Ronnie Barker and the Commodore PET Adverts

At the same time as William "Captain Kirk" Shatner was <a href="shatner_001">advertising for Commodore in the US</a>, the UK saw TV's Ronnie Barker pressed in to service, with various nods towards Barker's knack of word-play and double-entendre, as often used to great effect in the 1970s TV show "The Two Ronnies". The run of mostly newspaper adverts continued into 1983.

[picture: ronniebarker_may82.webp|A Ronnie Barker newspaper advert from May 1982]

[picture: ronnie_barker_jun83.webp|Another newspaper advert from June 1983]

[picture: ronnie_barker_comci_jun82.webp|An upside-down Ronnie Barker, promoting the 3rd International Commodore Computer Show at the Cunard Hotel in Hammersmith. From CCI, June 1982]

During the financial year up until the end of June 1982, Commodore's net sales totalled $304.5 million (a 63% increase over 1981), of which the Commodore microcomputer range contributed $228.2 million, about [[150|1982]] million in [[now]] money. 

"Rest of world" showed a 35% increase in sales, whereas the US had increased 300%. This discrepancy probably reflects the fact that the US had a head-start when it came to the micro revolution, rather than any particular lack of competition. 

Commodore had also increased the capacity of MOS Technology, the chip company it bought in 1976 in order to help it fend of competition in the calculator market, by 150%. 

This included increasing the wafer size at MOS's Costa Mesa production facility to 5", each of which could produce up to 782 16K ROM chips against 496 on the previous 4" wafers[source: "A year of achievement", Commodore Computing International, February 1983, p. 5].
