Prophets of Zoom

Alfredo Marcantonio

Hardcover | 17.78 x 1.91 x 12.7 cm | 112 pp

Merrell | 2007 | 9781858944012

In the mid-1930s, Stephen Mitchell & Son, a cigarette manufacturer based in Scotland, joined the craze for producing cigarette cards. The firm created 'The World of Tomorrow', an imaginative series of cards that set out to forecast the future. Each of the 50 cards uses a specially commissioned illustration or a still from a contemporary science fiction film to make a significant prediction about the way people will be living in years to come: the transport they will be using; the houses they will be building; the offices in which they will be working; and the modes of communication and sources of energy they will be employing.

What is astounding, all these years later, is the extent to which these often amusing predictions have come true. This  book reproduces all 50 cards and juxtaposes them with a photograph of equivalent 21st century technology, proving just how amazingly accurate the original predictions were. It brings together 50 fascinating predictions of the future made in the mid-1930s, from space travel to the advent of e-mail. For readers of all ages, it is engagingly written by a leading creative director, whose work in the field of advertising has won him numerous awards.