Weird And Amusing Aussie Computing Ads From The 1980s

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In many ways, the 1980s were exactly like now. We had a lot of computer gear to choose from. And some of the ads the industry used to try and persuade us to buy that gear were downright bizarre — especially given that a low-speed modem cost more than $1000.

This is an entirely personal selection of mildly amusing advertising I recently dug up in the pages of Computing Australia, a long-since-defunct weekly newspaper which covered the Australian technology scene back in the 1980s. The title had a distinctly enterprise/corporate bent, but that didn’t mean the ads weren’t strangely appealing and/or appealingly strange. Enjoy (click on any picture for a much larger version).

 title=Obviously this one predates all those serial killers ruining Australia for tourists.

 title=“Eliminate hot sites fast”? Quick, get one for Senator Conroy!

 title=The next time you want to complain about broadband prices, remember that a 2400bps modem could easily have cost you more than $1400 back in the day.

 title=I think this one speaks for itself.

 title=Bonus points if you can identify any of these “stars” other than Orson Welles. And sign me up for a copy of “Debt Collection By Telephone”.

 title=Yes, that really is a disk drive, not a medium-size kitchen appliance.

 title=Clearly, the issue of booth babes is an age-old phenomenon.

 title=A hot-stamped logo on a floppy disk. Also, Chandlers. I’m feeling very nostalgic.