Future Time Perspective Moderates Consumer Responses to Nostalgic Advertising

Humans remember their past and consider their future. Nostalgic advertising, focused on the personal past, increases positive consumer response to products. This research examines how future time perspective (FTP) moderates that effect. Based on socioemotional selectivity theory, the products studied represent goals individuals have when time feels limited (i.e., camera: familiar, socially focused, emotionally meaningful) or open-ended (i.e., VR-One: novel, information-focused, entertaining). As expected, ad-evoked nostalgia heightens positive consumer response to the camera, increasingly so when FTP feels limited (Study 1; N = 288). For the VR-One, ad-evoked nostalgia again increases positive response but less so when time feels limited (Study 2; N = 283). Thinking about how the past and the future interact to influence consumer preferences in adulthood is discussed.