People just love the "I'm a Mac" TV spots. Over at Randomly Snarky, Suzie Austin is petitioning for even more of them. I have to agree that they are terrific, but there's an odd story about the most famous Mac ad, and what has been called "the greatest Superbowl tv commercial ever."
Of course I am referring to Apple's "1984" spot. An icon in the world of advertising, it's getting new life as a video mashup with Hillary in the Big Brother position. 
But here's the back story on this famous spot — something I learned when I was working as a copywriter on Apple back in the early 90s.
Measured in terms of memorability, the original 1984 spot was wildly successful. Measured in terms of business, the spot almost led to Apple going out of business. Why? The market for computers was not the personal market. It was the business to business market. And corporate IT departments were mostly staffed and run by people who started out working for IBM. These people were insulted by the Apple ads, and they collectively turned their back on Apple salespeople. In fact, IBM ads at the time were working very hard to shed the Big Blue/Big Brother image, using the image of Charlie Chaplin's little tramp 
as a silent spokesperson/continuing central character. The IBM campaign today is forgotten despite the fact that it ran for a few years. The Apple campaign is remembered — and brought up even today by creative directors I've worked for. But the sad reality is Big Brother was a bust in terms of sales.
Comments