1984 (television commercial)

The "1984" Commercial or "Apple's '1984' commercial" are common terms used to refer to the television commercial that launched the Apple Macintosh personal computer in 1984.

The commercial aired on January 22, 1984 during the 3rd quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. It showed a heroine wearing red shorts and an Apple t-shirt running through an Orwellian world to throw a sledgehammer at an image of Big Brother — an implied representation of IBM. The concluding screen showed the message 'On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like "1984".'

Influence on Marketing

The 60 second film was created by the advertising agency Chiat/Day, with copy written by Steve Hayden and filming directed by Ridley Scott (who had only just finished filming Blade Runner).

Despite costing $400,000 to make and a further $500,000 on air time, the film was shown commercially only once (although it was shown once before in 1983 on a small television station in Twin Falls, Idaho in the early hours to allow the commercial to qualify for advertising awards). However its impact created such a media frenzy that it gained many subsequent free TV airings and column images as it was discussed in the media. At the time Nielsen ratings estimated that the ad reached nearly 50% of the households in America. These guerilla marketing tactics are part of what made the commercial so influential in marketing circles; it is now seen as the first example of event marketing, and is popularly credited with starting the trend of yearly "event" Super Bowl commercials.

The commercial is frequently voted top in surveys of influential marketing campaigns. For example Advertising Age named it the 1980s 'Commercial of the Decade' and in 1999 the US TV Guide selected it as number one in their list of '50 Greatest Commercials of All Time'.

The film surfaced again in the late 1990s when the Apple made a Quicktime version of the commercial available for download from the Internet, and again in 2004 with a 20th Anniversary version modified to promote the iPod.

Dialog

"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 purveying contradictory truths. 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. We shall prevail!"