On January 22, 1984, the famous “1984″ television commercial introducing the Macintosh personal computer ran during the third quarter of the Super Bowl. Many people think that this is the only time it ever ran. But, it was also run by the Chiat/Day, the ad agency that created it, on December 31, 1983 right before the 12:00 midnight sign-off on KMVT in Twin Falls, Idaho, so that it could qualify for the 1983 advertising awards. The ad was so successful, that it never really needed to be run again as the media coverage it got generated a lot of free airtime. And, people are still talking about it 30 years later.
The ad is based on the book, “1984″ by George Orwell which introduced the concept of “Big Brother”. The ad refers to IBM as “Big Brother” and the Apple Macintosh computer as the individual challenging a society of people who don’t behave as individuals. Interestingly, the estate of George Orwell and the television rights holder to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four considered the commercial to be a copyright infringement and sent a cease-and-desist letter to Apple and Chiat/Day after the ad ran which generated even more publicity.
Here’s Director Ridley Scott discussing the making of the famous 1984 Macintosh commercial. [This is excerpted from an Apple promotional video.]
The “1984″ ad was shown at the 20th anniversary celebration of the Macintosh in 2004 There was also an updated version of it created for the iPod launch. Was it one of the best ads ever? That’s up for debate. But, as a marketer, I’d give it an award for one of the top 10 product launches ever.
— Carole Gunst
