Aubrey Motsinger
For many, the McDonald’s Happy Meal epitomizes childhood joy, with the surprise toys at the heart of that experience. On August 13th, McDonald’s launched the Collector’s Meal. These meals include collectible cups with six different designs celebrating iconic toy collections such as Minions, Hello Kitty, and Beanie Babies. McDonald’s has said that these meals “[allow] longtime fans to relive treasured moments” and are marketing them by the nostalgia the cups evoke.
Nostalgia is the wistful desire to return to a former time in one’s life and can manifest in preferences for things or experiences that were more common when one was younger but are no longer as accessible. The McDonald’s toy collections aren’t repeated, and even if they were, the people who remember these particular six sets fondly are no longer the target consumers of Happy Meals. By creating a new product with nostalgic ties, McDonald’s has increased people’s intentions to purchase it. The incentive of getting a cup memorializing their favorite Happy Meal toy makes people more likely to buy Collector’s Meals than if the cups had different designs or weren’t included at all.
The cups appeal primarily as collectibles rather than kitchenware. Collectibles are objects treasured by individuals who share a common interest. Many of those objects–such as figurines–are commonly made from plastics. Amidst rising concern for plastics’ effects on the climate, a demand for ethical collectibles is emerging. Ethical collectibles are those produced with environmental and social responsibility in mind. This responsibility could be realized through smaller-scale production processes to ensure ethical working conditions, the use of sustainable materials, and reduced emissions and waste. With a limited, reduced number of products being made in each batch, the value of every item would increase along with the demand. Their sale could also be used to help fund social movements, supporting pro-active legislation or activism in addition to decreasing environmental impacts. If you are a collector of something, purchasing ethically could be one way to align your wallet with your environmental values.
Most consumers are aware of the role they play in contributing to global sustainability, but that doesn’t automatically translate to greener behavior. This has been found to be in part because nostalgia can make people reluctant to use greener alternatives to familiar products. For example, if someone grew up with a specific cleaner being used around the house, they may not switch to one with more eco-friendly ingredients because the old cleaner reminds them of years past. This marks the divide between forward-looking and backward-looking consumers. We should all aim to be in the first group and consider any environmental consequences of a product before making a purchase.
People experience nostalgia an average of 3 times a week, but their reactions to it vary with the individual. It may stir up happy memories for one person but increase the anxiety of another by causing them to compare their current levels of stress to a carefree past. These sentiments can spread to become a group-level emotion, motivating and adjusting the attitudes of group members based on the predominant feeling held toward that particular time. Luckily, the path of nostalgic sentimentality doesn’t only end in negative emotional or environmental results. It has been found that people are more inclined to engage in pro-environmental behaviors–such as recycling–when feeling nostalgic. Intent to recycle can increase with the inclusion of nostalgic elements in the recyclable product’s design, such as any graphics on the item (similar to the toy collection designs on McDonald’s collectible cups). Nostalgic songs playing during recycling promotions have also been found to make people sentimental and motivated to participate in greener measures.
Swapping and recycling products are good first steps, but they can’t be the only ones taken to preserve the environment. Ecological nostalgia is a branch of nostalgia that reminisces specifically on the better ecological pasts of degraded ecosystems. Restoring such areas can both evoke and satisfy this nostalgia. When done correctly, ecosystem rehabilitation utilizes historical knowledge of an area to reveal its future, often resulting in the area looking similar to photos of its past. Nostalgia can also boost support for restoration projects. As has been seen with consumers’ purchasing decisions, people are more likely to support something that reminds them of fond moments from their past. However, restoring a deteriorated ecosystem can’t be only to actualize people’s memories. It must simultaneously ensure the ecosystem is capable of surviving anticipated ecological changes from climate change. Planting species native to the area that are capable of surviving in a higher temperature range is one possible way of restoring for the future. If nostalgic enthusiasm isn’t mediated by consideration of what the ecosystem needs in the long run, people could become so caught up in the aesthetic of the ecosystem as to demand “restoration” resulting in further degradation. To aid in the most realistic sentimentality, people should be presented with the specific goals of the restoration effort up front and allow those facts to generate an accurate nostalgic vision.
The often rose-colored glasses of nostalgia can still be worn so long as wearers continue looking forward. There is no way to simply go back to the “good ol’ days”. Every pro-environmental act, whether it be preventional or restorational, must be oriented toward improving the future.
Citations
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