In the past, believe it or not, no one was particularly looking forward to Super Bowl ads.
All that changed on January 22, 1984, when Washington faced Los Angeles in Tampa, Florida. Those watching the big game on CBS who weren't running off to the kitchen for snacks may have been intrigued by something completely different.
Dystopian scenes appeared on television between ads for Gillette Foamy Gel and Northwestern Mutual Insurance. A line of men in faded gray clothes entered the theater without thinking, where the bespectacled-faced “Big Brother” loudly addressed them. screen.
Big Brother extolled the virtues of groupthink and celebrated the imminent victory of freedom from the “vermin of contradictory true ideas.”
The camera then cut to a striking blonde athlete running in slow motion.
Wearing a white tank top and red athletic shorts, she, played by British discus thrower and actress Anya Raja (then Anya Major), strode into the theater as security pursued her. She spun her around and, screaming, threw the sledgehammer at Big Brother's face. The screen exploded and large letters appeared along with a voiceover. “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh. Then you'll see why 1984 isn't like “1984.'' ”
Happy 40th to the best ad of all time, Super Bowl or not.
Created by advertising agency Chiat/Day and Apple (AAPL), “1984” takes Super Bowl advertising to a whole new level. Today, technology historians, advertising professionals, and technologists all look back on this commercial not only as a seminal moment in the democratization of personal computing and Super Bowl advertising, but also as a work of art with themes that still resonate today. I am.
Advertising industry leader Rob Schwartz, who ran Chiat/Day from January 2015 to April 2021, was not at the agency when the ad was created, but the ad aired. I still remember being inspired by it. “It was the first time that a Super Bowl commercial would be something to watch other than the game itself. This was that moment,” he recently told Yahoo Finance.
“That was the first time the audience was like, 'Wait, wait, wait, don't go to the bathroom,'” he added. Stay here and watch a few commercials before the game resumes. ”
But Super Bowl aside, Apple needed a boost.
IBM = Big Brother?
In the early 1980s, the company was establishing itself as a promising technology business with products such as the Apple II. To make personal computers more accessible, the company developed Lisa. Named after Steve Jobs' daughter. Although this computer was innovative, it did not sell well, especially when compared to his IBM PC, which was released in 1981. Meanwhile, Apple was beginning work on the Macintosh, which was intended to promote the adoption of personal computers to the masses.
“Apple entered the personal computing market in 1984, struggling with IBM and in need of a new blockbuster product…The company was all about the Macintosh, spending millions on research and development, and developing new cutting-edge products. '' said Margaret O'Mara, the Scott and Dorothy Britt Professor of American History at the University of Washington.
However, the question arose of how to promote an innovative new product. Steve Hayden, now 76 years old and then a copywriter at Chiat/Day, still remembers receiving work directly from Steve Jobs. The young tech visionary reportedly wanted to “stop the world going” and hired the Los Angeles-based company to do the job.
Hayden began brainstorming with art director Brent Thomas. He looked through old ad concepts he'd been working on in San Francisco and found one with the headline, “Why 1984 Won't Be '1984.'” Hayden attributes this line to Chiat/Day copywriter Gary Gassick. Initially, Hayden and Thomas toyed with a comical concept for 1984 that was “like the Jetsons.” But the director of this ad, a famous talent named Ridley Scott, had a better idea.
“He came over, looked at our first board, and brought us a great coffee table book about the making of Metropolis. Movies, dramatic giant machines, the interface between humans and these overwhelming technologies,” Hayden explained. “And to meet that vision, the direction of the art changed very quickly at that point.”
Hayden said advertising experts had already come up with a character for Big Brother, and Mr Scott insisted on introducing another heroine, one who would be in sharp contrast to the all-male cast and would be a “break-the-shackle” heroine. said.
new era
The heroine represented more than just rebellion against Big Brother. As historian O'Mara pointed out, the ad aired during the height of the Cold War, the year of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. “I think you can tell that she's dressed like a track and field athlete and that she's dressed as if she's running for America,” she said.
The heroine was also a representative of Macintosh. Computers have traditionally been dominated by specialists (think mainframes and IBM); The Macintosh provided a revolutionary user interface that made personal computers available to the mass market.
“She was supposed to represent freedom and the dawn of a new era and Macintosh,” Hayden said.
Chiat/Day's Schwartz added: “You have to remember that this was a time when computers were only used for business…When she throws the sledgehammer, she's all of us…and she's the one who's throwing the sledgehammer, all of us…and she's throwing all kinds of oppression and political I represent all of us who are trying to destroy a “dictatorship, even if it's just a dictatorship for one day, we don't want it.'' we want to be free. And I think that power is why people still talk about it 40 years later. ”
However, there were some opponents within the company. Apple's board of directors hated this and almost canceled the broadcast. Meanwhile, Hayden himself was worried about his job. “I myself was concerned that the structure and content would be too foreign for American audiences,” he said. “It just didn’t fit into traditional advertising formats.”
However, Jean-Louis Gassé (now 79 years old), who ran Apple France at the time, still remembers this. The first time he saw the ad was in 1983. Preparatory meeting for the release of Macintosh in January. “We'd never seen an ad like this before…it was really amazing. Then the lights went up a little bit and Mac came down from the top of the theater machinery on a wire, and he was on the way down. It appeared along the way. [was amplified by microphones]” he told Yahoo Finance. “Then I could hear the very familiar ‘pop’ sound of a Mac starting up. There was hysteria in the room. ”
Although Hayden and the rest of the Chiat/Day team never specifically intended for “Big Brother” to represent IBM, Jobs quickly adopted the framework. After showing the ad, Jobs gave a “vehement” anti-IBM speech and “said the Macintosh would change the world,” Gussie said. “At the time, it was easy to overlap the images of Big Brother and big IBM.”
endure
In fact, it's amazing to look at this ad today and see it still holds up. Only this time, we can imagine that Big Brother will appear on the screen as Elon Musk of Tesla (TSLA), Mark Zuckerberg of Meta (META), and he is the developer of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence products.
At least that's what Jean-Louis Gassé thinks. He argued that the ad is still relevant for those of us working on Facebook and the world of X, working on things like AI and user privacy. The ad serves as a “good way to remind us of the necessary fight between the established and emerging powers.”
Furthermore, he added: “I think this ad shows his two perspectives on technology: one is Big Brother and oppressive, and the other is Macintosh and how to break the grip of Big Brother technology.” He said. “So this ad from 1983 and 1984 was showing a view of the conflict between the uses of technology, and I think that conflict is still very much alive today.”
Enjoy the Super Bowl!
Dylan Kroll I'm a reporter for Yahoo Finance.
