Millennials were born exactly at the time when the big television entrepreneurs were beginning to realize that that square box was the best money machine you could have in your hands. And so advertising between series or between programs became a valuable commodity. The curation of commercials from the 1990s onward became more and more meticulous, on a par with movie content.
But how to make viewers digest all this advertising while avoiding the zapping effect? Catchy programming and a TV schedule to become attached to are two plausible solutions. Through cult series that in one way or another marked the adolescence of millennials and still cause a very deep nostalgia effect on them.
And what are these fictional dramas for which after almost two decades they still declare unconditional love?
Alessandro Vaghi, just turned 31, career marketer says, “My bread and butter has been everything revolving around the Disney Channel world. In particular, Life According to Jim.”
Disney Channel landed in Italy on Oct. 3, 1998, and undoubtedly influenced the lives of several millennials. The soundtracks of its series are true line-ups to this day. The Teenage Dream Party, which has literally gone viral on social media, is the brainchild of illustrator Valentina Savi. The goal of the evenings? To reduce millennials to tears to the sounds of Hannah Montana, High School Musical and Camp Rock.
@teenagedreamparty meravigliosi @Martina Strazzer @Emanuele Ferrari 💕#teenagedreamparty #party #2000 #highschoolmusical #troybolton #fyp #perte ♬ suono originale - Teenage Dream
“Let's just say I've seen a lot of television, maybe too much,” adds Alessandro, on the other hand in those years social media didn't exist yet, “even today, when I start something I like I jump on it pretty easily.”
“There are other series that then have, as an older person particularly involved me: How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Game Of Thrones or The Big Bang Theory.”
His sister Elizabeth, a yoga teacher, is 33 and says, “the series of my heart is Lolle, I love Berlin, then I loved Sex and The City (of course!), Orange Is the New Black, The Robinsons, Dawson's Creek and The O.C. (which she shares with her brother).”
Unable to recover from Marissa Cooper's death, we asked Myriam Carnovale, 30, an emergency room doctor about the series that most plagiarized her as a teenager: “Lost for its diversity from any other series, Malcolm for the brilliant comedy, and Witches because it made me feel part of something.”
@streghethepowerofthree Streghe:6x04 la rivincita delle bionde, ✨📖💁🏼♀️Credits: Rai 2 Credits: Charmed #trio #charmed #persempre #viral #poteri #perte #fyp #streghe ♬ suono originale - streghethepowerofthree
Early millennials, on the other hand, born in the 1980s, fondly remember series such as Beverly Hills 90210, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Roswell, which told sci-fi stories about aliens. Whatever the series, it seems that the generation that will become rich has not yet closed the drawer of memories and that the stories of their favorite characters are still fully a part of their lives. So much so that it triggers group rewatch marathons.
Psychologist Chiara Vinchesi, on horizonpsytech.com writes that rewatching is a real request from the brain to live for a while in a place of happy memory, a safe place that is now gone.
So why should we deny ourselves that?
Illustration by Gloria Dozio - Acrimònia Studios
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