Happy 25th Birthday Apple Macintosh “1984” commercial!
25 years ago today, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, the commercial you see above ran a single time. Created by the Chiat/Day ad agency, directed by Ridley Scott (fresh off Blade Runner) and costing a lavish $900,000, it introduced the Apple Macintosh computer for the first time.
At the time, Apple was in big trouble. The Mac's predeccesor, the Lisa, had bombed. Rumor had it that the company had about one more hand to play or the present and future of computer would be dominated by putty-colored boxes that ran the cryptic DOS operating system and were about as sexy as a toaster oven.
The commercial was that hand. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and CEO John Scully showed showed the ad to the company's board who begged them to not let it run. Jobs and Scully pushed on anyway. The commercial ran in movie theatres for a few weeks in early January then once, its birth and death, during the Superbowl.
It is now considered one of the greatest triumphs in the history of advertising. "1984" was the lead story on many nightly news broadcasts and early sales of the Macintosh were leagues beyond expectations. Advertising Age named it "Commercial of the Decade" and #12 advertising spot of all time. and several now legendary figures in Silicon Valley cite the 1984 ad as the beginning of their careers in computing. The commercial has been parodied numerous times including, recently and infamously, during Hilary Clinton's presidental campaign.
Me, I saw it first in high school as a lead-in to the local showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was only a few years ago that learned what it actually meant.