Franklin's bad ads for Apple ][ clones and the beloved impersonator they depict

The ad — catchy, if morally fuzzy

Franklin Computer Corporation made ads that stopped you in your tracks. Bright, simple concept: show Ben Franklin, sell a cheap Apple ][ clone. It worked on the caveman test — you knew what they were selling and why. But it has been reported that Franklin’s hardware and software were lifted straight from Apple designs, which complicates the nostalgia. A former engineer, Bob Applegate, recalls the ACE 100 as “a very close copy of the Apple ][,” and the company leaned hard on stunts — swimsuit models at Applefest, gold-plated founder editions — to grab attention fast.

The man in the wig

Here’s the part that tugs at the heartstrings. It has been reported that the Benjamin Franklin impersonator in those campaigns was Ralph Archbold — the city of Philadelphia’s beloved Franklin and a familiar, friendly face across tourist brochures. Allegedly, Archbold didn’t know the full context of the shoot or what he was endorsing. Imagine being the face of a hometown hero and later learning the product you helped sell might have been built on someone else’s labor. Awkward much?

The irony bites

The ACE manuals even claimed the Ben Franklin cartoon as a Franklin Computer trademark — bold, considering the company’s alleged copyright run-ins. There’s a bitter, almost comic irony here: a company trading on the image of an American icon while, critics say, ripping off another company’s creations. It’s a small, human drama lodged inside the larger story of 1980s clone wars — equal parts hometown pride and intellectual-property soap opera. Who gets to wear the wig, and why, still feels like the question that matters.

Sources: buttondown.com/suchbadtechads, Hacker News