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Jan 22, 2014 · Apple cuts to the tagline: "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984.'. The idea was that Macintosh would revolutionize computing and ...
- “Why 1984 Won't Be Like 1984”
- Skinheads, A Discus Thrower, and A Sci-Fi Director
- What Executives at Apple Thought
- What Everybody Else Thought
- The Sequel
- A 20th Anniversary Update
- Further Reading
- * = A Note on The Airing in 1983
The tagline “Why 1984 Won't Be Like 1984” references George Orwell's 1949 novel 1984, which envisioned a dystopian future, controlled by a televised "Big Brother." The tagline was written by Brent Thomas and Steve Hayden of the ad firm Chiat\Day in 1982, and the pair tried to sell it to various companies (including Apple, for the Apple II computer)...
Chiat\Day hired Ridley Scott, whose 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner had the dystopian tone they were looking for (and Alien wasn't so bad either). Scott filmed the ad in London, using actual skinheads playing the mute bald men—they were paid $125 a day to sit and stare at Big Brother; those who still had hair were paid to shave their headsfor the sho...
Although Jobs and his marketing team (plus the assembled throng at his 1983 internal presentation) loved the ad, Apple's Board of Directors hated it. After seeing the ad for the first time, board member Mike Markkula suggested that Chiat\Day be fired, and the remainder of the board were similarly unimpressed. Then-CEO John Sculley recalled the reac...
When the ad aired, controversy erupted—viewers either loved or hated the ad, and it spurred a wave of media coverage that involved news shows replaying the ad as part of covering it, leading to estimates of an additional $5 million in "free" airtime for the ad. All three national networks, plus countless local markets, ran news stories about the ad...
A year later, Apple again employed Chiat\Day to make a blockbuster ad for their Macintosh Office product line, which was basically a file server, networking gear, and a laser printer. Directed by Ridley Scott's brother Tony, the new ad was called "Lemmings," and featured blindfolded businesspeople whistling an out-of-tune version of Snow White's "H...
In 2004, the ad was updated for the launch of the iPod. The only change was that the woman with the hammer was now listening to an iPod, which remained clipped to her belt as she ran. You can watch that version too:
Chiat\Day adman Lee Clow gave an interview about the ad, covering some of this material. Check out Mac team member Andy Hertzfeld's excellent first-person account of the ad. A similar account (but with more from Jobs's point of view) can found in the Steve Jobs biography, and an even more in-depth account is in The Mac Bathroom Reader. The Mac Bath...
Update: Thanks to Tom Frank for writing in to correct my earlier mis-statement about the first air date of this commercial. As you can see in his comment below, Hertzfeld's comments above (and the dates cited in other accounts I've seen) are incorrect. Stay tuned for an upcoming interview with Frank, in which we discuss what it was like running bot...
Sep 20, 2024 · It was the nighttime on January 22, 1984. Over 77 million Americans came in front of TV to watch the grand battle between Washington Redskins and Los Angeles Raiders. Suddenly for a full two ...
Jan 22, 2014 · And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984.'" When shown the finished ad in late 1983, Apple's board members hated it. Sculley, the Apple CEO, instructed Chiat/Day to sell back both the 30 and 60-second time slots they'd purchased from CBS for $1 million, but they were only able to unload the 30 second slot.
Jan 22, 2014 · On the 30th anniversary of Apple's "1984" TV spot, we look back at three decades of Mac commercials. George Orwell probably didn't know how much we'd talk about him so many years later, but our ...
- Chandra Steele
- Senior Features Writer
Jun 25, 2019 · Even though it debuted in the Super Bowl of January 1984, the inception of the “1984” commercial goes back to the start of 1983 and this was the time where the battle from computing between Apple and IBM was really heating up. At sales conferences in early 1983, Jobs was already talking about IBM trying to monopolize the computer industry ...
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Feb 2, 2014 · With a minute of ad time left, Apple had two options: Air the two demo spots. ... With respect to the "Why 1984 won't be like 1984" line, Hayden explains that it came from a San Francisco writer ...
