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The early years of Apple ads (pictures)

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."

James Martin
James Martin is the Managing Editor of Photography at CNET. His photos capture technology's impact on society - from the widening wealth gap in San Francisco, to the European refugee crisis and Rwanda's efforts to improve health care. From the technology pioneers of Google and Facebook, photographing Apple's Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai, to the most groundbreaking launches at Apple and NASA, his is a dream job for any documentary photography and journalist with a love for technology. Exhibited widely, syndicated and reprinted thousands of times over the years, James follows the people and places behind the technology changing our world, bringing their stories and ideas to life.
James Martin
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1976 Apple 1 Ad

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.

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