Making Nostalgia Original

Nostalgia is a drug that everyone is addicted to. From talking about our favorite shows as kids to referencing that one random snack that only people born between ’98 and ’01 can understand, we are in the constant state of remembering. It’s even made its way into the creative scape. We see it in advertisements with talent known for iconic roles, brand resurgences like Bratz, and even in tv show cameos.

But with all of this nostalgia, how does one keep it fresh?

The answer, originality.

There are many creatives who focus on the feeling of nostalgia instead of recreating the nostalgic reference itself. An example of this can be found in the analog horror genre in games like Five Nights at Freddy’s. The nostalgic concept is analog media with VHS tapes and trips to Chucky Cheese, but the concept itself feels fresh. With the added horror element, you’re introduced to something entirely new, entertaining, and original.

There have been other creatives that have seemingly built a platform off this formula. Black Femininity TV on YouTube has found a fun and nostalgic way of too working in analog media when capturing interviews with Black creatives. It’s unlike anything we’re seeing today, but the creative direction of it does feel familiar. The platform has found a way to carve out a space in digital media that still continues to be fresh in the content that they represent.

Another creative, @throwingitdown on TikTok, builds on our longing for our early 00s childhood through the use of recipes. The creative direction of the videos feels like an afterschool program. The content itself is cooking nostalgic meals such as Ed, from Goodburger,’s secret sauce or the Kids Cuisine pudding. They produce the aura of nostalgia — what it was like to be a kid in the early 00’s — but still create something fresh within the digital space of Tik Tok.

The challenge though, when creating nostalgic-based original content, is trying not to completely recreate the nostalgic reference.

Let’s take the Yearbook Photo Trend for example. When the first couple of creators started the concept, it immediately went viral. Its purpose was based on the nostalgia of taking yearbook photos in the 80s and 90s.

Image sourced from Google.

People put their own spin on the idea from high school superlatives, to video shorts, or for their graduation photos, showcasing everything they were a part of. Although the concept itself is creative, it has lost its fresh and original luster. Because the initial idea itself was a replication of a nostalgic reference visually, each new iteration became a duplication, eventually to the point where there was nothing new to add.

But then you think about the AdultSwim trend that was making viral rounds on Tik Tok in 2020. The concept itself wasn’t to replicate the already existing AdultSwim bumpers, but to create their own. It all started when VANO 3000 & BADBADNOTGOOD produced an edit of the song “Running Away.” People immediately began to call it out as a song that you would hear on AdultSwim, remembering watching the platform late at night. Eventually creatives decided to make it so, crafting their own bumpers, and hiding the logo in creative ways. Some took it further with incorporating supers, acting out scenes, camera movements, and more. Each video was more original, yet never lost the luster of the nostalgia that birthed the trend.

Nostalgia is never going away, and we’ll probably see it more in all the work we as creatives produce. But the challenge is to make the creative original and not a replication. When developing an idea based on a nostalgic concept, ask yourself: “how can I modernize this,” “what’s a twist I can add,” “what kind of commentary can I make,” “why was this popular.” By asking some of these kinds of questions, you can begin to craft a nostalgic idea that can be something original. Or even something that changes the way we interact with nostalgia overall.