In Saudi Arabia, the first oil boom era was expressed in local and international pressures to consume; the latter often referred to as recycling petro-dollars. Saudi economic “rush to development” was arguably a consumer-revolution on state, social and personal levels. Local material culture was quantitatively and qualitatively transformed as goods and services, from new homes, most notably the villa, to household furnishings, electric gadgets, and cars, to new leisure patterns appeared. Their use and meaning, and the way such goods and services were promoted and sold also changed. At the center of the paper is an analysis of local dialectics of a catch-up, Saudi material culture. It was an age of affluence (locally known as al-turfah) never to repeat itself in Saudi recent history, when a vast segment of Saudi society improved on its standards of living. Nevertheless, speed and intensity in consumption also brought much anxiety to the process. Most goods and services were imported, produced and sold by invisible or expatriate hands. New forms of retailing and promotion, including advertising, were introduced, as well as new commodities. New venues for social distinction through consumption were formulating fast, and so did their opposition. The age of affluence, I argue, brought no less anxiety than material wealth to Saudi society, culture and politics. I rely on analysis of contemporary Saudi press advertisements, which were a window case for the introduction of new commodities in Saudi markets. Comparisons with contemporary Egyptian ads allow drawing attention to Saudi particularities in promotion. Testimonies by marketing specialists and academic writing on Saudi marketing further augment my analysis. The concluding part of the paper evaluates the role of a local, catch-up material culture in the articulation of neo-conservative Saudi socio-politics in an age seemingly prone for a vast change.