In the early 1940s, World War II was raging, but products still needed to be sold in the United States. An illustrated book provides insights into the advertising of those years.
The American advertising industry found itself in a paradoxical situation at the beginning of the 1940s: On the one hand, it had to make products palatable to society, while at the same time there was war in the world, so that any hedonism would have been out of place. The picture book “All American Ads of the 40s”, published by Taschen Verlag, provides deep insights into the American society of those years on 700 pages using numerous advertising motifs. According to the Wall Street Journal, the ads reveal “more than many an eyewitness account of life in the United States in the mid-20th century.” The book was edited by cultural anthropologist and graphic design expert Jim Heimann.