You once had an awkward stage. You dressed horribly, your hair was an embarrassing approximation of something you saw on TV, and you showed poor judgment in just about everything you did.
Consumer technology has also endured more than a few uncomfortable moments. Between the late 1970s and 2000, tech graduated from science fiction to real-world products affecting the lives of everyday people. Personal computers, mobile phones, and primitive forays onto the World Wide Webbernets all became things.
But the transition wasn't always smooth. Just as our awkward stages remain enshrined in high school yearbooks and family videos, technology's weird years—as documented in the television ads of the time—have been YouTube-preserved forever. Observe.
Atari (1978)
When introducing 1970s America to the relatively new concept of a home gaming console, Atari decided that its television ads should feature two of the most unimpeachable celebrity figures of the time: Pete Rose and Don Knotts. The combination of Charlie Hustle and Mr. Furley provided just the right amount of magic to catapult the Atari 2600 to unit sales of 30 million.
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