Random Discussion Post: What Brand/Franchise Do You Have an Illogical Nostalgic Attachment To?

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I’m just going to assume that Yash Raj Studios is a brand almost all of us love. You know, in the way where you see the logo and just smile. But what else? I’m curious! Let’s share stories!

I’ll start!

Fannie May

This is a Midwestern chocolate company chain. As a child I just thought the words “fannie may” and “chocolate” were interchangeable. My mother used to take us to the little Fannie May storefront store if we were good when we went shopping at the nearby strip mall. She would get a pixie (nuts and caramel covered in chocolate) and we would get one candy of our choice. More importantly, my grandmother loooooooooooooooved Fannie May. Every holiday she would get a double layer Colonial Assortment box, and also random additional items (chocolate eggs for Easter and so on).

Mother's Day with Fannie May Colonial Assortment | chicago foodie girl
When this is on the table, you know it is a special occasion!

That’s all normal, right? Who wouldn’t like chocolates and chocolate shops? Where it gets maybe a bit over the top is that I have started collecting Fannie May branded items. We have a baseball cap, a canvas bag, and a cooler all with official Fannie May logos on them. All of them were one time special give aways if you spend $40 or more (I spent $200 because I needed extras. And anyway, chocolate freezes, so why not buy in bulk?). I want more though! I want a Fannie May store where I can buy t-shirts and hoodies and everything in the world. I want a convention where I can dress up as my favorite chocolate. I want an online message board where we can passionately argue the virtues of Trinidads versus Pixies (trinidads, obviously. Everyone knows they are the best). It is perhaps more brand loyalty than most people have to a candy company.

Panera Bread

What inspired this post was me driving over to my Panera Bread cafe for coffee this morning. Through out lockdown, Panera has been my savior, they have a cafe about half a mile from my apartment and they did no charge delivery, so I could get fancy purchased coffee in the morning when I wanted it without needing to go out into the world. Made me very fond of them, and then I started thinking about how weirdly I was already very fond of them.

Is Panera Bread Still Planning on Opening Texarkana Location ...

Panera Bread started as the “St. Louis Bread Company” and one of their first branches was near my grandmother’s house outside Saint Louis (other grandmother, not the Fannie May one). Then they were bought out by a company called “Panera” (originally a cookie/bakery company), and which switched completely to match the Saint Louis Bread Company concept of simple freshly made foods. They were one of the first businesses to offer free wi-fi, no log in code or anything fancy required. I spent my teen and college years tracking down Panera’s for the wi-fi, including driving 40 minutes from my family’s lake house so I could go check email while on vacation. The wi-fi sucked me in, but what sealed the deal was 3 years ago when I was having a truly horrible day, my apartment flooded the night before, I had to move in with my parents, I got on the wrong train on the way to work, and then I realized I had forgotten my wallet at home just as I was about to pay for my morning coffee and breakfast sandwich at Panera. And the manager took pity on me! Overheard me trying to hunt for cash in random pockets and came over and said “don’t charge her, it’s on us, have a good day”. So nice! And now it’s the pandemic, and the only restaurants I am going to are Paneras. So hey, good on the company! You give free wi-fi 2 years before everyone else, and one manager does something really nice, and now you have a devoted brand loyalist for life.

Anyway, what are your brands that you are illogically devoted to for reasons of nostalgia/family loyalt/one really great thing they did?

13 thoughts on “Random Discussion Post: What Brand/Franchise Do You Have an Illogical Nostalgic Attachment To?”

  1. MEIJI: Living in Asia and going to 7-11 there these were always there and their lineup is so good! Especially the chocolate strawberry sweets still are my favourite and then there is chocolate pandas – small cookies with chocolate inside them. I guarantee you can find these in any Asian Market.

    MOOMINS: The ultimate Finnish-Swedish (though more Finnish since we have the park here) culture export to the World. Everyone I know grew up loving the 90s Japanese (dubbed of course) TV series and movies. There are comics and books that are just a joy to read. My favourite is the Midsummer theatre one named ‘Midsummer Madness’ in English. Also, the author and comic artist Tove Jansson was Gay/Bi and everyone just knows it and acknowledges it here. If you truly want to know the Finnish kind of mentality (though a bit more on the Bohemian side) then these are a good introduction.

    https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c6c5a280cf57d9024383ae4/1555963179280-JUDJZAN4GPCDBTDRR981/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kA0wePVlgOGM5yNNrADThjYUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKcDVJQSzhIqZgpTgzMegstBDT1buUliqKIEAqJWxhi_9dvP_wlYBfy07IoJdt7IGp_/Tove+Jansson+Moomin+Books+Collection

    FAZER: A chocolate company here in Finland whose chocolates are more milk-based than in anyhere else (we Finns love milk like crazy). Sweet, sophisticated and delicious no household is perfect until there are at least some Fazer chocolate bars or their other candies in the refrigerator. If you can find them, then buy it!

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  2. For me,it is Disney.Almost an irrational obsession.I almost feel a sense of devotion to Chacha Disney(Uncle Walt doesn’t have that same punch).It is such a special thing for so many Indian kids who literally grew up with Disney,animation in India basically means Disney.
    However,I never felt the urge to buy brand products for little articles.It gets too expensive.And there are so many copies of Disney products circulating around,I wonder if they take measures to check them.

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    • In America, Disney is notoriously litigious about their images. There was a famous case of a daycare center that painted Donald and Mickey on their walls, and got sued, because even that wasn’t allowed. It’s one of the things I find most strange when I go to other countries, all the Disney bootlegs! Just you wait, Disney is going to start exporting lawyers along with movies, and suddenly that is going to all go away.

      I also have a love for Disney. And even as an adult, I can’t find anything super wrong with them! Yes, they sue people and stuff, but all their movies and shows are about doing the right thing, and accepting differences, and making hard moral choices, and good stuff!

      On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 9:29 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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  3. Only thing I can think of is Pepsi! Illogical fondness just because Shahrukh used to endorse it! And I don’t even like soft drinks! There was this competition between Pepsi and Coca-Cola in the 90s and 00s over who can get which celeb to endorse them. I was torn for a while because Coke got Hrithik and Ash, but my love for SRK prevailed. Both used to one-up each other with creative advertisements, I loved them all with the catchy jingles and everything, but made sure to buy Pepsi if there was a choice. Which is hilarious because I literally couldn’t tell the difference after tasting both!

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    • On the other hand, I have a deep loyalty to Coke! Except it’s not really a loyalty, I can’t taste the difference either, but by golly Coke cures migraines and Pepsi does not. No idea what they put in there, but there’s a legend it was first created as a headache treatment and it really works to this day. Sorry, not even Shahrukh can make me give up my soft drink/medicine.

      On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 11:54 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:

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      • I’m with you on coke…even our guy cannot sway me. I have a migraine now and I’m about to get a big glass of coke and have it with my murgh masala (mummy’s recipe).

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  4. Does the censor board certificate count as a logo? Not that I particularly like the Indian censor board, but whenever that distinctive slide comes up, it’s just reassuringly familiar, telling me I’m about to watch a film of my choosing.

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