American advertising of selling a lifestyle rather
than a specific product. The specific lifestyles sold
were distinctive of the decade, emphasizing luxury
items aimed specifically at youthful professionals.
There was also an increased recognition by advertis-
ers that form was at least as important as content
in ads, which led them, for example, to incorporate
youth-oriented aesthetic styles—especially MTV-
inspired editing—in advertisements designed to
reach younger consumers.
Further Reading
Berger, Arthur Asa.Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture:
Advertising’s Impact on American Character and Soci-
ety. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Ex-
plores the importance of advertising with respect
to the economy, industry, society, and the indi-
vidual.
Cross, Mary.A Centur y of American Icons. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002. A look at Amer-
ica’s relationship with iconic advertising imagery.
Gold, Philip.Advertising, Politics, and American Cul-
ture: From Salesmanship to Therapy. New York: Par-
agon House, 1986. Argues that advertising is
instinctual in American society and that its perva-
sive and manipulative aspects are a basic part of
the American communication process.
Laird, Pamela Walker.Advertising Progress: American
Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing. Balti-
more: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Ex-
plores the effects that the modernization of in-
dustry and advertising have had on American
society.
McAllister, Matthew P.The Commercialization of Amer-
ican Culture: New Advertising, Control, and De-
mocracy. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1996. An
in-depth look into the factors that motivated ad-
vertisers internally and externally throughout the
1980’s and surrounding decades.
Mierau, Christina.Accept No Substitutes: The Histor y of
American Advertising. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner,
- Aimed at young readers, Mierau’s book
puts advertising’s purpose and power into terms
that middle- and high-school-aged readers can
understand.
Sivulka, Juliann.Soup, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural
Histor y of American Advertising. Belmont, Calif.:
Wadsworth, 1998. A comprehensive account of
the history of advertising in America. Examines
the relationship between marketing and Ameri-
can society decade by decade, with separate chap-
ters for each era.
Strasser, Susan.Satisfaction Guaranteed: The Making of
the American Mass Market. New York: Pantheon
Books, 1989. A complete history of mass market-
ing and the ways in which modern advertising has
transformed America from a land of indepen-
dent shopkeepers to one of mass corporations
and consumers.
Sara VidarSee also Apple Computer; Business and the econ-
omy in Canada; Business and the economy in the
United States; Cable television; Consumerism; De-
mographics of Canada; Demographics of the United
States; FOX network; Home video rentals; Infomer-
cials; MTV; Reaganomics; Slang and slogans; Televi-
sion; Yuppies.Aerobics
Definition Form of strenuous exercise designed
temporarily to increase one’s respiration andArtificial heart
Aerobic exercise, which is designed primarily to condition
the respirator y system and muscles generally, can take many
different forms as long as the exerciser keeps moving. It thus
lent itself to more enjoyable exercise regimens based on
dance, coaxing many previously sedentar y people to take up
exercise and generating significant changes in the fitness
industr y during the 1980’s.
Aerobics was part of a larger fitness movement dur-
ing the 1980’s that fueled a dramatic increase in the
number of fitness clubs and club memberships in
the United States. The physical-training concepts
used in aerobics originated in 1968 with the publica-
tion of physician Ken Cooper’s bookAerobics, which
explained how to improve one’s cardiovascular
health through regular prolonged physical exer-
tion.Aerobicsbecame a best seller and inspired a
number of exercise instructors with dance back-
grounds to integrate Cooper’s principles of cardio-
vascular training into choreographed routines to
create a new form of exercise, aerobic dance, which
was later shortened to aerobics.
The two women credited with starting the aerobic
dance movement were Judi Sheppard Missett,
founder of Jazzercise, and Jacki Sorensen, founder ofThe Eighties in America Aerobics 21