What is Digg?52 Comments
- leehodge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5The ad was pure irony – like most of Apple’s PR BS. Turns out the Mac was the Orwellian computer – a closed system in which everything related to the computer was controlled by big-brother Apple as opposed to the open architecture PC world that was not controlled my any one big-brother company. In regards to this ad – the joke was on Apple.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2most ppl in advertising consider the greatest commercial ever made (recall percentage, marketing value, execution, concept, publicity ROI, etc...). this explains why is it an incredible commercial:
"Any apprehension Apple may have harbored regarding 1984 disappeared seconds after the spot ran. Switchboards immediately lit up at CBS, Chiat/Day, and Apple with calls demanding to know, "What was that?" Love it or hate it, the commercial demanded attention and sparked widespread controversy. It would ultimately garner an estimated $5 million in free publicity; all three television networks and nearly 50 local stations aired news stories about the spot, most replaying it in its entirety, and hundreds of newspapers and magazines wrote about the phenomenon.
A.C. Nielson estimated the commercial reached 46.4 percent of the households in America, a full 50 percent of the nation's men, and 36 percent of the women. The commercial recorded astronomical recall scores and went on to win the Grand Prize of Cannes as well as over 30 other advertising industry awards."
And as if that wasn't enough, we're still talking about it 21 years later. Go figure. - Jarda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Anyone finds ironic the fact that this ad is about a bunch of brainwashed freaks listening to their leader?
- Koennie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm 40 years old so I can remember the ad when it first aired but I can't remember who won the Superbowl !
- WarPirate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Leehodge you are so right.
- zipper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yeah, simply azaming ad, when i watched it for the first time (which was while watching Pirates of Silicon Valley, 1999), i was freaking impressed. You dont get to see ads with such intensity anymore.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Great stuff! I've never seen 'the making of' video. Looks like they had a great time during the shoot. Really do miss the 80's.
- Diadem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That ad was impressive, especially compared to the sad ads that crop up today..
Lol, and RE: the guy above me... next storys that pop up,
"Amazing pictures of bubblegum on sidewalks"
"The amazing processes used in making macaroni"
"Amazing stills of some guy sitting at his computer" - Nick_Circosta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i LOVE this comercial... and still it is NO1 :)
- JuliusErving, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Great article, nice digg.
- softmod, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I don't get it. What the big deal??
- Nick_Circosta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Even better was when Jobs pulled Macintosh out of its bag to chariotes of fire ...
- xVern, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Most epic commercial ever.
People who dont get it, must not like/know the book. - cometador, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Interesting to see the 'making of' footage for this iconic advert.Dugg.
- wolf530, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Pretty amazing stuff.
- antoniojvr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Where is Kevin Costner?
- tremolo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Can we let this ad go now?
- stealthboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0leehodge: did you skip your medication this morning?
- 5blocksfree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0
I think this was truly one of the greatest commercials ever produced. It goes to show, among other things, how far off the mark that highly-paid CEOs can be. I hope the board members felt pretty stupid after they realized what had happened, and how wrong they were - they deserve it. - etruscan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ridley Scott really deserves credit for creating what is likely the most memorable, edgiest, and charismatic TV ad ever to air. The fact that people still talk about it is proof enough.
- Enisin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Sweet Fancy Moses!! I luuuuves it!!
*Get's a torrent of 1984* - Anunnaki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Still - for seeing it the 1337th time - very impressive.
But.. the think difference ad text is actually far more frightening to me :-D - MikeZila, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@leehodge
Valid point. - tech70a, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I was very young back in '84 (didn't understand the commercial at all). My father, who taught computer classes in a high school, thought that it was the best commercial that he'd ever seen.
I will admit - that commercial was "awesome" and the behind-the-scenes that was shown on this site was pretty neat, too. + - headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't think you need to have read the book to understand the ads meaning. For it's time, this was a great ad, and I do remember seeing it durning the Superbowl.
- Jyakku, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This and the "Think Different" commercial always give me goose bumps. Really great stuff.
- ljfullofgrace, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is my first time seeing the commercial. It is as good as i was told.
- fox, on 04/11/2009, -0/+0its on google video
- leehodge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0stealthboy, for the most part I prefer the realm of realty. I took a pass on the Apple Kool-aid as did most computer users. As for the ad - it was very good and very funny when you understand the inside joke.
- antoniojvr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Seeing the commercial again now, it does seem a little pompous. It's almost like modern perfume commercials...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's a commercial from 1984...get over it.
- skxy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That's a good story, for a different take on it see here:
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=1984.txt&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date - maverick999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0For the digg effect:
http://www.curtsmedia.com.nyud.net:8090/cine/1984.html
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http://www.caseypicker.com - EliGottlieb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0God damned Quicktime! The commercial won't play under Firefox/Linux.
- djctown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0pretty damn good. nice cult feel to it & having a good looking girl with a sledge hammer doesn't hurt either..
- 5blocksfree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@leehodge, who said: Apple as opposed to the open architecture PC world that was not controlled my any one big-brother company. In regards to this ad – the joke was on Apple.
Aren't you forgetting something? This was one of the Mac's biggest strengths, since all developers had to conform to a single way of doing things. This is where the notion of a standardized user interface came from. Before that, even on Windows, implementations were all over the place- because you never knew quite what to expect from one piece of software to the next, it was like a slippery ride on an icy roadway.
One other point - even though Apple's Hardware was closed (as far as the motherboard was concerned) you could still add third-party hard drives, video cards, memory, accelerators, etc. As for the operating systems, Microsoft and Apple were the same- closed and proprietary. - torindkflt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0How ironic that Cartoon Network is right now showing the episode of Futurama that includes a parody of this commercial.
- TomJ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0FTA "To play the part of the despondent, baldheaded workers, Scott recruited authentic British skinheads and paid amateurs "
wow, that's what I call corporate responsibility. Great Job, Steve. - scbysnx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I like that commercial.. but for all their "one central power is bad" ideology apple sure does try to control their systems a lot. They are still ofcourse the alternative, but what if all the mac heads got their wish and apple was number one? Congrats you now have ONE hardware provider ONE OS provider AND someone who could choose to control both the hardware and software market with an iron fist. oh yeah apple is the fight against big brother aren't they?
- qishi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Jarda:
I think you missed the point. - xofc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@TomJ
You mean Ridley Scott... after all, Steve Jobs wasn't exactly directing the ad. - Mman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0So this is what they were making fun of in Futurama.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Pure genius.
- Harlequn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i always thought the guy with the glasses was bill "hypercard" atkinson
- Zekaer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This was on Futurama.
- SpectreBlofeld, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Why does almost every Digg headline contain the word 'amazing'? While a decent ad it is, i'm afraid i'm not quite 'amazed' by it, and you guys are really killing the meaning of the word by using it to describe everything under the sun.
- Fornbogi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0What about the new iPOD ad? It looked so much like the Lugz ad that some people even combined both so you could see the similarities: http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/cultofmac/index.blog?entry_id=1281881
>Personally, I like both. - soccerob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0a lot better than jobs' windows 95 commercial or whatever it was. that was lame...
http://www.soccerob.com - zipper, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0yeah, simply amazing ad, when i watched it for the first time (which was while watching Pirates of Silicon Valley, 1999), i was freaking impressed. You dont get to see ads with such intensity anymore.
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