Description:

Jobs Stephen

The FIRST Apple Computer Super Bowl Ad, Nineteen Eighty-Four, signed by the Ads Art Director, Brent Thomas

 

(Jobs, Steve); Scott, Ridley (director); Thomas, Brent (art director). 

Apple Computer: "1984" [commercial :60 & :30 [spots. Dub from Editel edit of 9/28/83.  Los Angeles: Chiat/Day inc. Advertising, 1983.

 

Apple Computer's 1984 commercial that aired during Super Bowl XVIII—i.e. the commercial most often credited as the most influential of all-time and one that introduced the world to the present future of multi-screen computing. Betamax cassette (22 x 14 cm.), with printed label affixed to front; signed by Art Director Brent Thomas, in three locations as "Brent's," along the spine of the cassette in white, along the duplicate label to the front sleeve, and on the label located on the tape cassette to the front. Cassette preserved in original plastic case. Contents have been transferred to digital files (.mov), for a total of 486.2 MB; preserved on accompanying USB drive. Both of the advertising spots lead with title cards with flashing "not for air" notices. The signed tape will be accompanied by a signed letter of provenance noting the original acquisition from the estate of Brent Thomas.

 

This momentous ad was actually aired two days before the Apple computer was even introduced to the world by Steve Jobs (that alone assisted in creating an air of mystery and anticipation for the unveiling). But it is necessary to take a step back in time to fully appreciate this significant technological, social and artistic moment in history. In late 1983, Steve Jobs was a revolution to technology. The personal computing market was up for grabs. Apple was selling its Apple 11 like hotcakes but was facing increasing competition from IBM and other clones. Meanwhile, Apple, led by Steve Jobs, was busy developing its new Macintosh computer. Remember that in 1983, most businesses and governments still employed large, expensive, and technically intimidating mainframes. And while the first personal computers of the early 1980s were smaller and less intimidating, they still featured black screens with green text-based commands like C:> run autoexec.bat.  The "cool" technology we have today was just a fantasy in 1984.  The computer you have in your household today, regardless of the brand, is based on this one specific model. A computer that could generate text on a screen, one that could generate pictures and documents to work on, let alone let it speak.

 

Heading into its debut, Apple hired the Los Angeles advertising firm Chiat/Day to launch the Macintosh in early 1984; the account team was led by creative director Lee Clow, copywriter Steve Hayden, and art director Brent Thomas. The trio developed a concept inspired by George Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984,  in which The Party, run by the all-seeing Big Brother, kept the proletariat in check with constant surveillance by the Thought Police. In the ad, IBM's "Big Blue" would be cast as Big Brother, dominating the computer industry with its dull conformity, while Apple would re-write the book's ending so that the Macintosh metaphorically defeats the regime. 

 

British movie director Ridley Scott (who'd perfected the cinematic look and feel of dystopian futures in Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982) was chosen to direct this ad. The 60-second mini-film was shot in one week at a production cost of about $500,000, which featured two hundred extras with shaved heads, marching in lock-step, and listening to Big Brother's Stalinist gibberish. Shot in dark, blue-gray hues to evoke IBM's Big Blue, the only splashes of color were the bright red running shorts of the protagonist, an athletic young woman who sprints through the commercial carrying a sledgehammer, and Apple's rainbow logo. 

 

The ad was a sensation, but it almost never aired on TV as Apple's board hated it and asked to sell their CBS time slots for the Superbowl. The ad run once during the third quarter of the Super Bowl.  Some 43 million Americans saw the ad, and when the football game returned, CBS announcers Pat Summerall and John Madden asked one another, "Wow, what was that?" The ad, of course, was a sensation. The commercial's social and political overtones held particular resonance in the mid-1980s, as the United States and Soviet Union were still engaged in an ideological Cold War.

 

But the real show was yet to come two days later.  Steve Jobs walked on stage in a double-breasted suit and bow tie and rallied the troops by tweaking his chief rival: "IBM wants it all and is aiming its guns on its last obstacle to industry control, Apple. Will Big Blue dominate the entire computer industry, the entire information age? Was George Orwell right?"

 

Jobs then presented perhaps the greatest new product demonstration in history. Jobs walked over to a black bag, unzipped it, and set up the Macintosh to wild applause. Then Jobs inserted a floppy disk and started the demonstration of the Mac's windows, menus, fonts, and drawing tools, all set to the stirring theme from Chariots of Fire. Then, the Mac spoke for itself: "Hello, I am Macintosh…" … "NEVER TRUST A COMPUTER YOU CAN'T LIFT!"

 

Originally a subject of contention within Apple, this momentous ad has subsequently been called a watershed event and a masterpiece in advertising, ushering in a phenomenal revolutionary period in technology. Brent Thomas was instrumental in realizing not only the commercial's aesthetic (as its Art Director), but also its thematic core—having recycled, along with his Chiat/Day colleague Steve Hayden, the unused tagline "And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984." Included on this tape is the rarely seen 0:30 cut of the commercial; although, even with the 0:60 cut, there are certain interesting variants to be studied—including repetitive returns to close-ups of the pseudo-IBM “Big Blue" screen, with its cryptic informatics; a shot which only appears once in the final televised version, with the other close-ups having been replaced by over-the-shoulder long-shots of the uniform workers, transfixed before the Screen.

 

We have never seen another example of this kind on the market!

To view a copy of this iconic ad, paste this link into your browser:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtvjbmoDx-I.

 

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