Our lives are made up of the experiences we’ve had. And those experiences stick with us, particularly the good ones. 

When we look back on our lives, it’s easy to feel as though things were better in the past. We long for the “good ‘ol days,” as it were. 

There’s a word for this feeling: Nostalgia.  

And nostalgia, like many other human emotions, has been commodified. That’s right: Advertisers, marketers and even politicians know people yearn for bygone times, and they know just how to take advantage of it.  

Ana Babic Rosario, professor of marketing at the University of Denver, studies what’s called “nostalgia marketing." She says that nostalgia is complex; it’s about more than just longing for the past. 

On this episode of RadioEd, Emma chats with Rosario about the good, the bad and the ugly of nostalgia marketing—and finds out who’s most susceptible to it.