Dive Brief:
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A ’90s novelty candy favorite, the Wonder Ball, is returning to production thanks to Frankford Candy Company, a Philadelphia-based candy manufacturer that obtained the rights to the candy in 2003 after Nestle sold the brand, according to the Philly Voice.
- Like the original, the new Wonder Ball is a hollow chocolate ball with a surprise treat inside. Unlike the toys that used to be inside Nestle’s version, this version has edible candy treats.
- Frankford Candy Company decided to bring the Wonder Ball out of retirement after seeing more than 400,000 social media fans championing their favorite candy from yesteryear.
Dive Insight:
Nostalgia seems to be everywhere you look these days; whether it’s the revival of TV shows like "Full House" or "The X-Files;" re-imaginations of movies like "Ghostbusters" or the soon to be released "Flatliners;" or food giants like PepsiCo re-releasing Crystal Pepsi after a 20-year absence.
“Nostalgia brings back that lovely, fuzzy feeling about how good things were back in the day,” Jamie Gutfreund, CMO at agency Deep Focus, told Digiday last year. “You want to relive that feeling and brands know they can trigger those emotions in their consumers.”
That’s why over the last year KFC brought back its lovable brand mascot Colonel Sanders, McDonald’s rebooted the Hamburglar as a hipster dad in 2015; and Coke brought back Surge, its mid-1990s answer to Mountain Dew. Those in the food industry have realized that nostalgia sells and it’s a trend that doesn’t appear to be letting up any ime soon.