When computers were sexy: Hilarious vintage ads from the early days of the PC

Companies such as Apple have made their name by marketing their products not just as technological tools but as glamorous and fun toys.

But this marketing technique is nothing new, as these vintage adverts from the early days of PCs show.

They portray computers as fun, easy to use – and even sexy, with the help of a few eager-looking models.

Other quirks of the now-outdated ads include the attempt to initiate consumers in the strange world of ‘electronic mail’, and an appearance from the young Bill Gates.

 

‘Maybe even sexy’: This glamorous 1971 advert is trying to sell a modem, of all things

 

Girl power: Technico Inc also used sex appeal to sell their ‘microcomputer’ in 1978

Sex sells: Film character Elvira was recruited to depict a desktop as a chainsaw tearing apart the old ways of doing things in this bizarre 1991 advert

 

What indeed? Three decades on, scenes like this are a thing of the past as email has become ubiquitous

 

Hot shot: Bill Gates teamed up with Radio Shack in 1985 to promote computers carrying Microsoft Windows

 

Star power: Sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov was another well-known spokesman for Radio Shack in the 1980s

 

 

Handy? In 1976, this chunky briefcase was the equivalent of the modern laptop, complete with tiny screen

 

Groundbreaking: This advert for Microsoft Excel predicts that the programme will still be useful in five years… and it was 25 years ago

 

Giant? This RAM card from 1977 was fast for its time, but had 30,000 times less power than the latest iPhone

 

Mail order memory: System Industries charged an annual salary for enough storage space to hold half a movie