This story was originally published in the 2023 Fall issue of strategy magazine.

By Megan Haynes

Like most fashions of decades past, all things neon have returned with a gusto. With ’90s-inspired fashion (hello outfits from Clueless), music (club hit remixes) and television (Friends on repeat), the era is taking over. What’s old is new again, and brands have jumped on board.

While not a fresh trend, ’90s-inspired creative bares a distinct neon vibe, with brands like KitKat and Melanoma Canada recently working with agencies Davis and No Fixed Address to embrace a palette influenced by Saved by the Bell. Staples’ back-to-school campaign, created by Jackman Reinvents, featured spokespeople Howie Mandel and Pierre-Yves Lord helping millennial parents relive their ’90s high school days – with the help of modern technology. And Molson’s Arizona Hard went all in on the nostalgia by opening  up a speakeasy with a video rental store theme.

The popularity makes sense, explains Johanna Faigelman, an anthropologist, founding partner and CEO of consultancy Human Branding. Thanks to COVID-19, social isolation, economic and political turmoil, and a worsening climate, many people are yearning for a time when life was better. And life was particularly sweet in the ’90s, Faigelman says.

The decade saw rapid gains in social progress and unprecedented economic growth – with few downturns. This had a big impact on mid-career boomers, newly employed Gen Xers and millennials, who were in their formative years during the time. “There’s just this huge feeling of what we’re calling the nostalgia effect, where people tend to recall the past much more fondly than the present,” Faigelman adds.

But the decade is particularly appealing to Gen Z – who weren’t even born until the early aughts and who have grown up with their entire lives online.

The ’90s represents a simpler time – one just before the internet boom. “There’s something utopic about the days before social media,” Faigelman goes on. “There was this nice equilibrium between progress, burgeoning technology and economic growth, but also simplicity. No one knew what Metaverse meant. Gen Zs are having this incredible, insatiable longing for a past that they never experienced, because it represents these glorified days that they aren’t living today. It’s like catnip to Gen Z.”