Today marks exactly 40 years since the world first learned about the existence of the Apple Macintosh computer. Ridley Scott’s already legendary advertisement in the style of George Orwell’s novel 1984 took care of it.
The only hint of Macintosh is the light silhouette on the T-shirt
In our country at that time, of course, we did not watch American commercials, and the novel 1984 criticizing the totalitarian regime was on the list of prohibited literature. We only found out about the phenomenon of this advertisement several years later.
This is what America saw two days before the Macintosh premiered:
This the ad was only aired once on TV – January 22, 1984 in a commercial block in the third quarter of the Super Bowl. The American football final has long been a platform for expensively produced and later famous commercials. Apple thus aimed its spot “1984” in the most exposed place of American television culture. The ad was so revolutionary that news channels repeated it several times in their coverage, giving Apple free publicity.
At the same time, the ad does not show any computer, not even a hint of a Macintosh silhouette, it is only about emotions. The gray masses of unthinking characters are listening to Big Brother’s speech on the big screen when a heroine in shorts and a t-shirt runs up and smashes Big Brother’s image with a thrown hammer and frees humanity from his power. The ad ends with text On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh, and you’ll see why 1984 won’t be “1984.”
At that time, IBM was enjoying great success with its IBM PC, used mainly with text applications in corporate offices. Apple thus styled itself in a role against the dominance of IBM. The Macintosh came with a graphical environment and was aimed (despite the high price) mainly at home and creative professionals.
The “1984” ad then became a part of pop culture and references to it can be found in many films, series and computer games.
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Although the vast majority of us were not directly at the first broadcast of the advertisement in 1984, it is now part of our cultural awareness and a fixed part of modern culture.
2024-01-22 12:45:17
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