Introduction to Microsoft Excel 1990 with Jan Brehm
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as a famous 90s Excel ad and as a benchmark for how clear a product ad can be.
What it is
A short vintage clip introducing Microsoft Excel in 1990, widely known for its elevator-themed commercial. It shows how spreadsheet software was pitched in that era.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2022 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Cites aasasd · 2022-07 · on “Ed is the standard text editor (2014)”
Yeah, I'm kinda getting into these vids from the seventies and eighties. “Introducing The Amazing Compact Disc, 1982” [LINK] — “You can pick it up and move around, even shake, and nothing happens”, yeah sure bud. “Introduction to Microsoft Excel, 1992” [this video] “Susan Kare explains Macintosh UI ergonomics on the Computer Chronicles, 1984” [LINK] — the control panel is just astounding by modern standards, especially seeing as for me the control panel is a litmus test of an OS interface. Also one of my favorite music-making tutorials is the three-part, three-hour series ‘Intro to Synthesis’ from sometime in the early 80s: [LINK] — instead of going through all the terminology in ten minutes and
Cites rockemsockem · 2024-11 · on “Misguided Apple Intelligence ads”
That guy looks lazy and bad at his job. Compare that ad to this famous Excel ad from the 90s. [this video] The guy in the Excel commercial comes off as cool, confident, and skilled at using Excel. Both ads show off the speed of the tool in high stakes scenarios, but the Apple one makes the user look like an idiot. Also the Apple ad shows everyone with macs, so he has no advantage over everyone else.
Cites btown · 2025-10 · on “Claude for Excel”
Completely understand the sentiment, but it doesn't apply here, because what's being generated are formulas! Standardized 3-statement models in Excel are designed to be auditable, with or without AI, because (to only slightly simplify) every cell is either a blue input (which must come from standard exports of the company's accounting books, other auditable inventory/CRM/etc. data, or a visible hardcoded constant), or a black formula that cannot have hardcoded values, and must be simple. If every buyer can audit, with tools like this, that the formulas match the verbal semantics of the model, there's even less incentive than there is now to fudge the formula level. (And with Wall Street conv