Back then, people still scrubbed in Villabajo, the mini-Wini sausage chain harassed both ear canals, I used Aronal in the morning, Elmex in the evening - not always, but more and more often -, the Melitta man enforced my preference for cold drinks and, if it didn't work out with the neighbor despite Calgonit, I simply ordered a pizza for Jonas Wagner or bathed my hands in dishwashing liquid - sorry, in Palmolive.

"Clippy", also known to German users as "Karl Klammer", was an assistant for Microsoft Office. The Office assistant was intended to support users and had the appearance of an interactive, animated cartoon paperclip that "addressed" the user in speech bubbles.

© Microsoft

In these 25 years, advertisements in Computer&Automation have played an important role in the dissemination of technical knowledge. As a supplement to the well-founded, independent and irreplaceable reporting of our editors, they are the creative platforms for companies to present products to a discerning specialist audience.

However, until the advertisements could appear in the issues back then, we as a team also had to get creative from time to time, for example when data could finally be sent by new-fangled e-mail - Intel inside - but the attachments consisted of Word documents with handwritten sketches: "Place picture three centimeters next to headline in Comic Sans and frame in chimney red. Please - thank you". Then a Dujardin. In those moments, the penetrating and almost mockingly winking office clip (the older ones among us remember it wistfully) was the least of our problems. Merci that you exist. Don't.

Over the past 25 years, ads have undergone an exciting transformation. The minds behind the motifs have realized that readers can also be addressed emotionally, because the rapid development of technology has also changed the way advertising is perceived. Trade magazines and the advertising in them will continue to play an important role in the decision-making process in the future. The challenges may change, but the desire for knowledge and progress will continue to drive Computer&Automation.

In our series "Advertising then and now", we not only show how advertising has changed, but also let the relevant partners tell their own stories. In the e-paper, you can click on the interactive advertisements to find additional information about the companies. So you know what you've got.

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