{"id":1042,"date":"2025-08-21T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2025-08-21T10:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T10:49:10","slug":"theres-one-big-problem-with-walkers-and-cadbury-bringing-back-90s-favourites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/21\/theres-one-big-problem-with-walkers-and-cadbury-bringing-back-90s-favourites\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s one big problem with Walkers and Cadbury bringing back 90s favourites"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"Food\t<\/div>
Retro food packaging is everywhere (Picture: Getty\/Walkers\/Cadbury\/Pepsi\/Maynard’s)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s 2025 but everywhere you turn the 90s<\/a> and 00s <\/a>are making a comeback.<\/p>\n

From the clothes we wear, to the groceries we buy, everything seems to have been plucked straight from our childhood these days.<\/p>\n

Big brands are getting in on the action, with Walkers<\/a> recently launching retro throwbacks in supermarkets<\/a>. The crisp giant is currently selling multi-packs of Cheese & Onion and Ready Salted Crisps in 90s packaging to celebrate 30 years of Tesco<\/a> Clubcard, and retro packets<\/a> of Jelly Babies have also been spotted in the shops too.<\/p>\n

You might also recall Cadbury turning back the clock for its 200th anniversary<\/a>, launching Dairy Milk chocolate bars wrapped in purple and white designs from over the years and Pepsi also recently gave this a go too with old school<\/a> bottles.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Split\t<\/div>
Walkers has brought back retro packaging in Tesco (Picture: Walkers)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On social media shoppers have had mixed reactions to these 90s comebacks, with some thrilled to see the products looking the way they remember, but others concerned that brands are simply \u2018preying\u2019 on us with a nostalgic<\/a> marketing ploy. <\/p>\n

Dr. Thomas Robinson, a senior lecturer in marketing at The University of London\u2019s Bayes Business School, doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s helpful to simply look at this as brands \u2018preying\u2019 on consumers, as businesses naturally exist to make money, by offering goods consumers want.<\/p>\n

He claims the focus should be on the reason why brands are tapping into nostalgia right now and what they should be doing instead. <\/p>\n

\u2018The broader cultural diagnosis of why we have resorted to nostalgia is more interesting,\u2019 he tells Metro<\/strong>. \u2018People don\u2019t like the world that they live in, there\u2019s no hope for the future, so the go-to is nostalgia.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Retro\t<\/div>
Pepsi recently returned to the 90s as well (Picture: Pepsi)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018It\u2019s an expression of the times that we\u2019re living in where there\u2019s a huge amount of uncertainty – we have one future for robots, another for sustainability and there are lots of wars going on. <\/p>\n

\u2018With all of this happening, it\u2019s easier to get people to look back and think about how good the past was.\u2019<\/p>\n

But looking back through rose-tinted glasses can be quite \u2018repressive\u2019 according to Dr. Robinson. This is because you end up with a sanitised view of the past, where you idealise what it was like to live back then and end up forgetting about the negative things that were happening in the world at the time.<\/p>\n

As such, he\u2019s keen to see brands doing something different with the products and messaging they put out.<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C3an8UzInBg\/<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u2018Nostalgia is a symptom of the world we live in, but it shouldn\u2019t be the solution,\u2019 he explains.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a bit like eating a chocolate bar when you\u2019re on a diet. It feels good for a second, but afterwards you feel like garbage, and that\u2019s because you\u2019ve not really moved forward or addressed the problems you\u2019re actually facing, or in this case the problems the world is facing.<\/p>\n

\u2018Many brands would be far better served by trying to diagnose and understand the world we\u2019re living in now and coming up with actual solutions, because at this point we\u2019re basically just treading water. <\/p>\n

‘I would say we\u2019ve been culturally stagnant since 2005.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Back\t<\/div>
Nostalgia shouldn’t be the ‘solution’ according to Dr. Robinson (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The expert recalls how previously you could see a hairstyle from the 80s and know which decade it’s from, the same goes from music released in the 70s and movies made in the 90s – they all looked of a time. <\/p>\n

But he doesn\u2019t think future generations will be able to tell the difference between then and now, as everything from the past keeps making comebacks – from the haircuts and clothes, to the packaging of our food<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re living in cultural Groundhog Day. It\u2019s like a revolving door, we\u2019ve gone nowhere,\u2019 Dr. Robinson says. <\/p>\n

\u2018I think part of it comes down to the way we switched to the internet and everything became shareable. We have no incentive to create new things now.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n
Comment now<\/title><span class=\"metro-comment-cta__text\">Do you love or loathe 90s food comebacks? Share your thoughts!<\/span><\/span><a class=\"metro-comment-cta__button\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\">Comment Now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>And if you\u2019re currently reading this and thinking, <em>they\u2019re just crisp packets, it\u2019s not that big of a deal<\/em>, you\u2019d be mistaken.<\/p>\n<p>As with all products, food is not just marketed as food, it\u2019s sold as a \u2018lifestyle proposition\u2019 and it\u2019s all about what kind of image and lifestyle the brand is selling you.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Think of water, there\u2019s a difference between buying an own-brand Sainsbury\u2019s bottle of water and a branded one like San Pellegrino. Which one you have says something about you, it\u2019s not just the hydration that matters, right? It\u2019s the same with crisps.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It\u2019s literally just a fried potato that\u2019s been sliced, but the packaging says something – is it a lifestyle proposition that\u2019s orientated towards the past, safety and stagnation, or is it a lifestyle proposition oriented towards something new and special?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Creating the latter requires much more thought and effort, but Dr. Robinson believes the brands that put the work into this will be much more successful in the long run. <\/p>\n<p>\u2018If we have a brand that can come up with a lifestyle proposition that\u2019s a believable narrative about hope for the future, people will flock to that.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Do you have a story to share?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Get in touch by emailing <a href=\"mailto:MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk\">MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom-start\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom centered\"><\/section>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom-end\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom centered\"><a class=\"comment-now metro-button metro-comments-cta\" data-vars-position=\"bottom_cta_question\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><title>Comment now<\/title><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"comment-now__label\">Do you love or loathe 90s food comebacks? Share your thoughts!<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retro food packaging is everywhere (Picture: Getty\/Walkers\/Cadbury\/Pepsi\/Maynard’s) It\u2019s 2025 but everywhere you turn the 90s and 00s are making a comeback. From the clothes we wear, to the groceries we buy, everything seems to have been plucked straight from our childhood these days. Big brands are getting in on the action, with Walkers recently launching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1049,"href":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions\/1049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.answerla.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}