Nostalgic Products From My Childhood
By: Elizabeth Cherian
Tags: Nostalgia, Consumer Behavior, Brands, Advertising And Marketing

Picture Courtesy Skitterphoto

I have been interested in marketing for a long time. No…I don’t think I would make a good salesperson or even be able to collect donations. But since my school days I have been fascinated by advertisements. TV in those days was only the state provided Doordarshan channel, and we had very limited TV time. But I was also very fascinated by print ads that appeared in the newspapers like The Hindu and Readers Digest, which we subscribed to back then. I was especially fascinated by the ads in RD like the ones for Raymond that had long write ups. RD also had something called Pegasus awards for the best advertisements, if I remember correctly.

Later in my management studies I did learn a little more about marketing…..branding, advertising, brand loyalty and recall, etc. Of course we are normal mortals who are not celebrities to endorse products. However today, there are influencers and vloggers who are also roped in for product promotions and who earn handsomely out of that. But apart from all these, don’t we all have our favourite products? Here, our personal likes, feelings, budget constraints, nostalgia and quirks guide the choices we make. No advertising or celebrity can sway our choices in these.

The following products are purely nostalgic. These are associated to my early childhood. The days before I read Readers Digest or knew anything about advertising. Many are not available where I live now, in India, or are not produced maybe. I have not included toys and these are in no particular order.

1. BIC Ballpoint Pens

As a child the first pens I used were Bic pens. Back then I did not know that Bic was a brand, or that fountain pens or ink pens existed. The only Bic pens we used were ballpointed, had a body of glass or glass like plastic, and a plastic cap and cover on the other end. We all referred to them as biros…..and back then I did not know what reference this had to Biro. After moving back to India, we never had Bic pens. I don’t even know if it is available in India. But till date the Bic logo of the little boy is one that evokes a stir of feelings in me. I see that the company was started in 1944 producing writing instrument parts, and the ballpoint pen was launched under the brand BIC in 1950. The BIC Boy I so love was created in 1961, decades before I was born. But he still takes me back to my childhood when writing was novel and simple, all at the same time.

2. Omo Detergent

I don’t know why I should include Omo in this list. I was not washing clothes back then when this was a product purchased by my family. After growing up also, I can’t say I am a person who particularly relishes doing the laundry. Perhaps it is just an everyday object that is not available to me now that makes me remember something of my childhood. I vaguely remember the boxes of Omo. Even after returning to India for sometime we referred to the laundry detergents hereas Omo out of habit. The unilever website says, “Whether known as Omo, Persil, Skip, Breeze, Ala, Surf Excel or Rinso in your part of the world, you can trust we’ll be there with the superior technology you love to help your family remove those tough stains again and again…….” So much for my nostalgia!

3. Ribena and Tree Top

Both these are fruit drinks that I consumed in my childhood. I remember Ribena as a deep purple or black drink. I t was a favourite when I was little, say till I was 6. I now understand it is a black currant based uncarbonated drink. A cursory internet search tells me the brand was produced by GlaxoSmithKline till 2013 when it was sold to Suntory(which I have never heard of). It seems it was marketed as a healthy drink that supplemented Vitamin C, as it was distributed by the British Government among children for this purpose during World War II. But in the 2000s this reputation took a hit as there were scandals about the levels of sugar, vitamin C and actual fruit in Ribena. Since 2013 it has been regarded as a soft drink. Well, healthy or not, I would love a sip of Ribena…..Just for old times sake.

Tree top is another brand of fruit drink or rather a squash that was ubiquitous in our refrigerator. I remember the orange flavoured drink distinctly. It came in big glass bottles then, with a rather big white plastic cover. The label had the picture of the fruit. Ah …..it was the cooler for hot days.

This again, is a brand I have never seen in India. An internet search took me to a website, and the packaging looks nothing like the old glass bottles. This says it is a cooperative formed in 1960, in Selah, Washington that is referred to as apple country. The name Tree Top is said to have been chosen by Bill Charbonneau, owner of Charbonneau Packing for his premium apple juice from an employee contest to name it. The cooperative of farmers purchased Charbonneau’s company and the Tree Top brand name in 1960. I don’t know if this is the same brand I remember, but it was interesting to go through the website. I did find a tweet with a picture of the glass bottle I associate with Tree Top but not much detail, except that it was a drink popular in UK in the 1970s. So, I really don’t know if these are two different products altogether. The American company does seem to have apple as the core of their different products. The drink I remember was definitely orange, and I am not sure if an apple drink was there. I do miss Tree Top and its reassuring presence in the refrigerator.

4. Planta and Flora Margarine

I don’t even remember how these tasted. But these seem to be frequent purchases, again constant presence in the refrigerator. So just the names and the recollection of the packaging take me back to simpler days. Days when we didn’t know margarine was unhealthy.

5. Mentholatum

For me Mentholatum was a small container of ointment, I think a green and white container. This unassuming white ointment seemed to be my parents’ go to potion for colds, headaches, mosquito bites, wounds and many more minor ailments. I sometimes think if I had told them I had chopped off a finger they would respond, “ Put some mentholatum.” Of course I am exaggerating, but you get the drift.

In India, Mentholatum isn’t available as far as I know. My parents replaced it with Vick Vaporub I guess. But the magic just wasn’t there. I see that The Mentholatum Company was founded in Wichita Kansas in 1889 as a small purveyor of toiletries and soaps, eventually growing into a global health and wellness company. It was acquired by Rohto Pharmaceutical Company(founded in 1899 in Osaka, Japan as a family drugstore). Rohto was a pioneer in over the counter medicines and consumer healthcare products, and is the second largest consumer health company in Japan today, according to their website. The products I see in the website do look soothing and I am sure I’d have been a sucker to try them out if they were available here, only because of the connect I feel with the brand. After all, something your parents swore by when you were a child must stick pretty fast to your mind!

Well, I don’t use any of these products any more. But I do recall my fading memories and when I have time try look them up on the internet. I guess we are complex beings. And our emotions, memories and relationships can get entangled in mere consumer products sometimes.