| "1984" | |
|---|---|
 Still image from the advertisement | |
| Directed by | Ridley Scott |
| Written by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Adrian Biddle |
| Edited by | Pamela Power |
Production companies | Fairbanks Films, New York |
| Distributed by | Apple Computer Inc. |
Release dates |
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Running time | 1 minute |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $370,000 – $900,000 |
"1984" is an Americantelevision commercial that introduced theApple Macintosh personal computer. It was conceived bySteve Hayden, Brent Thomas, andLee Clow atChiat/Day, produced byNew Yorkproduction company Fairbanks Films, and directed byRidley Scott. The ad was areference toGeorge Orwell's noted 1949 novel,Nineteen Eighty-Four, which described adystopian future ruled by a televised "Big Brother".[1] English athleteAnya Major performed as the unnamed heroine andDavid Graham asBig Brother.[2] In the US, it first aired in 10 local outlets,[3] includingTwin Falls, Idaho, where Chiat/Day ran the ad on December 31, 1983, at the last possible break before midnight onKMVT, so that the advertisement qualified for the 1984Clio Awards.[4][5][6] Its second televised airing, and only US national airing, was on January 22, 1984, during a break in the third quarter ofCBS's telecast ofSuper Bowl XVIII.[7]
In one interpretation of the commercial, "1984" used the unnamed heroine to represent the coming of the Macintosh (indicated by her whitetank top with a stylized line drawing ofApple’sMacintosh computer on it) as a means of saving humanity from "conformity" (Big Brother).[8]
Originally a subject of contention within Apple, it has subsequently been called a watershed event[9] and a masterpiece[10] in advertising. In 1995, theClio Awards added it to its Hall of Fame, andAdvertising Age placed it on the top of its list of 50 greatest commercials.[11]
The commercial opens with adystopian, industrial setting in blue and grayish tones, showing a line of people marching in unison through a long tunnel monitored by a string oftelescreens. This is in sharp contrast to the full-color shots of the nameless runner (Anya Major). She looks like a competitive track and field athlete, wearing an athletic outfit (red athletic shorts, running shoes, a whitetank top with acubist picture of Apple'sMacintosh computer, a white sweat band on her left wrist, and a red one on her right), and is carrying a large brass-headedsledgehammer.[12] Rows of marching minions evoke the opening scenes ofMetropolis.
As she is chased by four police officers (presumably agents of theThought Police) wearing black uniforms, protected byriot gear, helmets withvisors covering their faces, and armed with largenight sticks, she races towards a large screen with the image of aBig Brother-like figure (David Graham, also seen on the telescreens earlier) giving a speech:
Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology—where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests of any contradictory thoughts. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on Earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death, and we will bury them with their own confusion. Weshall prevail!
The runner, now close to the screen, hurls the hammer towards it, right at the moment Big Brother announces, "we shall prevail!" In a flurry of light and smoke, the screen is destroyed, leaving the audience in shock.
The commercial concludes with a portentous voiceover by actorEdward Grover, accompanied by scrolling black text (in Apple's early signatureGaramond typeface); the hazy, whitish-blue aftermath of the cataclysmic event serves as the background. It reads:
On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like "1984".
The screen fades to black as the voiceover ends, and the rainbow Apple logo appears.
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The commercial was created by the advertising agencyChiat/Day, ofVenice, California, with copy bySteve Hayden,[13] art direction by Brent Thomas, and creative direction byLee Clow.[14] The commercial "grew out of an abandoned print campaign" with a specific theme:[3]
"[T]here are monster computers lurking inbig business andbig government that know everything from what motels you've stayed at to how much money you have in the bank. But at Apple we're trying to balance the scales by giving individuals the kind of computer power once reserved for corporations."
Ridley Scott (whose dystopian sci-fi filmBlade Runner had been released one and a half years prior) was hired by agency producer Richard O'Neill to direct it. Less than two months after the Super Bowl airing,The New York Times reported that Scott "filmed it in England for about $370,000";[3] In 2005 writer Ted Friedman said the commercial had a then-"unheard-of production budget of $900,000."[15]The actors who appeared in the commercial were paid $25 per day.[16] Scott later admitted that he accepted brutal budget constraints because he believed in the ad's concept, outlining how the total cost was less than $250,000 and that he used localskinheads to portray the broken, pale "drones" in the commercial.[17]
Steve Jobs andJohn Sculley were so enthusiastic about the final product that they "...purchased one and a half minutes of ad time for the Super Bowl, annually the most-watched television program in America. In December 1983 they screened the commercial for the Apple Board of Directors. To Jobs' and Sculley's surprise, the entire board hated the commercial."[15][18][19] However, Sculley himself got "cold feet" and asked Chiat/Day to sell off the two commercial spots.[20]
Despite the board's dislike of the film,Steve Wozniak and others at Apple showed copies to friends, and he offered to pay for half of the spot personally if Jobs paid the other half.[19] This turned out to be unnecessary. Of the original ninety seconds booked, Chiat/Day resold thirty seconds to another advertiser, then claimed they could not sell the other 60 seconds, when in fact they did not even try.[21]
In his 1983 Applekeynote address, Steve Jobs read the following story before showcasing a preview of the commercial:[22]
"[...] It is now 1984. It appears IBM wants it all. Apple is perceived to be the only hope to offer IBM a run for its money. Dealers initially welcoming IBM with open arms now fear an IBM dominated and controlled future. They are increasingly turning back to Apple as the only force that can ensure their future freedom. IBM wants it all and is aiming its guns on its last obstacle to industry control: Apple. WillBig Blue dominate the entire computer industry? The entire information age? Was George Orwell right about 1984?"
In March 1984 Michael Tyler, a communications expert quoted byThe New York Times, said "The Apple ad expresses a potential of small computers. This potential may not automatically flow from the company's product. But if enough people held a shared intent,grass-rootselectronic bulletin boards (through which computer users share messages) might result in better balancing of political power."[3]
In 2004, Adelia Cellini writing forMacworld, summarized the message:[8]
"Let's see—an all-powerful entity blathering on about Unification of Thoughts to an army of soulless drones, only to be brought down by a plucky, Apple-esque underdog. So Big Brother, the villain from Apple's '1984' Mac ad, representedIBM, right? According to the ad's creators, that's not exactly the case. The original concept was to show the fight for the control of computer technology as a struggle of the few against the many, says TBWA/Chiat/Day'sLee Clow. Apple wanted the Mac to symbolize the idea of empowerment, with the ad showcasing the Mac as a tool for combating conformity and asserting originality. What better way to do that than have a striking blonde athlete take a sledgehammer to the face of that ultimate symbol of conformity, Big Brother?"
Art director Brent Thomas said Apple "had wanted something to 'stop America in its tracks, to make people think about computers, to make them think about Macintosh.' With about $3.5 million worth of Macintoshes sold just after the advertisement ran, Thomas judged the effort 'absolutely successful.' 'We also set out to smash the oldcanard that the computer will enslave us,' he said. 'We did not say the computer will set us free—I have no idea how it will work out. This was strictly a marketing position.'"[3]
The estate of George Orwell and the television rightsholder to the novelNineteen Eighty-Four considered the commercial to be a copyright infringement and sent acease-and-desist letter to Apple and Chiat/Day in April 1984.[1]
It ranked at number 38 inChannel 4's 2000 list of the "100 Greatest TV Ads".[26]
Ted Friedman, in his 2005 text,Electric Dreams: Computers in American Culture, notes the impact of the commercial:
The "1984" ad became a signature representation ofApple computers. It was scripted as a thematic element in the 1999docudrama,Pirates of Silicon Valley, which explores the rise of Apple andMicrosoft (the film opens and closes with references to the commercial, including a re-enactment of the heroine running towards the screen ofBig Brother and clips of the original commercial).[27]
The commercial was also prominent in the 20th anniversary celebration of the Macintosh in 2004, as Apple reposted a new version of the ad on its website and showed it during Jobs's Keynote Address atMacworld Expo in San Francisco, California. In this updated version, aniPod, complete with signature white earbuds, was digitally added to the heroine. Keynote Attendees were given a poster showing the heroine with an iPod as a commemorative gift.[28] And the ad has also been cited as the turning point for Super Bowl commercials, which had been important and popular before (especiallyCoca-Cola's "Hey Kid, Catch!" featuring"Mean" Joe Greene duringSuper Bowl XIV) but after "1984" those ads became the most expensive, creative and influential advertising set for all television coverage.
Revisiting the commercial inHarper's Magazine thirty years after it aired, social criticRebecca Solnit suggested that "1984" did not so much herald a new era of liberation as a new era of oppression. In the December 2014 issue of the magazine, she wrote:
I want to yell at that liberatory young woman with her sledgehammer: "Don't do it!" Apple is not different. That industry is going to give rise to innumerable forms of triviality and misogyny, to the concentration of wealth and the dispersal of mental concentration. To suicidal, underpaid Chinese factory workers whose reality must be like that of the shuffling workers in the commercial. If you think a crowd of people staring at one screen is bad, wait until you have created a world in which billions of people stare at their own screens even while walking, driving, eating in the company of friends—all of them eternally elsewhere."[29]
Media archivist (and early Apple supporter)Marion Stokes recorded the Super Bowl broadcast featuring the legendary ad, which was then featured in the 2019documentary filmRecorder: The Marion Stokes Project.[30][31][32]
In 2001, theFuturama season 3 episode "Future Stock" parodies the advert as a Planet Express advert challenging the all-powerful "MomCorp". In the advert a Planet Express employee throws a delivery package into the telescreen showing Mom - however in contrast to the original advert, after the screen is smashed an annoyed prole turns to the employee and shouts "Hey - we were watching that!"[33][34][35]
In March 2007, the advertisement attracted attention again whenHillary 1984, avideo mashup of the original commercial with footage ofHillary Clinton used in place of Big Brother,went viral in the early stages of thecampaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The video was produced in support ofBarack Obama by Phil de Vellis, an employee ofBlue State Digital, but was made without the knowledge of eitherObama's campaign or his own employer. De Vellis stated that he made the video in one afternoon at home using a Mac and some software. Political commentators includingCarla Marinucci andArianna Huffington, as well as de Vellis himself, suggested that the video demonstrated the way technology had created new opportunities for individuals to make an impact on politics.[36][37][38]
The 2008The Simpsons episode "MyPods and Boomsticks" parodies the ad. In it,Comic Book Guy throws a sledgehammer at a giant screen that displays the CEO "Steve Mobs".[39][40]
In May 2010,Valve released a short video announcing the release ofHalf-Life 2 on OS X featuring a recreation of the original commercial, with the people replaced with City 17's citizens, Big Brother with a speech fromWallace Breen, the agents of the Thought Police withCombine Soldiers, and the nameless runner withAlyx Vance.[41] It is Valve's only official Half-Life 2SFM video.
In the 2016The Simpsons episode "The Last Traction Hero",Lisa Simpson is abus monitor and fantasizes about being on a big screen controlling the bus children withBart Simpson as the runner with the hammer.[42]
On August 13, 2020, Apple removedFortnite from theApp Store afterEpic Games introduced a direct payment option that circumvented Apple's 30% revenue cut policy, violatingterms of service policies. In response, Epicfiled a lawsuit against Apple, and created a parody of the "1984" ad called "Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite".[43][44]
The 2024Pixar animated filmInside Out 2 contains a looseparody of the ad, in which the characterJoy riles up the Mind Workers to rebel against Anxiety; one worker throws a chair at the giant screen Anxiety uses to monitor their work.[45]
The choice for the greatest commercial ever was the spectacular spot by Chiat/Day, evocative of the George Orwell novel1984, that introduced the Apple Macintosh computer during Super Bowl XVIII in 1984.
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