APPLE COMPUTER | 1984 | 1984
One broadcast, and advertising history changed forever / APPLE COMPUTER "1984"
January 22, 1984, third quarter of the Super Bowl. On screens watched by 960,000 people, 60 seconds ran with no product and no specs in sight. Just a woman hurling a hammer, and a screen shattering. The two commentators looked at each other and couldn't help but ask, "What was that?"
The problem
At the time, Apple was losing ground to IBM and its compatible machines. Lee Clow, Steve Hayden, and Brent Thomas of Chiat/Day drew inspiration from Orwell's novel "1984" and built an ad around Apple's new product, the Macintosh.
The insight
The idea was to cast IBM as "Big Brother" and show Apple smashing it apart — framing the ad not as a product launch, but as a clash of ideas. The concept itself had actually existed for about six months already, rooted in Apple's belief that technology belongs to people, not to big corporations.
The idea
The director was Ridley Scott, of "Alien" and "Blade Runner." Filming took just one week, with a budget of about $500,000. The gray-clad workers were played by local skinheads, and the heroine throwing the hammer was discus thrower Anya Major. A computer never once appears on screen. The spot ends with a single line: "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh."
What happened
When the board saw the finished film, every single one of them hated it. Sculley ordered the ad slot to be sold off, but Chiat/Day refused to budge, and Wozniak said he'd pay for the airtime out of his own pocket if he had to. In the end, the 60-second spot aired exactly once, on January 22, 1984. That night's news replayed it again and again, and the following year it won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix.
Afterthought
The fact that it never aired again only deepened the legend. 40 years on, everyone still remembers "the woman who threw the hammer." By showing no product at all and simply hurling a worldview at the screen, those 60 seconds marked the moment advertising turned into culture.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 1984
