Brand revivals: justifiably nostalgic or sentimental?

Why do we hanker after the old days of Opal Fruits, Marathon, Jif and Immac (Voxpop, DW 22 May)? The products are still with us in all but name, so what’s the difference?

The nostalgia they conjure up is of long, hot sunny days when we could kick a ball around in the street until the sun went down. That’s why I want to eat a Jublee, drink a Tab, watch Blake’s Seven, drive a Ford Capri and slide over the bonnet like Bodie and Doyle in The Professionals.

But my hero of the past is the Raleigh Chopper. I want to see every kid riding one, instead of a mountain bike, and trying to avoid that gear stick.

Adrian Goldthorpe, Strategy director, FutureBrand, by e-mail

Weren’t the Marathon/ Snickers and Opal Fruits/ Starburst naming issues originally about economies of scale, in terms of advertising and manufacture?

Is this new rebrand a good business decision or a rush of nostalgia to the head?

We might all want to return to the simpler days of British Rail running the railway network (albeit not very well), Humber Sceptres on the road and a packet of Spangles in your pocket, but once the decision has been made tokill a brand off, you had better have a damn good reason to bring it back.

Be consistent, not sentimental.

John Bateson, Head of design, Likemind, by e-mail