SPECIAL: "1984" by Apple

[00:00:00] It is Wednesday, July 10th. I'm Tod Maffin. My wife and I are still on holiday until next week But I'm back in your feed today and Friday with a behind-the-scenes deep dive into two of the world's most successful ad campaigns

[00:00:15] These are replays from last spring and we do have plans to start producing them again in the fall So if you'd like to get those when they come out look for the podcast called

[00:00:25] Behind the ad with Tod Maffin in your podcast app and you will get them as soon as we release them Today what some believe was the best television ad ever produced For Anya Major it was the casting call of a lifetime

[00:00:46] It was 1983 London. She'd been a competitive discus there are for years So it was a little weird when a friend recommended that she try out for this tv gig she'd heard about But she was tall, blonde, I don't know maybe they'd like her

[00:01:02] The ad agency shyadday was having a hard time casting for its clients ad They needed someone who could run up to a mark spin around with a giant sledgehammer and throw it forward Easy peasy right?

[00:01:14] Except that most of the people they tested couldn't get the throw off or they got too dizzy One person actually threw it really well a little too well and narrowly missed hitting an elderly woman who was walking by the studio But Anya Anya was perfect

[00:01:31] Earlier that month in california apples board of directors were sitting around a boardroom table It was tense Their co-founder steve jobs was pitching them on this tv ad idea he had to sell their forthcoming computer called Macintosh it would be dark dystopian

[00:01:48] And brilliantly iconic it would be anything anyone would talk about It would sell computers for god's sakes The board wasn't having it the CEO they'd brought in a guy named john scully also thought it was nuts

[00:02:02] Remember though, it's hard to imagine nowadays a personal computer in the home Was almost unheard of in 1984 This tech was state-of-the-art Besides computer ads weren't like this much like the product. They were trying to sell the ad was a new breed

[00:02:19] The board was so nervous that one board member a guy named mike marcula Reportedly asked if he could get a motion to fire the ad agency Another board member is said to have buried his head in his hands after hearing the idea

[00:02:31] What does a personal computer have to do with the dystopian future? They asked Jobs insisted Trust me. He said This will be big The board took a gamble and said yes Just two weeks later Production started The ad if you remember it shows hundreds of bald men

[00:02:59] Mindlessly watching a giant screen with a big brother like figure speaking Those bald men were not actors. They weren't extras They were skinheads Literally recruited off the streets of london as an attempt to lower budget costs

[00:03:14] Director ridley scott in an interview some years ago recalled their casting and so we organized one of these rather frightening casting sessions where there are about three or four hundred uh youths And uh, I was surprised. Oh, you know how elderly some of the world use

[00:03:29] I thought it was tended to be a kind of youth movement, but it's not at all We chose 150 skinheads out of that group Well, one of the prices they paid for using real skinheads was some well unprofessional behavior on set

[00:03:41] The lead actress said later she had to endure sexist remarks made it or while filming There was no CGI No animation It was just as it looked a giant room Until 1984 apple spent about 50 000 on each ad This one cost 500 000 to make

[00:04:06] To understand the ad you have to understand two things First the inspiration In 1949 an author named George Orwell wrote a novel that changed the course of culture The book was called 1984. It was a warning against totalitarianism It was even banned in the soviet union until 1988

[00:04:27] The book creates a chilling dystopia that entered the mainstream culture in a way No one could have imagined It straight up freaked people out caused an unsettling feeling of panic

[00:04:38] Orwell said he used the former premier of the soviet union Joseph Stalin as inspiration for the personality cult of big brother Who's thought police forced citizens to engage in double-think or accept contrary opinions at the same time In order for them to believe that war is peace

[00:04:54] freedom is slavery So yeah 1984 It was pretty intense and dark The second thing you need to understand is how Steve Jobs interpreted the world To him this was the world we lived in already at least the business world

[00:05:14] Big corporations acted like big brother and apple was david to the goliath It was a message he tried to get in people's heads before but they weren't quite getting it This ad though People would get this ad And on a spring day in 1983

[00:05:31] Some would see it for the first time Hi, i'm steve jobs It's may 16th 1983 more than a half year before the general public would see the ad during the super bowl Steve Jobs is delivering his keynote speech to developers

[00:05:46] That year he was introducing one of the first personal computers to feature a graphical user interface and a mouse No, not the macintosh The lisa a computer named after his daughter But not a personal computer The lisa would retail for ten thousand dollars

[00:06:03] It was marketed to businesses came with the lisa right word processor lisa calc and a bunch of other software Jobs also announced the apple 3 plus the profile hard drive and the apple 2e computer Then after a pause He seemed to start going off script It is 1958 IBM

[00:06:28] Passes up the chance to buy a young fledgling company That has invented a new technology Called xerography He starts talking about big computer companies that missed the boat on world changing technologies digital equipment deck And others invent the mini computer

[00:06:48] IBM dismisses the mini computer as too small to do serious computing Looking around the room. It's clear people are enjoying it, but nobody's quite sure what to make of it

[00:07:00] Even back then jobs was known as a bit of a nut a marketing phenom sure, but you know a little crazy-eyed And then This will big blue dominate the entire computer industry The entire information age Was george orwell right about 1984

[00:07:23] The theater lights have roughly turned off and the ad plays Needless to say it was a hit on january 24 apple computer will introduce And you'll see why 1984 The ovation lasted forever. It was the first time an audience had seen it Well almost

[00:08:02] It turns out jobs had focus grouped vad before showing it to anyone even his own board And the response from the focus groups Not good actually People hated it Some said it reminded them of concentration camps

[00:08:21] In fear of how the board and apple would react to this news both jobs and his ad agency decided And we're not going to show them the focus group results They did though show them the final cut of vad The board was still less than impressed

[00:08:36] They actually wanted to backtrack and pull out of the coveted super bowl slot for fear the commercial would bring negative attention to the company In fact, the only reason the commercial went ahead was because the ad agency chi at day

[00:08:49] Wasn't able to sell back the ad slot they bought Like it or not. They were told that slot belongs to your client Irresponsible for filling it with the commercial I Can you buy and sell new products via Instagram, eBay and Co?

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[00:10:00] Miros can be boring. And if you're the organizer, you know it's more than just running a meeting. You have to synthesize and categorize themes, get the team involved, assign next steps, and make it all a fun safe space where teammates want to participate.

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[00:10:29] But making it visual and sharing it directly with our client, sped things way up. Plus our side can share spitballing ideas with private mode. The client doesn't get to see our thoughts until we've decided on the approach.

[00:10:42] Whether you work on the marketing side or in product design, engineering, or UX, bring your team together on Miro. And your first three Miro boards are free when you sign up today at Miro.com. That's three free boards at Miro.com. The build-up is over. It's January 22, 1984.

[00:11:06] Derry Carman. Super Bowl Sunday. And Derry Carman tried to stay in... Today for Americans to gather around their TV, stuff their faces with chicken wings and pizza, watch two teams duke it out for a chance to win a ring, and a trip to Disney World.

[00:11:21] But in between all the tackles and field goals, another sort of entertainment takes the country by storm. A commercial extravaganza. Panasonic presents Omnimovi, a camera and video recorder. When you buy a ham, you never quite know what you're getting. Some have water added.

[00:11:39] Some are flavored with artificial smoke. So you take the hot weather, You take the cool the way it's supposed to be. The difference is just in none of your tests. Super Bowl commercials, of course, are the pinnacle of advertisement. Nowadays, the ads that pop up in between plays

[00:12:00] pull in more than 100 million views. That hefty number makes the price to reserve a spot astronomical, with brands paying millions of dollars for just 30 seconds of airtime during the major event. Back in 1984, those numbers were still high. Apple paid 800 grand to reserve a minute-long chunk.

[00:12:20] Apple's co-founder and lesser known Steve, Steve Wozniak, loved the ad so much, he offered to pay 400 grand out of pocket just to ensure the ad would air. And then, at the end of the third quarter... 10-11 remaining in the first half. Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary

[00:12:43] of the information for evocation of victims. It's hard to know what people thought when they saw it. It was definitely unlike any other ads. One thing that immediately became clear was that this was about more than marketing. The unnamed female heroine symbolized the idea of empowerment.

[00:12:59] She's wielding a sledgehammer, weaving her way through a bleak world on a mission to destroy Big Brother and all he stands for. The ad promised a way to combat conformity and assert originality. You gotta wonder if people at home were thinking,

[00:13:18] who are these people and what are they selling anyway? The sledgehammer, which in the original script was just a bat, proves to be a metaphor for Macintosh. They weren't just hitting it out of the park or swinging for the fences.

[00:13:32] Macintosh was crashing through the restraints of old tech and forging a new path for a new world. One where technology is for the people. It could be in your house. Maybe one day, in the palm of your hands. Close to 78 million people saw the ad that Sunday

[00:13:59] and Apple's reward, within 100 days of the ad airing, Apple sold 72,000 Macintoshes. See, Steve Jobs must have thought, I fucking told you. But the people behind the ad didn't realize it right away. In fact, Steve Jobs claimed at the time

[00:14:19] he didn't know a single person who saw it air. One of the Macintosh's lead engineers, the guy named Bill Atkinson, was into sports fan, so he skipped the big game altogether. He didn't know how the commercial landed until he got into the office Monday morning. Remember, this is 1984.

[00:14:37] People weren't live tweeting their every thought back in 84. It took longer for information to trickle out. Even the ad's writer, Steve Hayden, missed the big debut. He was at home washing dishes. He didn't have much interest in American sports and didn't hear about the ad airing

[00:14:54] until his phone rang minutes after. The person at the other end of the line, Jay Shiet, the founder of the ad agency, Shiet screamed at him over the phone. How does it feel to be a fucking star, Steve? Apple's famous ad was groundbreaking.

[00:15:12] It ended up racking in $45 million of free advertising from TV station coverage. And it wasn't just a one-hit wonder. Its legacy wouldn't fade away like a laser disc or a Lisa computer. It would last. The trade publication Advertising Age deemed the Apple ad

[00:15:30] one of the greatest commercials ever made. Most industry historians agree that 1984 Apple ad remains the crowning jewel of Apple advertising. They've had other campaigns, sure. Good ones even. But nothing compares to the impact felt by the dark and troubling visuals of a dystopia straight out of Orwell's 1984

[00:15:52] of the giant tech companies as Goliath battling the little guys. Over the years, the ad has been parodied and reimagined. In 2004, Apple itself re-released it, but with an added twist, the heroine still wielding a hammer now also carried with her an iPod.

[00:16:11] Clipped to her belt as she ran, the digital music box demonstrated the dominance of Apple and its continued pursuit of advanced technology. In fact, it's kind of ironic. Who's the Goliath now? And now 1984 by Apple, directed by Ridley Scott, written by Steve Hayden and Lee Clough

[00:16:37] of the advertising agency, Shyat Day. Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the information purification of victims. We have created, rather than this tiny old history, a garden of pure ideology where each worker made loom secure from the pests of very complicated routes.

[00:17:03] There is more power for the weapon than any fleet. What are we on Earth? We are one people. With one will, one resolve, with one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail.

[00:17:30] On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh and you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984. That is it for today. If you are enjoying this week's content and you value the regular daily newscasts that we do, please take a moment to rate and review us.

[00:17:53] I don't ask for this often. It really does help and we've put a link at the top of the show notes. Next up, I'll be back with a deep dive behind the scenes look at the incredibly successful ad campaign known as What's Up!

[00:18:07] And how it almost never happened because they forgot to ask for the rights. That's Friday. I'm Todd Maffin. See you then. 10,000 German companies already use Shopify? From innovative startups to family companies with long tradition? The Shopify commercial platform revolutionizes millions of companies worldwide.

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