Art Deco was about shopping and promotion, it was honestly and sincerely about spectacle and illusion. This is not to impugn its qualities of craftsmanship or originality. Much of the best graphic work of the 20th Century has been promotional; the craftsmanship of much Art Deco furniture or jewellery has barely been surpassed. As H.W. Corbett said of one of Raymond Hood's first buildings in New York:

"If commercialism is the guiding spirit of the age, the building which advertises itself is in harmony with that spirit ".  There is no reason why the term 'commercialism' would ever be considered as opposed to art. Perhaps a new kind of commercialism in its new and higher relation to human welfare".
[Corbett, H. W., The American Radiator building, New York City, Architectural Record, 55, 5, May 1924, p. 476]

In the Rockefeller Center in New York, there is a mosaic by Barry Faulkner entitled Intelligence awakening Mankind (1933) showing 'Promotion' among the other great modern virtues 'Philosophy', 'Sport' and 'Hygiene', flying out from the metropolitan centre of knowledge to enlighten the common man and woman.

Art Deco can arouse passions, especially among Modernists. Derisively referred to as the 'Moderne' (with a French accent) by Anglo-Saxon architects and critics in the 1930s, Art Deco was conceived of by them as morally wrong. So it is possible to see Art Deco as the 'Other' of Modernism. Male vs. female, cerebral vs. sensuous, repressed vs. expressive, many of these contrasts match the way Art Deco was distinguished from Modernism in the eyes of contemporaries.

Modernism - in art, architecture and design - has occupied the high ground of cultural debate for much of the century. Now, it is no accident that the cycles of Modernism's growth, decline, demonisation and revival interlock precisely with an inverse set of cycles with respect to Art Deco. When Art Deco was at its first peak, at the 1925 exhibition in Paris, Modernism struggled to get a toehold. As Modernism triumphed in Europe, after 1927-8, Art Deco generally declined there. Then, as a new kind of 'moderne' - or 'modernistic' - architecture and design triumphed in the 1930s, especially in the United States and outside Europe, Modernism was in most countries on the back foot. Then, the Post War victory of Modernism saw Art Deco vilified and marginalised, until the 1960s, when the Post Modernists and the dealers rediscovered it, during the backlash against Modernism.

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