[Headline] A is for Apple. [Subhead] It's the first thing you should know about personal computers. [Body Copy] The era of the personal computer is here. Now there's Apple. Apple will challenge your imagination today and for years to come. 1000's of uses, from finances to fun and games. Sink your teeth into one soon. Write: Apple Computer 10260 Bandley Dr., Cupertino, California 95014

This was one of Apple Computer's first ads.

Curiously, we found it in the May, 1978 issue of "Playboy" after having read that Apple ran some of its earliest ads in America's skin magazine of record.

Apple's more sophisticated work would come a little later. But check out this little ad's prophetic opening sentence: "The era of the personal computer is here."

Talk about enormity of task. By 1978 the closest most of us had ever come to a personal computer was when we encountered Hal from "2001: A Space Odyssey." We were only three years removed from the 1975 "Popular Electronics," which featured the historic Altair computer hobbyist's kit, and three years from the introduction of the IBM PC.

Apple and their agency, Chiat Day, set out to change the world by turning everyone on to personal computers -- specifically, theirs. Heck, why merely do product advertising when you could create one of the late 20th century's great capitalist causes?

Many of us over age 30 will never forget January 24, 1984, when Apple unveiled the most eagerly-awaited computer in history under the virtually all-inclusive headline, "Macintosh. For the rest of us." I read that zillion-word manifesto-cum-ad from end to end and fell in love with the Mac, sight unseen. As I type this on my magnificent Power Mac it's fair to say the affair continues to this day unabated.

Until Apple, nobody ever made computer advertising so ... well, "insanely great." From the distinctive striped logo on up, it had it all: Confidence. Accessibility. Youth. Intelligence. Salesmanship. Wit. Style. Passion. Vision. Yes, it had Steve Jobs.

It's been said that Apple's advertising personified the great co-founder's ego as much as his machine. But damn it, the guy believed in something, and he made a difference.

Robert Rosenthal