Over the weekend, I got fixated on watching old computer commercials on YouTube. Apparently, I'm not the only one who finds them weirdly compelling--that item has already gotten the most clicks of anything I've ever blogged here.
Before I gorged myself on old ads, I thought that Apple was unquestionably the greatest computer company ever when it came to ads. And OK, my commercial-watching didn't change that opinion. But here's something that startled me: The ads that are the most transfixing are the ones for Commodore, most of which date from the early-to-mid 1980s.
In its heyday--which lasted from about 1981 until 1983--Commodore was the most potent marketer of computers in the business. At the time, its ads weren't slick, classy, or especially clever; a couple of decades later, most of them are nothing if not dated. But they were effective.
Watching them more than twenty years later, you can see why the Commodore 64, a not-particularly-exciting machine, became the best-selling computer model of all time. (Many of the commercials on YouTube seem to come from a site called CommodoreBillboard.com, but I'm not getting anything at that URL--anyone know what happened to it?)
Here are another eleven commercials for Commodore computers and related stuff. Watch them at your own risk.
Another VIC-20 ad dissing video games players as addled morons; the guy in this one seems to be making his own Pac-Man sound effects...
Buy a VIC-20, become fabulously wealthy...
YouTube has a seemingly endless supply of C64 ads centered on the idea that the system's 64K of RAM made it the best computer on the market; never before or since, I suspect, has a PC based its marketing on the strength of one spec to this degree...
I may be hallucinating, but this one sounds like it may have a lusher rendition of the synthesized version of Bach's Invention No. 13 that scads of early 1980s Commodore commercials use; it also seems to suggest that you buy your newborn a C64...
My apologies for the video and audio quality on this later C64 commercial--I present it here as evidence that Commodore eventually gave up on the "games turn your mind to mush" meme and sold the computer mostly on the strength of its games, with a passing reference to other applications. No Bach soundtrack or pitch that a Commodore makes you smarter and/or richer here...
This Australian C64 commercial from 1983 has A) an opening scene that appears to have absolutely nothing to do with personal computers; and B) a jingle which is both insanely catchy and, as far as I can tell, completely meaningless ("Are you keeping up with the Commodore?/'Cause the Commodore is keeping up with you")...
Here's another Aussie one, from 1985, with the same jingle and a disturbing, Mentos commercial-like vibe. Buying a C64, apparently, involved joining a strange cult, possibly run by a mysterious man known as the Commodore...
A British spot for a C64 racing game with mindblowing graphics. "Just look at the action!"
In 1984, Commodore's luck started to turn on it--at least in part because the company's bizarre, brilliant founder Jack Tramiel left (whereupon he acquired Atari and started competing with his old employer). From then on, Commodore ads tended to be mediocre and/or downright depressing. In this one--not a Commodore commercial per se, but one involving its products--a pitchman tries to unload a warehouseful of the short-lived, unsuccessful, and clunky Plus/4 by claiming, repeatedly and implausibly, that it's "popular." They're practically giving it away, folks!
I especially like his hand flourishes, particularly at the end...
Commodore was once a company whose ads were better than its products; in the Amiga era, it made great computers and marketed them miserably. In this ad, former U.S. Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill endorses the Amiga, along with the Pointer Sisters, Dodgers manager Tommy La Sorda, and a squadron of astronauts; Tip looks as if he doesn't understand what he's doing there, and frankly, neither do I. (Today, of course, if you found a congressman at your doorstep seeking entry to your kid's bedroom, you'd call the cops...)
Lastly, this ad from 1993 or thereabouts, for the ill-fated Amiga CD32 game console, must have been one of the final Commodore commercials, since the company went bankrupt and was liquidated in 1994. And like the company itself, Commodore advertising kind of went out with a whimper.
If you ask me, it just isn't a real Commodore ad unless it has cheesy synthesized Bach, insults aimed at videogame players, William Shatner, the suggestion that Commodore products lead to a life of success and riches, or some combination thereof. This ad, sadly, has none of the above...
Maybe I'm biased -- I was an early Commodore 64 adopter -- but the C64 was pretty darned exciting. It was a computer where, if you were willing to invest a few hours reading the programmer's reference guide, you could just Do Stuff. If you weren't willing, there were plenty of programs that could do the job. I can't think of any computer of the era that could give you everything the C64 could in music, graphics, animation, word processing, spreadsheets and games. The Apple II was close (I used them both pretty frequently), but the C64 rocked them all.
I'm probably very biased too. The C64 was in it's time an incredibly capable machine and probably launched very many young adults into their "computer-related" careers.
The Amiga (even the A1000, in the early "beginning") quietly broke many records as to what a "PC" could accomplish at a low price. It is a somewhat sad & very unfortunate fact that Commodore was inept at marketing, advertising and promotion. As corporate money dwindled, the initial "far out" capabilities started to become dated; eventually the company started playing games with corporate tax havens while they appeared to give up development and bleeding-edge production. The last attempt at a competitive system (and corporate last breath) were the A4000 & related A1200. Although the earlier A3000 beat them with a standard "non-proprietary" video port, these two were beautiful systems, but had, unfortunately, little more to offer.
Better marketing and more video toasters may've helped keep the Amiga alive longer.