Apple’s “1984”: Greatest Commercial Ever Made Essay

1984 is an American television technicalized which introduced the Apple Macintosh individualised information processing system for the first time. The commercial served as a significant milestone in the history of adverting and had a massive effect on the popularity of Apple. The ad consistently been lauded as a classic, winning critical acclaim over time. It is now considered a watershed event and a masterpiece in advertising, and is widely regarded as one of the most unforgettable and successful American television commercials of all time. It aired only once on daytime television, on 22 January 1984 in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII.The ad was not only rated as the best advertisement ever in 2007, it was overly rated as the Best Super Bowl note in the 40 years history. The turning point event was not the only computer advertisement that aired in these years, but it was the only one that changed battalions lives. The ad started the phenomenon cognize as event marketi ng, in which a high-visibility commercial garners a lot of extra free publicity. 1984 also inaugurated the trend of showcasing commercials on the Super Bowl. And, most importantly for Apple, the ad brought consumers into the stores.The commercial opens with a droning junction resonating through a science-fiction dystrophic setting, which is held in dark, blue and gray tones. then(prenominal) you see emotionless, bald and virtually robotic masses marching in unanimity through a long tunnel with telescreens on the wall. Then out of nowhere, a young woman appears, dressed desire an athlete, in a color-full sports outfit that forms a strong contrast to the dull gray environment surrounding her.She carries a sledgehammer and is being chase after by uniformed guards and then she runs up to the screen, hurls a hammer with a heroic grunt, and shatters the TV persona of the said dictator named Big Brother. As the screen explodes, bathing the stunned audience in the light of freedom, a voice-over announces, On January 24th, Apple Computer depart introduce the Macintosh. And youll see why 1984 wint be like 1984. The ad was an allusion to George Orwells noted tonic, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which described a dystopian future ruled by a televised Big Brother. After the ad was released in 1984, Apple became a household name in the United States.Apples 1984 commercials aim was to brand their product, Macintosh with an ideology of empowerment and individuality contrary to the 1970s perception that personal computers were tools invented for utilitarian answers and designed to facilitate specific tasks. During those times, the trend was common and utilitarian, so with Macintosh deviating its image against the norm, the peoples attention was acquired with a bold ad set up by Apple. The 1984 ads strategy was to differentiate themselves by combating conformity and asserting individuality. It was a definite plus for Apple to call for to air the commercial during the most wa tched television event in United States, The Super Bowl. Surely, the amount of people watching was at an all-time high thus do the visibility of the commercial reach its maximum.With a large number of people exposed to the memorable commercial, it is more likely to be remembered and talked about, thus making the Macintosh known and popular. Apples strategy of making the viewers of the Super Bowl, particularly a wide range of age, gender, ethnicity and social status as their target audience was a clever break since the more exposure, the better outcome. The commercial made a bold move in referencing George Orwells novel Nineteen Eighty- Four which could easily been misinterpreted and ended up scaring the audience with futuristic dystopian themes.Fortunately, the ad was considered as revolutionary, innovative and positively shocking which is a undecomposed thing because it made the idea of Apple control stick into peoples minds. With Apple imaging itself as the hero/saviour of the masses against forced conformity, the commercial was a clever substance of saying that If you buy a Mac, the awful dystopian future will not take place and instead individuality and self-empowerment will dominate. Ever since that commercial, the Mac has glowed with an aura of riot and empowerment.One major element on why the ad was so successful was, of course, the remarkable fruit values. Nobody had ever spent that much money to make a commercial look like a big-budget blockbuster movie. By bringing in the best people in the industry, the execution was dumfounding especially to the common individual. Steve Jobs vision of stressing the liberating power of the Apple Macintosh and paving the way for individuality was highlighted as the message of the commercial.The advertisement delivered the message of what Apple as a whole stood for and what marvelous it from the multitude of other computer brands in the market. Steve Jobs thought he knew what was special about Apple they were the underdogs, whod battled the corporate giants and brought computing power to the masses. The 1984 ad glorified the Information Age into a good vs. mephistophelian battle between technologies. They considered the rival PC in the market as bad technology centralized, overbearing which crushes the pitying freedom and controls peoples minds.But we can be liberated from that bad technology by the good technology independent, individualized of the Apple Mac. In that instant when 1984 premiered, it positioned the Apple brand as creative, different and human while re-positioning its competition as staid, status quo and robotic. The commercial ultimately explained Apples philosophy and purpose that people, not just government and big corporations, should run technology. If computers arent to take over our lives, they have to be accessible.