe nostalgic stuff related to Israel. The most famous thing is the "Blue Box" that was used for collecting donations for the JNF, which every Jew in the world was familiar with until the 70's. Even Kamala Harris mentioned it in an interview about a year ago. Clothings like the Tembel Hat or "Kippi" Slippers are still popular to this day. In general, Israel was a socialist country with very few main brands for each type of product, so it's easy to get nostalgic about them.

[@AmandaNievi]

Here in Brazil, a stationery company has found major publicity online and sales when they decided to open a warehouse of theirs that was untouched since the 90's. It was a family company, and back in the 80's and 90's they didn't have a thorough stock management system, so the owner at the time (current owner's grandfather) just bought a lot of whatever he thought would sell. This resulted in a huge stock of stationery from that time. When they decided to open some boxes and posted a video on Instagram, they went viral because of nostalgia. They didn't have a website, but they created one because the demand was huge. The day they opened their website it actually crashed because of the amount of people accessing. They are called Papelaria Castorino Santana, and they went from a local stationery family store to a huge business. I believe it's a cool story about the monetary power of nostalgia.

[@teadrinker42069]

In Russia, a weird thing I’ve noticed is the fondness for a Vietnamese brand of medicine that was very popular in the Soviet Union named Cao Sao Vang(“golden star” in Vietnamese, affectionately called “Zvezdochka” by Russian people). You can still find it on sale in some pharmacies, but most people buy it and keep it for childhood nostalgia rather than its actual purpose.

[@mierardi88]

I think the thing I have the most nostalgia for is the Mister Men and Little Miss books from Roger Hargreaves. Though a British line of children's books, I love collecting the books and all the characters that would reoccur in each other's books (Mister Tickle, Mister Fussy, Mister Silly, etc) and I love seeing them on tshirts and stuff

[@noofzoof]

You can still find the Hilroy Canada notebooks in shops nowadays (I don't think they ever left, as I used them when I was in school in the 2010s). In fact I saw some yesterday when I was buying some stuff at Staples.

[@Brauay776]

I remember those being dealt out to students when I went to elementary school in the 2000’s. You always knew the teacher was gunna make the class do something boring like a spelling test whenever they were handed out so I’ve had a negative association with them ever since haha

[@HappyMan0203]

I think toys in particular play a big role in this. Growing up in the 2000s a lot of kids my age would have played a ton with things like the i-Dog, Nerf blasters, and most kids likely had a PlayStation 2 they wasted hours every day on. I can imagine most generations have similar toys that they grew up playing with in childhood and remember quite fondly.

[@benjaminrobinson3842]

There are also retro videogames. I've seen several devices that pack multiple games from the 80's, like Centipede and Missile Command, into one box.

[@TheMbmdcrew]

Yessss!!! As a daughter of the 2000s I remember all the toys I grew up with so fondly. I can still remember the sounds that my FurReal Friends puppy made when you pressed on his back, and the names and abilities of all of the Planet Heroes action figures. I remember when Polly Pockets were fully dressable dolls the size of someone's finger, and not a tiny person in a pocket-sized playset. I remember my play kitchen with all of its plastic food, the multicolored tent I would set up in the middle of the basement, and the multitude of Legos I had to play with (mostly Star Wars sets). My brother and I had a wide variety of Nerf guns as well, in addition to toy swords and lightsabers, and we would do battle with them regularly. And, of course, I had a prized Nintendo DS that I poured hours and hours of my life into. In fact, during my senior year of college, I decided to pick Nintendogs and Pokémon SoulSilver back up again to be reminded of my carefree girlhood.

[@Luigirepublic]

I'm from the US so let me go hard mode for just things from my state (New Mexico). Albuquerque Dukes: This minor league baseball team has become a massive nostalgia factory with tons of tourist baubles. To the point that it's been featured on Better Call Saul. Basically all of it is just stuff with the team logo on it, a cartoon face of a Spanish conquistador. Smokey Bear: Since our state provided the living bear the American National Forest Service used for advertising, New Mexico especially is obsessed with Smokey. A local group, Friends of Smokey, actually had a massive hot-air-balloon built of him and then when it hit a radio antenna they had another one built. Museums, pins, patches, abound. Allsup's: Local convenience store chain. Various nostalgia items since the company moved to Texas. Lots of things depicting the logo with various local slang, e.g. "All Sick".

[@answerman9933]

I remember "Reboot" I scheduled my day around it.

[@andybearchan]

There is a lot of TV and streaming shows that glorify or idealize previous generation of American life. Stranger Things, That 70s show, Mad Men, Derry Girls, Young Sheldon.

[@JW-eq3vj]

Here in Cincinnati there is a t-shirt company that sells shirts if local interest including lots of nostalgic shirts of old local tv shows, business, even politicians. Many people here get nostalgic about the days when Jerry Springer was mayor of Cincy. It eventually led him to become the host of such a high class talk show. 😀

[@DionStabber]

In Australia, this industry doesn't really exist, I think because most of the brands etc are still around in some form or another. A related phenomenon to your nationalism point however is an obsession with the brands being Australian owned. Many of the classic Australian products that are still available now fall under the ownership of a multinational corporation, which a lot of people will get angry about in a virtue-signally way, as in "Can you believe Vegemite isn't even Australian owned anymore? What is this country coming to?". What ends up happening then is that some Australian company will produce what in practice amounts to a knockoff version of the thing where the entire appeal is that it is Australian owned, so for instance they will make "Aussiemite" to try and get these people back on board. The media always makes a really big deal out of this, as though the Australian brand has put the international brand into a totally indefensible market position, but inevitably the Australian brand falls into obscurity or fails when they realise that people don't actually really care who owns the brands especially when most are still made in Australia of Australian ingredients etc etc. and the play-anger is more a point of national pride than an actual firmly held position. Vegemite specifically did get bought out by an Australian company in 2017, so maybe it did kind of work for that one, but a very similar situation is happening with various Australian biscuits, beers etc. that are still under international ownership.

[@infamoussphere7228]

that said, there's a lot of Vegemite themed...stuff. But I don't know if it's specifically nostalgic.

[@timkaragias213]

Computers from the 90s. The aesthetic and functionality fill me with nostalgia. There, call to action completed.

[@DiscoDumpTruck]

A bit of a niche one, but "Pioneer Scones" or "Mormon Scones" are pretty sentimentalized in Utah and some places along the Mormon Trail. As the story goes, many early converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were from England. When they tried to make English scones without an oven while on their journey to Utah, it resulted in something more like fried bread that was served with honey, butter, or jam. It's generally agreed that they are objectively less tasty than traditional English scones, but it's a fairly sentimentalized treat for Pioneer descendants.

[@BeIlG]

I think all the neo gothic eras, Art Nouveau, and things of this nature came from people again being nostalgic for things in the past. Things they probably grew up around from much longer ago but after a boom of modernization they missed seeing those old things more often around.

[@stephenbenner4353]

Speaking of nostalgic things, your hair makes me think you’re starting an 80s cover band.

[@MegaSqueebles]

Concerned Children's Advertisers PSAs. So many of those things are burned into my mind. I'll be on my death bed having forgotten the names and faces of loved ones, but I'll be singing 'dont you put it in your mouth' and asking if anyone's put out peanut butter toast for the house hippo.

[@fightyfish1779]

In the uk the freddo chocolate bar is very sentimentalized, its basically a very small cheap frog shaped bar of chocolate (iconically you'll often hear people say things like "I remember when a freddo was only 10p" and the fluctuating price of a freddo bar is a common way to joke about the state of the uk economy and the cost of living. In rural england scarecrow festivals are massively sentimentalized, basically everyone in some small quaint village will make scarecrows (often to a theme or prompt) and put them on display around the village for people to go around and look at, usually there'll be a panel of judges who give awards for the best scarecrows in various categories. A lot of the time people will use their scarecrows to make clever jokes or take the piss out of current politics, which plays into our conception of the "unique british sense of humour" which we're so proud of, this with the rural quaint village setting make it very iconically english. there's a village near me that hosts a big, multi day scarecrow festival every year, and people from all around my county come to see it. the sitcom This Country has a great portrayal of what they're like in its first episode.

[@corey2232]

I live in the US, but here are some things I see people having nostalgia for (or previously already had nostalgia comebacks): - Surge (the 90's green soda) - French Toast Crunch - Dunkaroos - VHS tapes / VCRs - Blockbuster / Movie Rental Stores - Punk rock/ Pop-Punk 00's music - AOL Instant Messenger /MSN messenger - Video game demo kiosks in stores like Walmart, KB Toys, McDonalds, Toys R Us, etc. - Early online/Flash games - Crappy school lunches (specifically the rectangle pizza) And that's about all I can remember seeing on my social media feed 😅

[@johannsaldanha2847]

Hey J.J.! Long-time viewer and fan here who has finally worked up the courage to leave a comment on your videos. As an Indian-American (born and currently living in the States, but grew up in Bombay), I must say that Parle-G is an absolutely beloved Indian national brand. Having being bombarded by Parle-G ads all my childhood, seeing a packet is enough for my brain to fondly auto-play their slogan (very similar to how Phineas and Ferb fans react when seeing the Doofenschmirtz Evil Inc. building). As a 2004 kid who saw Parle-G biscuits shelved alongside Western products in shops, I never realised that it was a product of the Swadeshi movement (though I knew it was an Indian brand). For me (and many others, I'm sure), Parle-G biscuits are associated with having tea with your grandparents, just adding to the sentimentality. Looking back, it makes me smile to think that even for comfortable/upper middle class kids like me, a biscuit packet that costed just INR 5 (~ US$0.07) was still the preferred source of sustenance.

[@theshreyinator]

Indian here, 10000% agree. Parle G is a national treasure.

[@clewless4759]

Two examples from New Zealand. 1. The Arcoroc Mug. Ironically made in France this smoked brown transparent glass mug is seldom known by it's actual name, people call them Marae Mugs, Church Mugs, or more frequently "those brown glass cups". 2. The Buzzy Bee. A children's bee toy whose wings spin around when puled along the ground by a string. It became popular in the post war boom and the same design is still sold today.

[@drkiz96]

VHS tapes leave me feeling with a general sense of nostalgia. They objectively sucked as a form of media. But they remind me of my childhood and how carefree I was

[@simonbone]

Canadian milk in plastic bags is still sold in some areas (like Ontario) but was once very common elsewhere (we had it in Edmonton). I've seen it touted as a quirky Canadian thing.

[@jamestosches8553]

Philippines too!

[@npcimknot958]

@@jamestosches8553no way!! I thoguht it was only in canada lol.

[@celianewittvieira4354]

Brazil also!

[@simonbone]

@@npcimknot958 There are actually modern versions of the plastic bag in use in other countries, like Germany - here there's a kind that has a handle made of pressurized air. But the specific Canadian ones I was thinking of are clear plastic that require a special jug.

[@chequereturned]

I think it’s fair to say that being replaced in a free market doesn’t just mean the replacement must be higher quality. That can be a reason. Cost - which comes with economies of scale - is a huge factor (it’s cheaper to use HFCS in the US but almost everyone agrees it’s better to use cane sugar or something else - but when balancing it all out US ‘candy’/‘soda’ companies can afford to cut costs). As is a book/film or such appealing to the median rather than a more educated minority.

[@STARPHASE]

That black and white speckled composition book is very nostalgic. I even have a laptop case that looks like one. I could have picked so many patterns, but because every school year as a kid I got a new one of those notebooks, I really just wanted my digital 'notebook' to have that cover.

[@QuickTipshow]

J.J's hair is getting out of control. I'm jealous.

[@ztl2505]

It’s interesting hearing about Canadian nostalgia from before American brands took over, because I feel like internally Americans tend to have a similar nostalgia for hyper-regional brands from the days before the same handful of corporations dominated shelves everywhere.

[@joeketa6352]

I noted this recently when I went from Oregon to Ontario to visit a friend. He had so many of the same products in his house. I joked that everyone complained about the sameness of products in the USSR, but in the free west the corporations have gotten so big that we also have all the same products.

[@candiceluke9454]

Something in the UK is Freddos. They're a small cadburys chocolate bar that used to cost around 15p and the price was always on the packaging. Now the price has risen, and its become a bit of a meme/joke that you can judge the rate of inflation of the economy by how much they cost. Cadburys have also since been bought by an American company. It's a triple whammy of nostalgia for a childhood chocolate bar with the older packaging, reminder of rising costs and a traditional British company now being owned by Americans

[@isaacpang2024]

When I think of nostalgic products in my home city, Hong Kong, I would think about the red-white-blue bag (紅白藍膠袋). It's a polyethylene plastic bag mostly associated with my grandparents' generation when Hong Kong's economy blasted after the second world war. At that time, a lot of people traveled to Mainland China with this bag to send money and western products to their relatives there. As a Gen Z, I personally do not feel nostalgic to this type of bag, but it's usually an icon of "Hong Kong spirit" for the boomers and maybe early Gen X

[@christianrodier3381]

The logo of the company Blockbuster comes to mind. It was important in the 90s. The other popular nostalgic products are t-shirts with old 90s cartoons and video game consoles

[@athenarobbins786]

As a Gen Z Canadian, my friends and I have a lot of nostalgia for the mascots from the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Some of us still kept the stuff animals we bought of them. I think a lot of us feel nostaglic for 2010 and the entirety of that decade because it was sandwiched between the financial crisis and Covid. Like a crisis we couldn't understand was over and we weren't yet adults having to deal with a new one.

[@kaisalmon1646]

IKEA's made I think every country in the western world feel this way about that one rug with the roads and buildings on it

[@richardm9934]

Found your channel and binging your vids! Don't feel too pressured to cover stuff outside your experience area. I'm personally here for the contrarian pro-consumerism, pro-American content. You help me see my country in a more positive light, which I've found is actually good for my mental well-being o_0

[@robnjake]

Mattel and Coleco electronic handheld 9 volt games from the late 70s early 80s

[@benjaminrobinson3842]

Those are back? I had those when they were *new* .

[@AbsurdReasoning]

I have a kind of 'inherited/passed-down' nostalgia for products from Irish brand Bolands. I grew up in London and my dad is Irish. He used to buy me and my brother Jam Mallows (AKA Mikados) and Kimberley biscuits when when we were kids, as they reminded him of his early childhood. Now I also feel nostalgic for them, as they remind me of my own childhood of searching for them in the world foods aisle in supermarkets. What if I gave third-generation nostalgia to my future kids by buying them Mikados and Kimberleys?