Superbowl XLVI (that’s forty-six, I think) is tomorrow. The Giants and Patriots will vie for NFL’s national championship. But the game within the game is the contest for the champions of the imagination. With an estimated 116 million viewers watching, the “one percent” of corporate America will fork out $3.5 million, about three cents per viewer, for a chance to dominate Monday morning conversations. Chances are good that a talking dog or what the GoDaddy actress was wearing will get more conversation than what happened between the commercials.
Superbowl commercials haven’t always been a big deal. Prior to the early 1980’s, the commercials airing during the game were just ordinary spots. The Mean Joe Green Coca-Cola spot, which continually appears on top ten lists, had been airing since the previous October. But one ad, and my all-time favorite Superbowl spot, changed the way Superbowl advertising was viewed forever.
In 1982, the ad agency of Chiat/Day began peddling a concept ad to numerous clients, including Apple. All turned them down. But in 1983, Steve Jobs saw the concept and was immediately sold. The visionary Jobs saw the ad as an opportunity to announce the coming of the Macintosh computer. Chiat/Day hired Ridley Scott, who had recently directed Alien and Blade Runner, to film the ad. It cost an unbelieveable $900,000 to film.
The ad features a room full of brainwashed skinheads watching a screen and listening to a Big Brotherish voice decrying “information purification directives.” Their savior is a lone female who runs into the theatre and throws a hammer into the screen just before she is captured by police. The narrator, who is first heard just eight seconds before the end of the spot, proclaims, “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ’1984.”
When Apple’s board of directors saw the ad, they threatened to fire Chiat/Day and demanded that the spot not be aired. Not a single board member liked the spot-- they just did not understand it. But Jobs and Wozniak believed in the ad and paid for its costs out of their own pockets. Strangely, for all of the brilliance and hype, the spot only aired once, never seen in that form on television again. But in the advertising work, it’s considered legend. And it’s still seen on the Internet today.
In strange irony, from the standpoint of PC sales, IBM is a shell of what it was in 1984. While Macintosh computers have never really captured a significant amount of market share outside of “creatives” and loyal followers, its iPhones and iPads are a phenomenal success. As for Chiat/Day, the company merged with TBWA in 1995 and continues to represent Apple.
Superbowl commercials haven’t always been a big deal. Prior to the early 1980’s, the commercials airing during the game were just ordinary spots. The Mean Joe Green Coca-Cola spot, which continually appears on top ten lists, had been airing since the previous October. But one ad, and my all-time favorite Superbowl spot, changed the way Superbowl advertising was viewed forever.
In 1982, the ad agency of Chiat/Day began peddling a concept ad to numerous clients, including Apple. All turned them down. But in 1983, Steve Jobs saw the concept and was immediately sold. The visionary Jobs saw the ad as an opportunity to announce the coming of the Macintosh computer. Chiat/Day hired Ridley Scott, who had recently directed Alien and Blade Runner, to film the ad. It cost an unbelieveable $900,000 to film.
The ad features a room full of brainwashed skinheads watching a screen and listening to a Big Brotherish voice decrying “information purification directives.” Their savior is a lone female who runs into the theatre and throws a hammer into the screen just before she is captured by police. The narrator, who is first heard just eight seconds before the end of the spot, proclaims, “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ’1984.”
When Apple’s board of directors saw the ad, they threatened to fire Chiat/Day and demanded that the spot not be aired. Not a single board member liked the spot-- they just did not understand it. But Jobs and Wozniak believed in the ad and paid for its costs out of their own pockets. Strangely, for all of the brilliance and hype, the spot only aired once, never seen in that form on television again. But in the advertising work, it’s considered legend. And it’s still seen on the Internet today.
In strange irony, from the standpoint of PC sales, IBM is a shell of what it was in 1984. While Macintosh computers have never really captured a significant amount of market share outside of “creatives” and loyal followers, its iPhones and iPads are a phenomenal success. As for Chiat/Day, the company merged with TBWA in 1995 and continues to represent Apple.
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