Apple's advertising in the late '70s and early '80s ran the gamut from iron-on decals to pitches for something known as "electronic mail."
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In the late 1970s, the newly formed Apple Computer began pitching the virtues of personal computing. Text-heavy and forward-looking, the early Apple ads touted the virtues of personal computers for functions like word processing, education, and home office use, and leaned on all-American high achievers -- Ben Franklin, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison.
This tear sheet shows an ad for the Apple-1 System, sold for $666.66, which appeared in magazines and newspapers in July 1976.
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1977 Apple II Introduction
This 1977 ad introduced the Apple II.
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"A Is For Apple" Ads
This "A Is For Apple" ads displayed the iconic colored Apple logo which Steve Jobs designed as a reference to the computers superior color display technologies.
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Apple II "How to Buy"
An Apple II "How to Buy" ad from 1979.
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1979 Apple II "Adam"
An Apple II "Adam" ad from 1979.
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1979 Apple Pascal "Iron-On" ad
Those words are spelled backward on purpose. How else would this 1979 Apple Pascal "Iron-On" ad work? "When you've got it, you flaunt it" -- it's an Apple marketing esthetic that still applies today.
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1981 Apple II & III Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison makes an appearance in this 1981 Apple II and III ad.
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1979 Apple II "31,000 Student Hours"
The 1979 Apple II "31,000 Student Hours" ad.
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1981 Apple II & III Thomas Jefferson
This 1981 Apple II and III ad featured Thomas Jefferson, in the hopes you'd see the self-evident truth of the power of personal computing.
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1981 Apple II & III Henry Ford Ad
This Apple II and III ad featuring Henry Ford ran in 1981.
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1983 Apple III "670,000,000 mph."
The Apple III "670,000,000 mph" ad from 1983 described something you might want called "electronic mail."
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1983 Inside Apple
The Inside Apple Ad - Vol. 1, which ran in 1983.
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1983 Apple Logo
This 1983 Apple Logo touted the "educational language" available only on an Apple computer.
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1984 Macintosh Spread #2
In 1984, Apple brought out the Macintosh: "The first Apple you can carry in a bag."
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Macintosh, bagged
And here it is, with the aforementioned bag and Apple's wish that we see the Macintosh as "the computer for the rest of us."
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Bill Gates in a Macintosh ad
A youthful indiscretion, perhaps? Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, clad casually in a blue polo shirt, showed up in those early days of the Macintosh to praise it as "something that's really new and captures people's imaginations."
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Test drive
Apple was sure, so very very sure, that if you tried a Macintosh, you'd buy a Macintosh.
