1984 Commercial Essay

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On January 22, 1984, during the third commercial break of Super Bowl XVIII, the United States company Apple would unveil the launch of their new home personal computer, the Macintosh. The commercial would feature of female heroine wielding a sledgehammer, destroying a T.V. image of “Big Brother” - a metaphor for the technology giant IBM. Obviously, the commercial is meant to antagonize IBM, Apple’s most prominent rival. The commercial ends with, “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984”, with Apple’s rainbow apple logo on a black background. When analyzing the explicit aspects of this ad, the ad starts out with a line of middle-aged men marching in line down a long hallway filled with monitors displaying a universal image. The man wear the same clothing and have the same hairstyles. They’re all roughly around the same height, too, with some bearing glasses. The scene cuts cover to a woman wearing red running sports and white tanktop. She’s wielding a sledgehammer and is running from a small group of security guards that are in pursuit after her. The next scene shows a large convention room in which a large projector screen is displaying a man’s face with glasses, speaking mostly inaudible words towards a significantly large audience of the same…show more content…
Apple sold 72,000 computers in 100 days, 50 percent more than even its most optimistic sales productions. The commercial has earned over seven awards since its first airing, including: Advertising Age’s Greatest Commercial in 1995, WFA Hall of Fame Award (Jubilee Golden Award) in 2003, and Best Super Bowl Spot in 2007 (A Look Back at Apple's Super Ad). It’s clear that the release of this commercial had a profound effect on its audience and on Apple, exalting it to the status of a major technology

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