![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/the-ramo-wooldridge-corporation-1958-ad-with-early-computers-detail-from-the-6a1219.jpg\")
The earliest computers were room-sized beasts, as shown in this 1958 ad for The Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation. (Picryl<\/a>)<\/p>\nSo, selling people on the extravagant idea of a computer for themselves was challenging.<\/p>\n
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First of all, they were expensive; in the early 1980s, a computer could easily cost $4,000<\/a> or more in today\u2019s money for a complete system. By the early 1990s, that price had gone down enough to make it more manageable, but it was still not cheap<\/a>.<\/p>\n Second, a computer\u2019s memory \u2013 where it holds data and instructions \u2013 was miniscule compared to today. The Commodore 64, which was released in 1982, had 64 kilobytes of memory; today, an average laptop has around 8 GB of memory \u2013 more than 16,000 times as much. Storing more than a few files was not that realistic, for most potential users. If you wanted more memory, you would pay dearly for it; a hard drive that would have cost $1,000 some 30 years ago would cost a small fraction<\/a> of that price today.<\/p>\n Third, those early \u201cdesktop\u201d computers were large, clunky, and hard to operate without training.<\/p>\n But the main reason they were such a hard sell was that people really didn\u2019t know why they would possibly need a computer in their home. Their utility for the needs of everyday life \u2014 as weird as this is for many of us to remember \u2014 was hard to understand. To put it another way, if you don\u2019t need an expensive tool, you won\u2019t buy it.<\/p>\n Between the price, size, and perceived lack of usefulness, the rationale<\/a> for buying a home computer system in the 1980s and early 1990s was lacking. This was especially true before the arrival of the civilian internet<\/a> in the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n Computer manufacturers had to figure out how to sell these machines to people who weren\u2019t already \u201cpower users.\u201d (business executives who could afford to equip themselves with a home office). They had their work cut out for them.<\/p>\n Selling the \u201cPersonal\u201d<\/p>\n In the early days of the personal computer, manufacturers targeted power users, gamers, and geek-hobbyists (these users were already basically amateur electricians who enjoyed building their own computers with soldering irons and spare parts).<\/p>\n Some ads<\/a>, as for the Commodore 64 \u2014 my dad\u2019s (and thus our family\u2019s) first home PC, incidentally \u2014 promoted its low-ish price point and ease of use.<\/p>\n Generally, ads for computers were more text-heavy<\/a> than we\u2019re used to today, and would have appeared more in magazines<\/a> than on TV. Of course, some, such as Apple\u2019s \u201c1984\u201d spot<\/a>, remain famous because they appeared on TV (in this case, during the Super Bowl). The Apple ad was important because it made computers seem anti-authoritarian, even a little rebellious, and, of all things, stylish<\/a>. That wasn\u2019t an easy sell.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Apple\u2019s \u201c1984\u201d ad (Uploaded to YouTube by Mac History)<\/p>\n Other ad campaigns, such as IBM\u2019s (in a belated attempt to challenge Apple), were a little random, in one case featuring Charlie Chaplin<\/a>. Despite IBM\u2019s market lead, Apple\u2019s efforts are more remembered today, perhaps because of the underdog mythos<\/a> cultivated by Steve Jobs and, again, that sense that a computer could be\u2026fun.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n An IBM ad from 1983 featuring an actor dressed as Charlie Chaplin (Uploaded to YouTube by Betamax Archive)<\/p>\n Other companies\u2019 ads used every possible appeal<\/a> from celebrity endorsements (like the cast of M*A<\/a>*<\/a>S<\/a>*<\/a>H<\/a>) to more logical appeals,\u00a0including the idea that a computer would help a family save money by tracking its monthly food budget. By the 1990s, ads pushed the decreasing cost<\/a> of getting of a PC and their comparative \u201cportability\u201d<\/a> (and by portable, these were more \u201cluggable\u201d \u2014 you could lug a 12-pound computer onto a plane). Also, users could play increasingly sophisticated games<\/a> on them; popular ones included Prince of Persia, Microsoft Flight Simulator,<\/a> and later on, Myst<\/a>, Age of Empires<\/a>, and Civilization<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Early personal computer commercials might use celebrity endorsements to sell their products (Uploaded to YouTube by The Root User)<\/p>\n Some machines highlighted their emergent, but practical, applications<\/a> (ranging from calculators to spreadsheets to calendars) and hence their capacity to enable office work from home, still a quasi-alien concept for most people at the time.<\/p>\n Hobbyists \u2014 those who already tinkered with computers and many who could program or build their own \u2014 were an important part of the computer ad market, too, even though selling to them involved more nuance and detail<\/a> (and perhaps more finesse) than, say, a new user.\u00a0 A hobbyist would want to know things like where and how a cooling fan was installed, how much electricity a motherboard would use, if there was room for connections to peripherals such as joysticks, if new memory cards could be installed, etc.<\/p>\n But the key objective of these early ads was to get the person who wasn\u2019t a hobbyist or a power user to buy a computer. The idea that selling new kinds of technology involves appealing first to early adopters and then the rest of us is not a new one. It\u2019s based on an old theory of tech adoption called \u201cdiffusions of innovation,<\/a>\u201d popularized by Everett Rogers<\/a>.<\/p>\n To put it another way: At first, buying a computer for oneself was rare, but eventually, consumers were persuaded that doing so could make them smarter, more efficient, or even cool.<\/p>\n Eventually, ads about the early internet emphasized how it could enhance your computer\u2019s utility. One of the first such commercials, by CompuServe<\/a>, emphasized how you could get the latest news, shop, and connect to databases.\u00a0Other ads hyped the potential connections to the wider world that the web could bring, to both families and individuals, with an emphasis on relationships with other people through message boards, listservs, and electronic mail.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A CompuServe ad from 1989 (Uploaded to YouTube by Geo Marketing Partner)<\/p>\n Eventually, computer advertising became more mainstream with ads about the early internet<\/a>. These commercials hyped the potential connections to the wider world that the web \u2014 and your new computer \u2014 could bring, with an emphasis on relationships with other people.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n This Kids Guide to the Internet showed families how these early computers could help their children succeed (Uploaded to YouTube by Green Tea Break)<\/p>\n Smaller companies such as Gateway seemed to grasp this way of selling computers (PCs plus the internet) more intuitively<\/a> than most, by packaging their computers with the tools to connect to the internet more easily, and making them easy to set up and maintain. The concept of having a world wide web to \u201csurf\u201d were cheesy <\/a>but arguably effective, especially for anxious parents eager to set up their kids for success<\/a>. For those with kids, the concern was to give them an edge in school, since \u201ccomputer skills\u201d would be required for future jobs; in this sense, many ads were, in fact, aimed less at kids and much more at their parents.<\/p>\n Even The Saturday Evening Post got in on the action with a helpful story from their April 1, 1981, issue on how families were using computers in their everyday lives.<\/p>\n In many ways, buying a computer has become a mundane experience, like picking out a new microwave out instead of having it be a bespoke experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n And today\u2019s ads for computers reflect this: They are more like ads for any other product. This is perhaps best illustrated in how telecom companies advertise smartphones (which are basically computers). Instead of selling their features<\/a>, per se, like the first generation of Apple\u2019s iPhones and their rivals, in recent years they\u2019ve been more tied to data plans<\/a> and savings. That is, they\u2019ve become a commodity.<\/p>\n While the individual act of buying a computer today is more tied to getting a good deal<\/a> than changing your life, they have changed our lives. While those early ads tried their best to convince you that you needed a computer, the fact is that today most people no longer need convincing: They can\u2019t imagine living without one.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/altair-computer-ad-may-1976-af67a0.jpg\")
This 1976 ad for the 256-byte Altair 8800, a forerunner to the next generation of PCs, showed that early computers were complicated, clunky, and expensive (without any of the needed peripherals, it was $621).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/sphere-personal-computer-ad-january-1976-d87f44.jpg\")
A 1976 ad for a Sphere computer (Picryl<\/a>)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-07-30-101922.jpg\")
An advertisement for the Commodore 64 (The Lunduke Journal of Technology<\/a>)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1981_04_01-070_SP.jpg\")
<\/a>Read the entire article \u201cA Family Computer Album\u201d from the April, 1981 issue of The Saturday Evening Post<\/a>
\nThe Legacy of Computer Ads Today <\/p>\n