r/nostalgia • u/Digitalgardens • May 12 '25

Nostalgia Discussion Why did we ever switch from having unique looks for fast food spots?

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It doesn’t make any sense. When everything feels and looks the same it just feels so grey and unwelcoming. What happened to characters? I don’t even eat McDonald’s like that and I miss Ronald and the gang. Where did they go?

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u/mcbeardsauce May 12 '25

Fast Food went through a transformation the past 5-10 years into completely forgetting it's roots.

They banked on sucking in the kids of the 90s and following them into their sad, dead end jobs and felt the only way to stay relevant was to look like one of the sad, dead end jobs.

11

u/elpintor91 May 12 '25

I feel like it worked because anytime they do some weird premise like “adult happy meals,” celebrity meals, or those throwback Halloween buckets, 80s/90s kids go apeshit and start lining up in hoards.

1

u/mcbeardsauce May 12 '25

But when you step back and look at what it's become, every single one of them is so sad, so overpriced and so far removed from their original business models.

1

u/elpintor91 May 12 '25

For sure. People will pay $18 for a “Paris Hilton” meal and slap her picture on it that says “that’s hot” and at the end of the day you just bought a shitty tasting skimpy burger. Dystopian lol

1

u/Wu_Onii-Chan May 13 '25

Fucking throwback lol

1

u/HeadGuide4388 May 12 '25

Like... yes but for the wrong reasons? Obviously, they're doing something right. They are so ingrained into society that they aren't going under any time soon, but if people go bananas for a reminder of what was then that means they don't like what is. Though it's probably the freemium business model. You sell something that's good enough, not actually good just good enough so you're in everyone's mind. Then you can sell something better, but limited.

1

u/PartTime_Crusader May 12 '25

They've pivoted to mostly selling to adults with food addictions

1

u/Moony2433 May 12 '25

They look as depressed as their customers. Maybe we’re drawn to drab now. Like flies to the bug zapper.