Four decades ago, the Super Bowl became the Super Bowl.
This isn’t due to anything that happened in the game itself: On January 22, 1984, the Los Angeles Raiders defeated Washington 38-9 in Super Bowl XVIII, a contest that largely finished before halftime. But when it aired on CBS, a 60-second ad loosely based on a famous George Orwell novel shook up the advertising and technology industries without ever showing the product it was promoting. Designed by the Chiat/Day advertising agency and directed by Ridley Scott, then fresh off the sci-fi noir film “Blade Runner,” the Apple “1984” ad, intended to introduce the new Macintosh computer, would become the one of the most acclaimed commercials ever made. It also helped launch – pun partly intended – the tradition of the big game Super Bowl serving as the annual showcase for golden ads from Fortune 500 companies. It all started with the desire of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs , to lead the battle against the company’s rivals on a splashy TV show he knew nothing about.
In recent interviews, several of the people involved in the creation of the “1984” spot: Scott; John Sculley, then CEO of Apple; Steve Hayden, author of the Chiat/Day ad; Fred Goldberg, Apple account manager for Chiat/Day; and Anya Rajah, the actor who threw the hammer, looked at how the ad was conceived, its inspiration and the internal objections that almost stopped it from airing. These are edited excerpts from the conversations.
JEAN SCULLEY On October 19, 1983, we’re all sitting in Steve’s (Jobs) building, the Mac building, and the cover of Businessweek says, «The winner is…IBM.» We were pretty deflated because it was the introduction of the IBM PCjr, and we hadn’t even introduced the Macintosh yet.
STEVE HAYDEN Jobs said: “I want something that will stop the world in its tracks. Our media director, Hank Antosz, said, «Well, there’s only one place that can do that: the Super Bowl.» » And Steve Jobs asked, «What is the Super Bowl?» » (Antosz) said: «Well, it’s a huge football match that attracts one of the biggest crowds of the year.» And (Jobs) said, “I’ve never seen a Super Bowl. I don’t think I know anyone who has seen a Super Bowl.
FRED GOLDBERG The original idea was actually done in 1982. We pitched an ad (with) a title, which was «Why 1984 Won’t Look Like ‘1984,’» to Steve Jobs, and he didn’t think the Apple III was worthy of this statement.
SCULLEY They said: “A lot of people might want to do something with George Orwell’s “1984.” «If we can take advantage of the fact that we’re launching the Macintosh in January, maybe it could be so spectacular in our advertising that no one else will even think about trying to copy us.
HAYDEN We started to imagine, well, what would 1984 look like, based on Orwell’s writings? And we thought it wouldn’t be that different from the world we lived in at the time. Russia had invaded Afghanistan. It was impossible for the Russian people to get accurate information from their own information services about what was happening.
GOLDBERG It was Lee Clow, who was then creative director of Chiat/Day, who oversaw the creation of the advertising resulting from this print concept.
HAYDEN Given the good nature of the average person, wouldn’t this be a great tool to rebel against government excesses, especially in parts of the world where information is suppressed, manipulated, or so tightly controlled that Is she useless to people?
RIDLEY SCOTT I said, “A computer for what reason?” Write the shopping list? What’s with pencil and paper? They laugh. How wrong I was. Then I should have bought shares.
HAYDEN At the time, Ridley was dealing with a lot of these questions about the meaning of the future and how technologies could be twisted for good or evil, because he was working on «Blade Runner.»
SCOTT I was amazed that the agency was so courageous to take a piece of intellectual literature to sell a box that they had never talked about, never shown a photo of, never said what it was for.
HAYDEN We originally envisioned this as a comical situation where drone-like people were being pestered by a loudspeaker, telling them where to go, what to do, what room the meeting was in, etc. (Scott) released a wonderful book of the movie «Metropolis,» so his inspiration, combined with our original storyboard of people being controlled by forces beyond their understanding, really helped us refocus the idea on technology as a as a tool of freedom.
SCOTT I needed a man who was a far-right dictator. I want him to be on screen giving his speech while an objector makes his way through the corridors of power, chased by the police.
ANYA RAJAH All we knew was that they wanted us to throw the record. I was a javelin and discus thrower at school, so I continued. I was pretty good and obviously looked the part.
SCOTT In my career, I tend to have very strong and powerful women. I was looking for an athlete rather than a model.
RAJAH Ridley gave me a picture of the hairstyle and color he wanted for me and sent me to Vidal Sassoon in London to have it cut and colored. Even though I already had short blonde hair, he wanted it shorter and almost blonde. He was right: it was perfect for the role!
SCOTT Some thought it was a million dollar project. This was not the case. I was very thrifty. I tend to stick to my budget.
HAYDEN He found an abandoned Vulcan bomber and had parts of it mounted on the walls and all around.
GOLDBERG (The budget) was four ads for $650,000. I think this ad cost $350,000, maybe $400,000.
SCOTT I couldn’t afford to hire the actors I wanted, so I employed a whole bunch of National Front activists, far-right people who all had shaved heads and who, in general, didn’t had no job. I had 200 Front National in the studio. I think they were grateful for their work and had breakfast, lunch and dinner, and they got paid a little.
GOLDBERG We paid them a total of $10,000 to stand there for three days with smoke blown in their faces. They were really getting out of control at the end. The studio and the production house called in security. They had German shepherds to control these guys because they were throwing rocks at each other.
RAJAH I needed a bodyguard because they were all real skinheads.
SCOTT I photographed (the dictator) the day before on 16 millimeters, I had it developed overnight, and then we projected it big on the screen, so it photographed badly, in a good way. I wanted it to look very deteriorated.
HAYDEN The dictator’s speech did not exist in the original script of the advertisement. Ridley Scott called me and said, «It would be very helpful if you could write a 30- or 60-second copy.» »I went out with my brother, who was teaching in China as a law professor. Between the two of us we found little snippets of quotes from Mussolini, Mao, the People’s Daily, Goebbels and Hitler himself.
SCOTT Trying to explain to everyone what I was doing was quite difficult, so I said, «Just do what you’re told.» There will be a moment where this athlete throws a hammer at the screen. The screen will explode. I want you all to say “ahhhh”. And they did.
RAJAH Throwing a real hammer wasn’t wise, so they ended up making one out of papier-mâché, which I had to work with. It doesn’t look like paper mache, so it worked well.
GOLDBERG It was a wonderful film. Everyone at the agency loved it.
HAYDEN Steve Jobs was excited but scared. Steve Wozniak offered to pay to direct the commercial himself.
SCULLEY Before the ad aired, we had to present it to the board of directors. The board sees the ad, then there is dead silence in the boardroom. They turn around and look at me, and (a board member) says, «You’re not really going to run this thing, are you?»
HAYDEN As the credits rolled, the president, Mike Markkula, put his head in his hands and sort of leaned over the conference table, then slowly stood up and (offered to hire another advertising company).
SCOTT I did it. I thought it was pretty good. But I thought, “Really? Are they going to air this during the Super Bowl? And we don’t know what it’s for?
GOLDBERG I gave them a drama test. We get the results, and it’s the worst commercial ad they’ve ever tested, in terms of persuasiveness.
SCULLEY The board said, “We don’t think you should run it.” Try to sell the time.
GOLDBERG And it was Jay Chiat who basically told us to drag our feet when we were told to sell off time on the Super Bowl.
HAYDEN Eventually, it turned out that we would air the “1984” commercial once.
GOLDBERG Every news program contained clips from it. The ad continued to run for days after that.
SCULLEY It worked for free, over and over again.
GOLDBERG The value of derivative advertising is what many advertisers consider to be the greatest benefit.
SCOTT I think the Super Bowl frenzy started there. Then it was about $1 million a minute. Today, it costs about $7 million per minute. (The average cost of a Super Bowl ad this year is actually double that: $7 million for a 30-second spot.)
SCULLEY When you’re doing something that’s never been done before and has a chance to change people’s lives in terms of how they work, play, and communicate, doing something that seems weird is a really good idea – if you are doing it correctly.
HAYDEN The tools that were originally intended to help free you are now being used as a way to enslave you with conspiracy theories, unproven stories, and unsourced information that isn’t really information. We carry out Goebbels’ idea, making people so confused that they don’t know what to believe other than an authority figure. In this sense, we have failed.