During a hiatus from the action of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984, audiences first saw an ad that is now widely recognized as one of the most powerful and effective of all time. Apple’s “1984” spot, featuring a young woman throwing a hammer through a screen on which a Big Brother-like character preaches about “the unification of thought,” got people talking all over the United States. United and heralded a new age for Apple, consumer technology and advertising.
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The commercial was directed by Ridley Scott, who directed the genre-defining dystopian sci-fi film. Blade runner in 1982. The spot was in a similar vein, depicting a dark, monochromatic future where a crowd of bald extras – many of them true skinheads from the streets of London – stood in front of a huge screen broadcasting a message of conformity. A runner enters, chased by the police, and throws the hammer at the screen, destroying it just as the Big Brother silhouette announces “We will prevail!” The text of the last plan makes the references to George Orwell explicit: “On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you will see why 1984 will not be like 1984. “
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs loved the announcement, but Apple’s board of directors didn’t. They asked the agency that produced it, Chiat / Day, to resell the time they had bought for the ad, and “1984” was only released because Chiat / Day resorted to a subterfuge, intentionally failing to sell time. It was the right decision: The ad made every company’s dream of becoming news itself, receiving free reruns on news shows the next day. Super Bowl commercials were already big business, but many in the advertising world refer to “1984” as the time when the big game became a place for innovative and impactful commercials, which quickly became an important part of the show. general of the Super Bowl. This spot also consolidated Apple’s reputation for being iconoclastic, disruptive and avant-garde, an image that has been at the heart of its brand ever since. By telling a somewhat high-spirited story and barely mentioning the product he was selling – no computer appears in the ad – it also helped establish that a bolder and less literal ad could be just as effective, if not more, than simpler ads.
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