Economy

unhappycamper

(60,364 posts) Tue Feb 4, 2014, 12:20 PM Feb 2014

30 years later, there's still been only one great Super Bowl ad

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-super-bowl-ad-20140201,0,6139713.story

Uploaded on Feb 1, 2012

"1984" is an American television commercial which introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer for the first time. It was conceived by Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas and Lee Clow at Chiat/Day, Venice, produced by New York production company Fairbanks Films, and directed by Ridley Scott. Anya Major performed as the unnamed heroine and David Graham as Big Brother. Its only U.S. daytime televised broadcast was on January 22, 1984 during and as part of the telecast of the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. Chiat/Day also ran the ad one other time on television, in December 1983 right before the 1:00 am sign-off on KMVT in Twin Falls, Idaho, so that the advertisement could be submitted to award ceremonies for that year.[4][5] In addition, starting on January 17, 1984 it was screened prior to previews in movie theaters for a few weeks. It has since been seen on television commercial compilation specials, as well as in "Retro-mercials" on TV Land. The estate of George Orwell and the television rightsholder to the novel 1984 considered the commercial to be a flagrant copyright infringement, and sent a cease-and-desist letter to Apple and Chiat/Day in April 1984. The commercial was never televised as a commercial after that.

30 years later, there's still been only one great Super Bowl ad
By Michael Hiltzik
February 2, 2014, 8:35 a.m.

Of course it's Apple's "1984" ad for the original Macintosh computer.

The ad ran in its full 60-second length only once on national television--during the third quarter of Super Bowl 18, on Jan. 22, 1984. (It was shown a month earlier on a TV station in Twin Falls, Idaho, to preserve its eligibility for advertising awards, and subsequently with previews in some movie theaters.)

Directed by Ridley Scott, who already had "Alien" and "Blade Runner" under his belt, this is the ad that created the Super Bowl's annual commercial frenzy that today bores so many of us silly. For 30 years, ad agencies and their clients have been trying to top it, but no one has come close. Instead we've gotten three decades of (let's face it) lame disappointments--funny ads, emotional ads, sexy ads, animated and live-action ads, glossily professional and do-it-yourself ads. Yawn.

Judging TV commercials by their artistic content is often an exercise in condescension, but there's no denying that Ridley Scott's product is a marvel of concise storytelling (and marketing). That the ad ran in 1984 was happenstance, but Apple's ad agency, Chiat/Day, certainly made the most of the confluence with Orwell's "1984." The ad featured gray-garbed drones marching in step to a Big Brother's Stalinist harangue, interrupted by a lithe tank-topped blond chased by storm troopers. Just before fade-out comes the pitch: "On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984.'"