To me it seems like it’s pretty much peak mid-1990s tech advertising. Pick up any issue of WIRED from this time period and it’s filled with advertisements with similar kinds of aggressively strange imagery. Things like this were definitely memorable - I certainly can never forget the infamous Logitech ad with the peeing baby. I wouldn’t be surprised if much of this style of imagery all came from the same ad firm.
I think it's more about the fact it was such a new market, people could have a lot more fun with it and "mass appeal" didn't matter nearly as much. It was still fringe, not everyone had a computer at home or in their pocket yet.
