Alligators. Albert Einstein. Big Brother. Big Blue Meanies. John Lennon. A Mac that looks like a person. A PC that looks like a dork. Wrestlers. Robots. And, yes,
Gisele Bundchen.
These are just a few of the players in the 30-year odyssey that is the Apple TV commercial. From that iconic "1984" ad to those "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads of the early aughts, Apple commercials have run the gamut from wonderfully clever to down-right silly. But they all revolve around one, common theme: Apple kicks ass, and everyone else is just selling junk.
In these ads, Apple represents youth, innovation, and, yes, extreme coolness. And its inherent hipness is typically pitted against the old, the uncool, the pathetic, and the downright evil. First, the enemy was IBM, but as Big Blue lost its mojo in the world of desktop computing, Apple shifted its attention to that evil empire in the Pacific Northwest: Microsoft. In a way, these ads chart the changing landscape in the tech world over last thirty years -- though we certainly see everything through Apple-colored glasses.
Here, we highlight some of our favorite Apple ads (see above). Yes, we start with "1984," but we also take you on a tour of less familiar ads, including another from that same glorious year. Yes, we give you "Think Different," but there's also the one with the alligators. If we missed any of your favorites, do let us know.
"1984"
Androgynous, drone-like humans march in unison as a Big Brother-like figure tells them it’s time to "celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives."
Whatever that is, it can't be good. But then a woman with orange short shorts and an even shorter haircut appears out of nowhere, running headlong into this dystopian universe, a look of determination etched on her face and a hammer clutched in her hands. Her white tank top bears the image of some boxy computer with an apple placed strategically to one side. And yes, she chucks that hammer at Big Brother.
This is Apple's "1984" ad, which aired during the Super Bowl that same year.
Yes, it plays off George Orwell's
1984. Big Brother is IBM, and the woman with the orange shorts is, you guess it, the Apple Macintosh. She is a beacon of freedom, creativity, and innovation. She is the antithesis of the mind-numbing monochromatic stuff that inhabits IBM's dystopia. She is a GUI interface.
In the 1980s, you see, IBM was still the most powerful computer company on the planet, and Steve Jobs didn't like that. "IBM wants it all and it's aiming its guns on its last obstacle to industry control: Apple," Jobs said just a year earlier
at the General Meeting of the Boston Computer Society. "Will Big Blue dominate the entire computer industry, the entire information age? Was George Orwell right?"
It was no surprise, then, that the woman in the orange shorts hurled her hammer at Big Brother, just as he was boasting that his mighty empire would prevail forever. The impact sets off some kind of nuclear blast, leaving Big Brother's brainwashed minions frozen in their colorless jumpsuits. "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984’," the ad tells us.
That's a hard act to follow. But there was more to come -- much, much more.
