“Quaint creatures”: public discourse and the role of B-girls in the heritage of Bourbon Street

B-drinking is soliciting a patron to purchase the B-girl a drink for which she receives a commission; this strategy has long been an integral and accepted part of French Quarter culture. Invisible in the academic literature, B-girls are an important part of heritage tourism in New Orleans. In a tourism city famous for alcohol, sex, and vice, B-drinkers are an important service labor force that drives the strip clubs at the center of the touristscape. Since the middle of the twenty-first century, B-drinking has played a crucial role in the sexual economy of tourism on Bourbon Street. B-girldom provides a case study in how the intersection of tourism and sex work is deeply embedded in regional history. The discursive B-girl as constructed in newspapers, media, and the legislature reflects local shifts in attitudes towards B-drinking from 1941 to 2012. B-girls, constructed as flirtatious tricksters or dangerous murderers, are icons of the French Quarter and an embedded fixture in this heritage tourism site – illegal but authentic inhabitants of Bourbon Street. Representations of B-girldom by powerful voices have long acknowledged and defined how sex workers engage within the French Quarter in ways understood and accepted by the people of New Orleans.     

Hysterical nostalgia in the postcolony: from Coming Home to District 9

Much of the remembering of recent years in South Africa has involved nostalgia, but a nostalgia of excess and morbidity, or what might be called hysteria. The endangered body stands as a memorial to the distortions of apartheid, and there are many manifestations in the culture of the country. Here I analyse two performative works by expatriate South Africans who in contrasting but related ways express through them a hysterical-nostalgic relation to their country's past: Coming Home, a memory-play by Athol Fugard, and Neill Blomkamp's dystopian film District 9, both of which touch on the country's HIV/AIDS crisis. Resisting inadmissible yearnings for the apartheid past leads to revealing versions of nostalgia, in terms of broader cultural aesthetics, and the politics of the present – a time of continuing turbulence and uncertainty.     

两岸乡土小说中“乡愁”内涵的异同——以《青番公的故事》、《将军族》、《生死场》、《远村》为例

两岸乡土小说一直是中国现当代文学研究中的重镇,而作为乡土小说中重要概念之一的＂乡愁＂却一直缺乏明确的界定和论述,大部分情况下都被理解为一种＂只可意会,不可言传＂的模糊感觉。但实际上＂乡愁＂的内涵并不仅仅是对故土的人与事有所眷念那样简单,其实质是一种意识的集合体,包含着除乡恋情结外的生命意识、生存意识、人性高度和社会思考等多方面的元素。     

Development and validation of the Personal Nostalgia Scale

This research conducts five studies and uses 1185 respondents to develop and validate a six-item, seven-point Likert scale capable of measuring a personal nostalgia response to an advertisement. Traditional forms of scale development and a variety of experimental conditions are undertaken to develop and validate the scale. Statistical techniques include t-tests, correlation, regression, confirmatory factor analysis and a multitrait–multimethod matrix. This research fulfils a significant gap in the current knowledge as the current scales neither distinguish between the distinct types of nostalgia nor measure personal nostalgia as a response to advertising independently of other reactions. This is despite personal nostalgia being considered as a distinct form of nostalgia with a suggested differing influence on a number of important consumer behaviour responses. The scale has implications for researchers undertaking future studies exploring personal nostalgia's influence on consumer behaviour reactions. Nostalgia is also a commonly used and has effective advertising appeal, and this research provides practitioners with a parsimonious instrument to measure the level of personal nostalgia experienced as a result of advertising exposure. This assists in ensuring accuracy when predicting consumer reactions.     

An Involvement Explanation for Nostalgia Advertising Effects

This study seeks to offer additional insights regarding why positive “nostalgia effects” in advertising may be observed, that is, why nostalgic ads tend to elicit more favorable consumer responses than do non-nostalgic ads. Using the personal relevance component of advertising involvement as a theoretical foundation, the study supports hypothesized expectations that nostalgic ads are capable of inducing greater levels of self-reflection and advertising involvement. Furthermore, hypothesized effects were shown to be more pronounced when a “personal” nostalgia-themed ad (eliciting “a yearning for a realized, lived past”) was used, as opposed to when an “historical” nostalgia-themed ad (eliciting “a yearning for a distant past, never experienced”) was used. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed and directions for future research are offered.     

Away from “Unified Nostalgia”: Conceptual Differences of Personal and Historical Nostalgia Appeals in Advertising

Studies suggest that nostalgia can be split into two distinct forms: Personal and Historical nostalgia. This research explores these varieties of nostalgic appeal and, based on literature, proposes differing effects these variations may have on the important consumer behavior responses of cognition, emotions, attitudes, and purchase intentions. A review of the literature suggests that significant differences will exist dependent on the type of nostalgic appeal being used. The call for scales to test these appeals independently of one another is also made. Finally, this evidence suggests that treatment of nostalgia as a “unified” concept may be inaccurate in predicting true consumer responses and future studies should treat the two types as separate appeals if rigor is to be suggested.     

Nostalgic collections

Nostalgia has been transformed by the consumer market. With the emergence of ephemeral novelty goods – popular music, TV serials, kitsch, automobiles, and especially playthings – nostalgia has become less about identification with past communities, ideologies, or regimes than associated with fast-changing consumer goods, especially those encountered in childhood and youth. Reappropriating those goods later in life in nostalgic collecting has become a big business, producing narrow cohorts of consumers sharing common consumer memories. I explore this phenomenon through the history of collecting toys, dolls, and Disney collectibles in the USA.     

Bygone eras vs. the good Ol' days: how consumption context and self-construal influence nostalgic appeal selection

This research compares historical and personal nostalgic appeals with potential influences of consumption context and consumer self-construal. Results from two experiments indicate that, regardless of nostalgia type, a nostalgic ad is more effective than a non-nostalgic ad with similar visuals. Personal nostalgia is more effective than historical nostalgia in ads for private consumption contexts. In contrast, historical nostalgia is more effective than personal nostalgia for public consumption contexts. The above-mentioned results hold for those whose self-construal is interdependent self-construal, not for those with independent self-construal. Based on the findings, managerial implications for advertising practitioners are provided.     

中华老字号品牌资产增值——一个创新与怀旧契合的案例分析

当前多数老字号品牌发展停滞,品牌资产不断流失,维护与提升老字号品牌资产变得迫切而且必要。文章结合老字号品牌复兴的创新和怀旧理论,分析了王老吉品牌资产增值的策略选择和启示。通过个案研究发现,王老吉在传承品牌精髓和其他独特品牌元素的基础上,运用营销创新获得品牌经营的成功,这对其他老字号品牌复兴具有借鉴意义。