Here are some fun ads for CompuServe found in various 1984 issues of Family Computing magazine (from this Internet Archive collection.)
It fascinated me then, and still fascinates me now, that the best way CompuServe could explain the concept of live online text chat to 1980s/1990s folks was to imply it was simulating CB radio conversations.
How cute…but also fitting kinda. We (Germany) never had those CompuServe ads, as far as I remember. For my first internet I had to drive to another city, join a nonprofit, tell why I even wanna join the net and then had to pay 50 moneyz a month. Well worth it 😁
CompuServe’s first big mistake was NOT sending a billion floppy disks and CDs to every household in the country. Who would be crazy enough to do that?
Their second mistake was missing out on Hollywood.
I guess Herbie might be playing Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, maybe Elite.
“Mom! Dad! I have no tea!”
I have not tea though.
