Nostalgia Ain't What It Used To Be.

There is a developing trend for exploiting nostalgia for boomers' youth (and perhaps a belated recognition of their numerical importance) by relaunching food brands from the 1970s. I have two questions.

1) Is the nostalgia actually for the brands or for their advertising?

2) When marketing representatives of these brands speak of "reformulating them to meet current taste trends" are they throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

Just because some old brands refuse to die, it does not follow that their appeal can be pushed onto other customers. In fact, I'd argue that the very fact that these products continue to sell without any advertising support is strong evidence that brand values are imposed by the customers and not by the advertising.