Fauxstalgia, Newstalgia and Postalgia… read about it all in the response by Dr Bhaskar Das in the June 1 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
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Q. Newstalgia is a word that has been much used in recent times. What’s your view on the strategy of exploiting nostalgic feelings to promote a new offering?
A. I think you meant Fauxstalgia as a strategy but mentioned Newstalgia. Fauxstalgia is the yearning for a time in the past, even though you may never have experienced that time directly yourself. On the other hand, Newstalgia is a new nostalgia: a kind of feeling that includes the desire to experience something familiar, but also something fresh.
Subtle difference. Anyway, I think without diving deep into an etymological journey, we can decode the sentiments behind both: the former hankers after recycled nostalgia to feel cocooned in safe haven as if present is a continuation of past, while the latter loves something freshly familiar.
Both the terms can be a great marketing tool to launch new products, specially when change all around, often at the speed of light, can be mind-numbing and a combination of nostalgia and modernism can promise a postalgia.