Spectravision ‘China Syndrome’ Advertisement, 1982

After a partial nuclear meltdown occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant only days before the release of a 1979 film discussing just that possibility, the term “China Syndrome”—used by nuclear power experts to describe a hypothetical scenario in which an overheating reactor core melted its way to the other side of the planet—quickly passed into common usage…

Uzi Sales Brochures, 1980 – 1984

Immortalized when one appeared in the hands of U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Robert Wanko during John Hinckley Jr.’s 1981 attempt to assassinate President Reagan, the Uzi—a submachine gun designed by German-born Israeli Uziel Gal, from whom it took its name—was sold to more law enforcement and military markets than any other weapon in its class…

“Oh Yeah!”: Kool-Aid Man Television Commercials, 1978

Kool-Aid was invented in Hastings, Nebraska in 1927 in the kitchen of salesman and inventor Edwin Perkins, who took one of his fruit juice patent recipes and dehydrated it. In 1953, Perkins sold the Kool-Aid recipe to food conglomerate General Foods (which had already gobbled up prominent brands Jell-O and Maxwell House in the 1920s), and thus began Kool-Aid’s ascent to nationwide fame…