Robert Ludlum for Atari, 1981 ad

When Bourne Identity the book was written in 1980, Atari computers were state of the art. By the time the movie came along in 2002, they were just a little behind the times. But nearly as much time has passed since the movie came out as between the book and the movie. The Pentium IV was state of the art in 2002... This ad says that Robert Ludlum used an Atari as his personal computer. My guess is that's because Atari gave him one.

Celebrity endorsements were all the rage around this time. Atari had Ludlum, Radio Shack had Isaac Asimov for the TRS-80, Commodore had William Shatner for the VIC-20, Apple had Kevin Costner for the Apple Lisa and TI had Bill Cosby for the TI-99/4A... That one sure doesn't hold up very well.

See https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2017/05/16/atari-800-2/ for more info on the Atari 800 (and Atari 400) being promoted