Apple

Remembering Apple in 1985 — Apple Dealer Promotional Material

Thanks to some newly found Apple promotional material, I was looking back at Apple from 1984-1985. Great memories.

JF Martin

Oct 13, 2023 — 3 min read

A simulated promotion in a printed newspaper – thanks to Midjourney for that one

I recently spent some time cleaning up old boxes sitting in a closet in my home office. I rediscovered old promotional materials from Apple from 1985 and 1986. Back then, I was working at an authorized Apple dealer as a pre-sales and post-sales technician. One of the business owners probably gave me a copy of the Macintosh Dealer Guide you see in these photos. Here is a selection of what are the best parts.

This logo is a piece of contemporary art. It is aging very well and feels timeless. I used to have a poster in my room while attending college, but I can’t remember exactly what I’ve done with it.

Look at the list of “application programs” (this was before the “App Store” and “Apps”). It is fascinating. MacDraw was my favourite. The vast majority of companies no longer exist. Microsoft is absent from the list. Strange. And those floppy disks… I still own an original box of those floppy disks without them inside.

The “Own-a-Mac” promotional program was a clever way to educate salespeople about the Mac and become great advisors with real clients. There was a workshop to attend, but it was before the Internet. I can’t remember how you could “attend” these seminars, maybe by watching a VHS videotape?

This illustration of the Macintosh’s internals was so well done. Looking at every detail inside the computer view was my passion for a while. It’s strange to see the mouse on the left, which was usually positioned on the right of the Mac.

The following black & white Macintosh illustrations were for use in newspaper advertisements. We had to cut out the needed illustration and send it to the newspaper with promotional text for processing and to create an ad. It was way before Google AdSense!

The printer is an ImageWriter with an optional numeric keypad

Special mention goes to the following black & white photo of the Macintosh. It’s an original printed on a Kodak paper. It’s an 8x10 studio photo of the Mac. It is now in its frame in my home office. You can see it in my YouTube video.

Next up is the well-known traditional promotional flyer. I remember having it with me all the time, at home, at school, and even at the dentist’s waiting room. The comparison between the Mac and an IBM PC struck my imagination and was a clever way of showing the Macintosh’s unique proposition. It was a graphical user interface for the masses.