Today in Digital Marketing - SPECIAL: "1984" by Apple

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

The untold story of what many believe is the best television ad of all time. Rate and Review Us • Contact Us 📰 Get our free daily newsletter📈 Advertising: Reach Thousands of Marketing Decision-Makers🌍 Follow us on social media or contact usGO PREMIUM!Get these exclusive benefits when you upgrade:✅ Listen ad-free✅ Back catalog of 20+ marketing science interviews✅ Get the show earlier than the free version✅ “Skip to story” audio chapters✅ Member-only monthly livestreams with TodAnd a lot more! Check it out: todayindigital.com/premium✨ Premium tools: Update Credit Card • CancelMORE🆘 Need help with your social media? Check us out: engageQ digital📞 Need marketing advice? Leave us a voicemail and we’ll get an expert to help you free!🤝 Our SlackUPGRADE YOUR SKILLSGoogle Ads for Beginners with Jyll Saskin GalesInside Google Ads: Advanced with Jyll Saskin GalesFoxwell Slack Group and CoursesToday in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin and produced by engageQ digital on the traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada.Some links in these show notes may provide affiliate revenue to us.Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is Wednesday, July 10th. I'm Todd 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. 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 Behind the Ad with Todd 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. It was 1983, London.

She'd been a competitive discus thrower 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? The ad agency, Shia Day, was having a hard time casting for its client's ad. They needed someone who could run up to a mark, spin around with a giant sledgehammer, and throw it forward.

Easy peasy, right? 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. Earlier that month in California, Apple's 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, 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. 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. The board was so nervous that one board member, a guy named Mike Markula, 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. What does a personal computer have to do with a 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. Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the information purification of the victims. The ad, if you remember it, shows hundreds of bald men 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. 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 were about 300 or four hundred youths. And I was surprised, you know,

how elderly some of them were. 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. The lead actress said later she had to endure sexist remarks made at her 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. 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. 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. Orwell said he used the former premier of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, as inspiration for the personality cult of Big Brother, whose thought police forced citizens to engage in doublethink or accept contrary opinions at the same time in order for them to believe that war is peace, 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. 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, 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. 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 $10,000. It was marketed to businesses. Came with the LisaWrite word processor, LisaCalc, and a bunch of other software. Jobs also announced the Apple III Plus, the Profile hard drive,

and the Apple IIe computer. Then, after a pause, he seemed to start going off script. It is 1958. IBM 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, DEC, and others, invent the minicomputer.

IBM dismisses the minicomputer 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. 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? The theater lights abruptly turn off, and the ad plays. Needless to say, it was a hit. On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984. The ovation lasted forever. It was the first time an audience had seen it. Well, almost.

It turns out, Jobs had focus grouped the ad 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. In fear of how the board and Apple would react to this news, both Jobs and his ad agency decided, we're not going to show them the focus group results. They did, though, show them the final cut of the ad. The board was still less than impressed.

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, Chiat Day, 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 a commercial. It's the season for new styles and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy.

And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at Rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A. The buildup is over. It's January 22nd, 1984. Gary Carman. Super Bowl Sunday.

And Gary Carman tried to stay in... It's a day for Americans to gather around their TV, stuff their faces with chicken wings and pizza, and watch two teams duke it out for a chance to win a ring and a trip to Disney World. But in between all the tackles and field goals,

another sort of entertainment takes the country by storm. A commercial extravaganza. Panasonic presents Omnimovie, a camera and video recorder. When you buy a ham, you never quite know what you're getting. Some have water added, some are flavored with artificial smoke. So you taste the hot, you taste the cool, are the pinnacle of advertisement. Nowadays, the ads that pop up in between plays 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. Apple's co-founder and lesser-known Steve, Steve Wozniak, loved the ad so much, he offered to pay $400,000 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 of the information glorification of the victims. It's hard to know what people thought when they saw it.

It was definitely unlike any other ad. One thing that immediately became clear, this was about more than marketing. The unnamed female heroine symbolized the idea of empowerment. 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. We shall prevail. You gotta wonder if people at home were thinking,

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. 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.

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 he didn't know a single person who saw it air.

One of the Macintosh's lead engineers, a guy named Bill Atkinson, wasn't a 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. 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 until his phone rang minutes after. The person at the other end of the line, Jay Shiat, the founder of the ad agency, Shiat screamed at him over the phone. How does it feel to be a fucking star, Steve? Apple's famous ad was groundbreaking. screamed at him over the phone. How does it feel to be a fucking star, Steve? Apple's famous ad was groundbreaking. 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 LaserDisc or... at least a computer. It would last. The trade publication Advertising Age deemed the Apple ad one of the greatest commercials ever made. Most industry historians agree the 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, 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. 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 Clow of the advertising agency, Chiat Day. Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the information purification objectives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology, where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests of their contradictory rules. Our unification of the rules is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause.

Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail. On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984. That is it for today. And while I have you, 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. You know, 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? And how it almost never happened because they forgot to ask for the rights. That's Friday. I'm Todd Maffin. See you then. It's the season for new styles and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten.

And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A.