Trends are cyclical things. If it hangs around long enough, a product, idea or a person can have more than one shot at the zeitgeist. Provided everyone understands that between those two spells in the limelight are long periods spent hanging around in second-hand shops or bad dissertations, and doing summer seasons at Butlins.

For gauging whether something or someone’s time has come again I usually apply what I call the ’10 and 20 year rule’. Which means that if it was ten years ago, it’s disgusting (hence why J-Lo’s in the doldrums right now), but if it was 20 years ago, it must be amazing. So watch this space for the 2Unlimited revival – because it’s the 20th anniversary of ‘Get Ready For This‘ in 2011.

This rule, however, assumes that we might want a concept back in a million years. And there are plenty of exceptions for this. So while it’s unfortunate that we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of negative equity with…yet more negative equity I do doubt whether there are trendsetters sitting in coffee shops saying:

“Ohmygod, shelling out for a new-build flat four years ago and finding out it’s worth 30 grand less than you paid for it is SO HOTRIGHTNOW. My friend Serge is totally doing that.”

I’m detecting there’s even less enthusiasm for passive smoking. This seems to have climbed out of the yellow label bin of public health scares and back into the collective consciousness this week. Bringing us such retro headlines as

Smoking ban proposed - BBC News
Smoking in cars: a ban too far – The Telegraph
Doctors demand smoking ban in private cars – Reuters
(And 208 other results, according to our friends at Google News.)

Putting aside the ethical considerations of smoking around your kids in a confined space for a moment, I can’t think of a more 90s concept than passive smoking. It’s like Tamagotchis, All Saints and POGs, which gripped us twenty years ago, but seem quaint and inconceivable now. And let’s not have it back, shall we?

So, for the good of all our sanities, let’s take the national unconscious decision to smoke less in the car. Because you know what’ll happen if we don’t. There’ll be a preachy TV advert campaign. We’ll have Ed Balls doing his unconvincing “think of the children” act all over the BBC. And someone, somewhere will inevitably think that it’s a good idea to use Twitter as a public health preaching platform, thus creating the new portmanteau word of ‘Tweaching’.

And that last reason alone is, I think, reason enough for us not to welcome this little bit of the 90s back into our homes.

But I’ll leave you with a piece of the 90s that is worth saving. Corona’s Rhythm of the Night, which is awesome.