We may chuckle at the campiness of Apple’s current ads, but that’s nothing compared to the way things used to be. Allow me to set the scene: the year is 1992. Apple’s first attempt at creating a laptop—the almost 16 lbs Macintosh Portable—had had less than stellar returns. They needed something new to compete in the same space, something more the size and weight of, say, a paperback novel.
Enter the PowerBook. And, of course, Apple needed a marketing campaign to go with it. Witness the genius of an early 1990s Apple ad with nary a John Hodgman or Justin Long in sight.
Wait—are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is that brat packer Andrew McCarthy as the dude who whispers that the PowerBook is a great way to meet girls? Creepy.
(Special bonus after the jump: the Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible PowerBook ad from 1995)
[via Live from Paris]
Ummmm...that was the first Mac laptop. Apple's first laptop was the Apple ][c.
I suppose I'm showing my age :-)
No, that isn't Andrew McCarthy.
Not Andrew McCarthy, but it *is* Russell Wong at the 0:26 mark ;-)
Mission Impossible ad says...PowerBook's battery gets so hot it literally explodes....
Still can't get the PowerBook with the "Artificial Intelligence RISC processor" dammit.