Watchmen Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Nostalgia - Watchmen

Nostalgia, also known as Nostalgia by Veidt, was a brand of men and women's cosmetics created by Veidt Enterprises.

History[]

Marketing[]

The earliest mention to Nostalgia is perhaps in 1977; during the riots, a billboard can be partially seen across the Treasure Island shop.[1]

According to a letter from Adrian Veidt to Angela Neuberg, director of Veidt Cosmetics & Toiletries, they choose slightly androgynous women to appeal to the gay market.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia Advertisement

According to Veidt, the success of the range is down to the romantic atmosphere and soft focus of the ad campaign. The marketing strategy capitalized on the public anxiety during the Cold War, and conveyed an idyllic idea of a modified, half-remembered past when everything was safe.

Rorschach snatches an aftershave bottle from Dan Dreiberg's apartment and applies it to his face;[2] the bottle is broken during the skirmish outside Edgar Jacobi's apartment[3] and a cop comments that "he stinks".[4] On Mars, as Laurie is emptying her bag, she hurls her bottle which crashes on Doctor Manhattan's clockwork palace, causing it to shatter and collapse.[5]

Discontinuation[]

Adrian Veidt predicted (and anticipated) that the public worries and uncertainty about the shadowy future would not last forever.

Veidt proposed to phase out the Nostalgia line by summer of 1986 to make way for a new brand for a different target group. This brand, called Millennium, will feature more controversial imagery to reflect a futuristic utopian vision.

Trivia[]

  • An advert has the tagline "Where is the essence that was so divine?"[2] A poster has the tag line "Oh, how the ghost of you clings" and an image of a woman adjusting her stockings.[6]
  • The TV advertisement for Nostalgia has Unforgettable by Nat King Cole as a jingle.[7]
  • Advertisements for Nostalgia appear throughout the events of Watchmen. The product is used by several characters including Sally Jupiter, Laurie Juspeczyk and Dan Dreiberg.
  • Nostalgia is representative of the characters' reminiscences, memories and flashbacks. This is particularly notable in "The Darkness of Mere Being". At the end of the series, the shift of focus to the new Millennium brand represents a larger change in the characters, looking less towards the past and more towards the future.
  • It's made obvious that Adrian Veidt used the brand and marketing of Nostalgia as a manner to make people long about an idyllic past and be uncertain about a shadowy future. More certainly, the contrast between Nostalgia and the later Millennium, would make the buying market conform more effectively to his new utopia after the threat of the nuclear war. Similarly, Mmeltdowns are replaced with Sunbursts.

References[]

Advertisement