“Apple Inc.’s 1984 TV commercial was named the best Super Bowl spot in the game’s 40-year history, a Florida communications company [BCCI] said Wednesday. The Jan. 22, 1984, commercial aired in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, launching the Macintosh personal computer,” UPI reports.
Apple – 1984:
UPI reports, “The commercial, which aired only once, was the best on the basis of impact, sales and viewer memorability, said Bob Circosta, president of [BCCI]. The second-best commercial was Anheuser-Busch Cos. 1989 Bud Bowl, Circosta said. The computer-animated spot featured Budweiser bottles playing a football game against Bud Light bottles. Those two commercials managed to transcend marketing and actually became staples of our American culture, Circosta said.”
Full article here.
In June 1999, TV Guide ran a cover story on the “50 Greatest Commercials of All Time.” Apple’s “1984” ad was #1 on the list. TV Guide wrote:
“With a single airing during Super Bowl XVIII, ‘1984’ did more to change the way ads are created and viewed than any commercial in years. It was not the most heartwarming spot nor a big laugh getter, but it turned a little-known brand into a household name and set a new commercial standard for production values and cinematic style. ‘1984’ also raised the financial stakes: Apple spent a then-outlandish sum of $400,000 to produce the ad and $500,000 to air it; 15 years later, a minute of Super Bowl time costs $3.2 million. Lee Clow, then executive creative director of Chiat/Day, recalls that ‘1984’ almost debuted during a lowlier college bowl game. ‘We had to make a last-minute switch to the Super Bowl because Apple wanted to air the ad closer to the date when the product would actually be available for sale,’ he says. ‘Funny how something that simple could have changed a big piece of advertising history.”
Did you know that Apple’s “1984” commercial, widely credited with starting the Super Bowl advertising craze, actually aired twice? The actual first airing was on a small U.S. local station — KMVT-TV (Twin Falls, Idaho) on December 15, 1983 in the 1:00am sign-off slot — in order for the spot to qualify for 1983 advertising awards.
Apple remastered the famous spot to add in an iPod and showed it at MacWorld Expo in January 2004. “We couldn’t resist,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs:
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I think the ad would have been more effective if the hammer had been aimed at the actual tyrant and killed him.
I had no idea it only ran once. I was like 12 in 1984 and barely remember it. I didn’t give a $h!t about computers until I used my first Mac in 2000.
MICROSOFT: “To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed…”
MDN Magic Word: does
MICROSOFT DOES
It ran more than once.
wiki:
The famous “1984” commercial that launched the Macintosh during the Super Bowl in 1984 is purported to have been shown only once; but to qualify for 1983’s advertising awards, the commercial also aired on December 15 at a small TV station in Twin Falls, Idaho, and in movie theaters for weeks starting on January 17th.
Also:
It was shown to a large audience for the first time in October 1983, at Apple’s annual sales conference in Honolulu, Hawaii.
I did actually see this ad when it aired. It was a “change event” to be certain. Almost immediately, my brother and I figured out how to borrow the money to get one, and soon after started our first “desktop publishing” business.
MDN word = reaction – This ad caused quite the “reaction” in the advertising community
Truth Decay — Don’t be a f-ckwad. To any captive audience that actually matters, the ad ran only once.
It’s the very advertisement that initiated the entire concept of “event advertising” and “ad premieres” during the Super Bowl — yet another Apple innovation and contribution to our culture. Think about it: Today, the Super Bowl is virtually a holiday; women gather round for the ads as much as the game itself and there’s something for everybody. Apple played no small part in that.
Everyone in this country should thank Apple for what they do . . . across a braod spectrum of daily life.
I like how the V/O and text reads, “On January 24 Apple Computer will introduce MACINTOSH”, not The Macintosh. Subtle dif, but powerful.
The “1984” commercial had appeal for nearly everyone.
1. Unabashed disdain for Microsoft and its institutionalized mediocrity.
2. Infinite hope, optimism, and resistance epitomized by Macintosh.
3. A delicious babe.
The Apple resistance is stronger than ever, Microsoft reels under the weight of incompetence and complacency, an attractive woman is always a pleasure.
ConeZone: Speaking of wads, bite me asswipe. I was sharing a bit of trivia on a Mac oriented thread. Not making some huge statement.
If you don’t like it, skip it. Or are you too freaking stupid to have that ability? Dipshit.
…but it turned a little-known brand into a household name… What, Apple a little known brand in 1984? I don’t think so. Awesome ad…still relevant after all these years.
This ad has been voted best $uperbowl ad of all time nearly every year for as far back as I remember so this isnt really exactly news. It just seems like different media groups elect it the best in different years.
My vision of a 2007 commercial. A 35″ LCD, DLP, and/or LED TV that turns out to instead be the next iMac with iSight zooming in to someone on their couch using video iChat.
If Apple wants to really get into the living room, they are already in place with the iMac. Now that the prices of LCDs are dropping,
I would purchase a 35″ iMac TV for $2,500. Every other company has to go in reverse order and add the computer to the TV, but with the iMac, HDTV can be added to the computer. The form thickness would still be about the same as today’s new TV’s. All these connecting devices to the living room are cool, but why not just come out with iMac TV with resolution independence in order to see larger menus from 15 feet, the laser Mighty Mouse that tracks on your blue jeans, a zoomable built-in iSight to video conference, auto resolution matching for the TV, and a keyboard with ergonomics that work well on your lap. I can see the emergency board meetings at Dell and HP if/when this thing gets announced.
In 1984, the Big Brother that Macintosh threw the hammer at was IBM – not Microsoft.
Big Brother wasn’t Microsoft.
The Tyrant wasn’t Microsoft.
In 1984 Microsoft was among the rebels. They used different methods, though.
The tyrant was not Microsoft in 1984, it was IBM.
MS was just a blip back then.
Think, Microsoft wasn’t the behemoth it became, but it was far from a blip. By 1984 there were many clones, all using DOS. The monopoly was well under way, although the general public wasn’t aware of it.
BEARS BEARS BEARS BEARS BEARSBEARS BEARS BEARS BEARS BEARSBEARS BEARS BEARS BEARS BEARSBEARS BEARS BEARS BEARS BEARSBEARS BEARS BEARS BEARS BEARSBEARS BEARS BEARS BEARS BEARSBEARS BEARS BEARS BEARS BEARSBEARS BEARS BEARS BEARS BEARS
“1. Unabashed disdain for Microsoft and its institutionalized mediocrity.”
Uh, back in 1984, Microsoft was still a little software company up in Washington. They’d signed a big deal with IBM, but that was about it. IBM was the “big brother” figure.
Kids…yeesh…
I remember the reaction when it did air. We (Byte Shop employees Seattle/Tacoma) rented a big screen to watch the game/commercial. It was truly jaw dropping. Customers came in for weeks afterwards because they saw the commercial.
By the way, don’t give Apple all the credit for “inventing” event marketing/advertising. We were doing some of it ourselves at the time with the Apple IIe, PCjr and others.
I’ve heard so much over the top praise for that commercial that I think I hate it now…
Yeah, this ad could have changed the world… only the power of the millions of lemmings was more…
I have never watched a SuperBowl game in my life but I saw the 1984 ad on the CTV National News the night it had aired during the game.
I had been watching the news and went to the washroom and returned to the living room just as the ad started playing as a news item. I did not realise that it was a commercial for a computer. My first impression was that it was a trailer for a movie. It was so absorbing that my attention was rivetted on the unfolding images. My thought at the time was that I would have to see this movie.. thinking it was going to be some Orwellian story. When the voice over and scroll came on the screen, I KNEW I had to have a Mac!
I was already an Apple ][+ owner and while I couldn’t afford the first Macintosh models, I finally got a Mac SE and a change in my career path.
For me, the 1984 ad from Apple seriously redirected my life. I abandoned technical sales and support for professional photographic and lab markets and started developing medical software on the Mac…
Today we celebrate… Macintosh… a more powerful weapon than any fleet or army on Earth!
Magic Word – good… Could the Mac be any better?
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It didn’t just air once, it actually aired twice. The woman wasn’t really wearing sneakers, they were tennis shoes. She wasn’t really wearing shorts, they were boxers. The “tyrant” wasn’t really a tyrant, he was a middle manager. The hammer wasn’t a hammer, it was a sledgehammer. It wasn’t a metal floor the cogs were walking on, it was a molded plastic mat. The large gears in the background actually didn’t do anything. Soylent Green is actually made of people.
effwerd: That was funny!
I also heard that Ridley cut out the part when Anya Major was hauled off screaming, “Get your hands off me, you damn, dirty apes!”