Apple's '1984' Super Bowl commercial was the 'worst ever tested' but now it's iconic. Here's how it almost never aired

• In 1984, Apple aired what may be the most famous Super Bowl ad of all time. It's the topic of the latest episode of Business Insider's podcast "Household Name."
• Apple's 1984 ad has been called the best TV commercial ever.
• But before it aired, Apple's ad agency commissioned some focus group testing for the spot - and the public hated it.
• So the test results never went to Apple and the ad ultimately aired during the Super Bowl.

Apple's 1984 ad ran 35 years ago, during the 1984 Super Bowl, but it's become an iconic part of American culture ever since. It's been called the best TV commercial ever. 

But the spot almost never ran after a series of tests indicated that people hated the ad. 

The Ridley Scott-directed spot shows an athlete running through a series of emotionless men, eventually hurling a hammer through a screen displaying "Big Brother," the personification of a dystopian state, a reference to George Orwell's novel "1984."

At the end of the ad is the iconic tagline and first mention of Apple's products: "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984.'"

In December 1983, Apple's ad firm, Chiat/Day, ran a series of focus group tests in movie theaters in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. 

"I got the test results. And it turns out this 60-second commercial is the worst business commercial that they've ever tested in their system in a decade, decade and a half," Fred Goldberg, who managed the Apple account for Chiat/Day, told Business Insider. "The norm for a business commercial was, like, 29, and this commercial got a 5 on their major criteria." 

He continued: "So that test went into my file drawer and never went to Apple." 

The ad's writer, Steve Hayden, said that after repeated viewings, some participants said the ad reminded them of concentration camps.

Goldberg never strongly believed in testing research - he called it "mostly nonsense" - and ultimately the ad went on to have a major impact on culture and Apple. He believes that tests are an "artificial" setup for most consumers. 

"I think it's difficult for the average person to evaluate something in that kind of a setting," he explained. 

'He was a guy who just looked at ads - he determined whether he liked it or he didn't like it'

At the time, there was one key person at Apple who needed to love the ad: cofounder Steve Jobs. 

Jobs had already loved the concept when it was presented to him in storyboard form. 

"The first thing was Steve just saying oh s---. This is amazing," then-Apple CEO John Sculley told Business Insider's podcast, Household Name.

But there were still questions about where the spot should air nationally. Apple's board asked Chiat/Day to sell off the Super Bowl slots it had already purchased. 

Jobs liked to make decisions using his intuition. "He'd never seen a strategy before. He was a guy who just looked at ads - he determined whether he liked it or he didn't like it," Goldberg said. "That was how the ad got approved or didn't get approved, if Steve thought it was neat."

So Goldberg ended up writing a four-page memo to convince Bill Campbell, who was then the VP of marketing at Apple and later became known as the "coach" of Silicon Valley for mentoring people like Jobs. 

Turns out, that memo spread much farther than Goldberg expected.

"I wrote this document, I sent it up there, and the document found its way to Scully and to Jobs," Goldberg said. 

35 years later, the document is somewhat prescient in how much impact the 60-second commercial would eventually have. 

"We believe that the 1984 commercial continues to represent a more unique and powerful awareness generating vehicle than any other which Apple will have at its disposal at the time, including PR," the memo read. 

It continued: "Unlike the value of publicity, the commercial represents Apple's own statement of intent for the Macintosh product and is an impactful demonstration of corporate confidence."

And it may have never aired if Goldberg hadn't hidden the bad focus group results from Steve Jobs. 

Business Insider's podcast Household Name has the whole story of the 1984 advertisement. Click here to subscribe to Household Name. Or listen on Spotify. 

Read the entire memo, obtained by Business Insider, below: