Remembering 1984 With Massive Newsweek Spread (With Pics)

by , 2:15 PM EST, March 9th, 2001

Hello everyone, it's time for another trip back in time. No, this is not an article about the Flower Power iMac, it's an installment of our Remembering series that looks back at advertisements of old Rob Marquardt, the Designer/Resident Wirehead of Toast Design has put his scanner to work in overtime. He has a 16 page spread from a Newsweek magazine from the fall of 1984. Included are lots of screenshots from the Mac, some information similar to other ads from the period, and a great picture of Bill Gates (snazzily dressed too!) touting Microsoft's Mac offerings. For those who may not know, Mr. Gates was an ardent fan of the Mac when it was released, and he tried to help Apple license the OS so that Microsoft could make lots of money selling Mac apps.

The following is the introduction Mr. Marquardt wrote on his own site.

In the Fall of 1984 Apple published a 16-page (with fold-out) advertising insert in Newsweek magazine. For many, this was the first “up-close” experience with a Macintosh — detailing the radical features of this new computer. The Macintosh was obviously evolving during the production of this insert as applications, icons and even hardware change from one photo to the next (and are often different from what actually made it to the shipping product). Also, in stark contrast to more recent advertising, this brochure actually makes direct comparisons to the competition with ample text to go along with the pictures.

In addition to the full-page scans of the brochure below, you'll also find larger detail images of certain areas — screenshots, people and hardware that benefit from a closer look.

Enjoy!

Here you go. You can click on each of the thumbnails for a larger version of the image. Most of these images are 800 x 1075, or variations on that theme. There are a LOT of them, so have fun!

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Intro Page
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Page 1
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Page 2
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Page 3
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Page 3 - 1
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Page 3 - 2
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Page 4
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Page 4 - 1
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Page 4 -2
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Page 5
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Page 6
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Page 7

Click on the thumbnails for larger view

The following includes the side by side comparisons that Mr. Marquardt talked about. And who is that featured on page 10? Why, it's our old friend Bill Gates!

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Page 8
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Page 9
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Page 10
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Page 11
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Page 12
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Page 13
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Page 14
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Page 15
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Bill & Co.
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The Mac Team!

Next week we will bring you some closeup screenshots from the original Mac!

Many thanks to Rob Marquardt for these excellent scans. Check out his Web site for more information on Toast Design. If you have an old Apple ad for the Mac (or Mac clones), the Apple ][ (or clones), the Lisa, or any other Apple product, scan them in and send them to us, so that we can share them with other Mac fans.