Stranger Things made pink & purple profitable: The 80s nostalgia economy
Walk into any competitive socialising venue in 2025 and you'll see the same thing. Pink neon. Purple haze. Electric blue accents. Electric Shuffle's got it. So has Hijingo, F1 Arcade, TOCA Social, Flip Out, Immersive Gamebox, NQ64 and many more.
This isn't random. It's an industry that cracked the code on making millennials and Gen Z spend money. It all accelerated in July 2016 when Netflix dropped Stranger Things.
How Stranger Things changed everything
The internet aesthetic movements had been building for years. Vaporwave. Synthwave. MTV rebranded with vaporwave graphics in 2014. Drake's "Hotline Bling" video featured neon pastels in 2015.
But it was niche. Internet culture. Not mainstream.
Then Stranger Things arrived.
Season 4 hit 1.15 billion viewing hours in 28 days. Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" reached number one on Spotify in 2022, 37 years after release. Metallica's "Master of Puppets" topped charts. Neon purple merchandise sold out globally.
University of Sydney researchers called this "pseudo-nostalgia". Younger consumers buying products and seeking experiences from an era they never lived through. Gen Z was born after the 1990s but felt nostalgic for a decade that existed mainly in media.
Not the real 1980s. A reimagined version filtered through modern sensibilities. Brighter. More optimistic. Less complicated than today.
Perfect timing for competitive socialising venues looking to differentiate themselves from traditional pubs.
Why nostalgia sells
Both millennials and Gen Z graduated into economic disasters. Millennials faced the Great Recession. Gen Z got COVID-19 and the cost-of-living crisis.
When the present feels uncertain, people retreat to memories of safer times. For millennials, that's childhood in the 1980s and 1990s. For Gen Z, it's media representations of those decades.
The pink-purple-blue aesthetic promises playful, energetic escapism. Venues figured out how to monetise it.
The cultural DNA: Arcades, Blade Runner, and synthwave
This aesthetic carries weight beyond surface prettiness. It’s loaded with cultural references that hit different generations powerfully.
For millennials, it’s direct memory. 1980s arcades were formative social spaces. Hot pink, neon cyan, purple, and electric yellow against dark backgrounds. Leaderboards were the only status updates you needed.
The inclusive, activity-based social model that competitive socialising venues now monetise at premium prices? Directly lifted from arcade culture.
Then there’s Blade Runner. Ridley Scott’s 1982 film spent over $100,000 on neon lights alone. It created the first full visualisation of cyberpunk aesthetics. Blue-and-orange colour schemes, thick smoke, neon as urban language representing beauty and decay simultaneously.
Guillermo del Toro said he “never saw the world the same way again.” The film’s influence on modern venue design is direct and measurable.
For Gen Z, these references come filtered through media. They didn’t experience 1980s arcades, but they’ve seen them in Ready Player One, Stranger Things, and countless YouTube videos. They didn’t watch Blade Runner in cinemas, but they’ve absorbed its aesthetic through every cyberpunk game and synthwave album cover.
The aesthetic works for both generations. Authentic nostalgia for one, aspirational nostalgia for the other. Either way, it sells.
How venues weaponise the aesthetic
Hijingo went maximum Blade Runner. Tokyo-inspired décor, floor-to-ceiling LED lights, cat-printed walls, neon everywhere. Designed by The Experience Machine (who’ve worked with Beyoncé), founders call it a “futuristic nightlife utopia.”
Electric Shuffle fuses retro power station aesthetics with Art Deco glamour. Mint, pink, green, and deep red with vivid electric blue factory panelling.
F1 Arcade represents the premium end. Founded by Adam Breeden, backed by £30 million from Liberty Media/Formula 1. The 16,000-square-foot London flagship features 60 full-motion racing simulators and a full-size F1 car suspended from the ceiling.
NQ64 and Four Quarters went pure retro arcade bar. Neon drinking dens with graffiti-coated entrances, vintage consoles, and game-themed cocktails. Underground vibes without kids around.
Flip Out uses the palette in family-friendly trampoline parks. Vibrant atmospheres, neon-lit zones. Same aesthetic principles, different audience.
Different brands, different activities, identical colour scheme. These venues wouldn’t all use the same palette if it wasn’t driving revenue.
The science bit: Why it actually works
Researchers analysed over a million images and found pink and purple are the most shareable colours on social media after red. For venues, that’s free marketing every time someone posts a photo.
Over 70% of millennials and Gen Z have visited venues specifically because they discovered them on Instagram. The aesthetic literally brings customers through the door.
But it goes deeper.
Pink creates “emotional safety” by reducing inhibitions and promoting social interaction. You’re more likely to let your guard down, join in games, order another round.
Purple combines red’s energy with blue’s stability, communicating luxury and creativity simultaneously. It positions venues as premium without feeling intimidating.
Blue light exposure activates photoreceptors that increase alertness and emotional arousal. Studies show blue “inspires thirst” despite normally suppressing appetite. Perfect for bars.
The neon intensity amplifies everything. Continuous glow creates heightened sensory arousal. Colour saturation triggers stronger emotional responses than matte equivalents.
One survey found 74% of customers stayed longer than planned when lighting made them feel relaxed and welcome. That’s additional revenue from colour psychology.
The economics: Why this prints money
Basic escape rooms cost about £50,000 to start. Competitive socialising venues require £500,000 minimum. F1 Arcade raised £30 million. The investment’s higher, but so are returns.
The sector’s grown 386% since 2021. Average dwell time runs 2-3 hours versus a single drink at traditional bars. Multiple revenue opportunities throughout each visit.
Millennials and Gen Z make up roughly 40% of the UK population and prioritise experiences over possessions. Post-COVID, they’re seeking in-person connection, have healthier attitudes toward alcohol, and want activity-based socialising.
Remote work reshaped when people socialise. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are now busiest, not Friday.
The aesthetic signals “this is worth leaving your house for” through Instagram-worthy novelty whilst communicating “you’ll feel comfortable here” through colour psychology.
What venues get wrong (and right)
Not everyone’s doing this well. The difference between venues that thrive and venues that struggle comes down to execution.
What works:
Cohesive storytelling. Electric Shuffle’s “Tessa” character, Hijingo’s “Ava” AI, F1 Arcade’s suspended race car. These aren’t random decorations. They’re carefully constructed narrative elements that make venues feel like coherent worlds.
Strategic lighting placement. Not just “add neon everywhere”. Specific placement that creates Instagram-worthy moments whilst manipulating dwell time and spending through psychological effects.
Cultural authenticity. Deep understanding of audience references rather than surface-level trend chasing. Venues that genuinely get Blade Runner, arcade culture, and Stranger Things create resonance purely functional design can’t achieve.
What doesn’t work:
Treating it as pure decoration. Slapping pink neon on walls without understanding the psychology or cultural context. It looks the part but doesn’t drive behaviour.
Ignoring the food and beverage. Competitive socialising works when F&B revenue equals or exceeds game revenue. Venues that treat food as an afterthought leave money on the table.
Forgetting the fundamentals. No amount of pretty lighting saves poor operations, bad service, or broken equipment. The aesthetic attracts customers. Everything else determines whether they come back.
Where this goes next
The pink-purple-blue aesthetic isn’t disappearing anytime soon. As long as economic instability continues, nostalgic aesthetics remain commercially valuable. As long as Instagram drives venue discovery, shareable design remains essential.
But smart operators are already thinking about evolution.
Some venues are layering in other decades. 1990s rave culture, Y2K aesthetics, early 2000s nostalgia. Gen Z’s coming into their peak earning years, and their nostalgia targets are shifting.
Others are doubling down on technological integration. Projection mapping, reactive lighting, AI-driven experiences. The aesthetic remains, but the delivery mechanism evolves.
The underlying principles won’t change. Venues must be photogenic. Design must serve psychology. Cultural literacy matters.
The venues succeeding with this aesthetic aren’t just following a trend. They’re executing sophisticated strategies that align colour psychology, cultural storytelling, and social media dynamics.
They’re creating experiences people instinctively want to photograph, share, and revisit.
The bottom line
Stranger Things didn’t create the pink-purple-blue aesthetic. Vaporwave, synthwave, Blade Runner, arcade culture – it was all there already.
But the show mainstreamed it. Legitimised it. Made it commercially safe for competitive socialising and immersive entertainment venues to bet big on nostalgia.
Venues responded by building spaces that tap into that nostalgia whilst leveraging colour psychology to drive specific behaviours. Longer dwell times. Higher spending. Social media sharing. Repeat visits.
The sector’s grown 386% since 2021. Over 70% of customers discover venues through Instagram. The evidence is overwhelming.
For operators in the competitive socialising and immersive entertainment space, the question isn’t whether this aesthetic works. The question is whether you’re using it effectively or leaving money on the table by sticking with traditional approaches.
Whilst you’re contemplating it, your competitors are already bathing their spaces in pink, purple, and blue. Your target demographic is queuing to get in. Instagram’s doing their marketing for them.
The nostalgia economy’s here. It’s profitable. And it’s showing no signs of slowing down.
The only question is whether you’re part of it.