All-American Ads of the 90s

The USA in the 1990s: George Bush Sr., the Second Gulf War, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, the Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, The Silence of the Lambs and Forrest Gump, Twin Peaks and The X-Files. Douglas Coupland delights the literary world by inventing a new Generation X, Michael Jackson is regarded as the "King of Pop," Kurt Cobain finds Nirvana, and the digital age has arrived. Baywatch rhymes with crotch, TWA and Continental Airlines are still flying, and cheap loans bring about a massive consumption boom in the USA. The consumer goods industry thrived, and the advertising economy sold gas-guzzling Hummers, innocent VW Beetles, luxury items from Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton, and countless Super Soakers, Beanie Babies, Game Boys, and PlayStations to Mr. and Mrs. Doe and their offspring. In six chapters, covering food, fashion, cinema, entertainment electronics, cars, and vacation travel, the colorful advertising world of the late 20th century unfolds – once the latest craze, now a fading echo of a bygone era.