11 things you probably didn't know about Apple's famous '1984' Super Bowl ad that almost didn't air
In 1984, Apple was developing the Macintosh personal computer, one of the first of its kind. The team at Apple working on the project was forced to move to a new building at the company's headquarters. The team christened the building by hanging a pirate flag from the roof in honor of one of Steve Jobs' sayings: "It's better to be a pirate than join the navy."
Apple decided to produce a commercial for the Macintosh personal computer ahead of its launch, and turned to its go-to ad agency, Chiat/Day. Before creating Apple's 1984 ad, Chiat/Day had produced earlier low-budget commercials for the company. That includes this commercial from a few years earlier, which features former talk show host Dick Cavett.
Source: Household Name
The director of the 1984 commercial was Ridley Scott, who has a history of directing dystopian-like movies, such as "Blade Runner," "Gladiator," and "Alien."
Source: IMDb
The original plan called for the heroine in the ad to hurl a baseball bat — not a sledgehammer — at the Big Brother figure on the screen. However, Scott argued that a sledgehammer was "much more international," and would be much more effective at breaking a screen in reality.
Source: Household Name
Business Insider was given access to an original storyboard for the ad, which shows what the original design and plan for the commercial looked like before it was filmed.
Source: Business Insider
When casting for the ad's protagonist, the producers ran into a major problem: The women they brought in to audition were unable to swing the sledgehammer above their heads and chuck it at the screen as intended. The woman they ultimately cast was Anya Major, a British discus thrower.
Source: Household Name
Most of the estimated 150 bald men in the ad, used to represent conformist society, were actual skinheads. Producers said they cast skinheads since they were less expensive to have in the commercial than profession actors. But the skinheads caused problems on set and made sexist remarks toward Major, the sledgehammer-wielding heroine.
Source: Household Name
Up until this commercial, Apple ads had cost around $50,000 to produce. The 1984 ad cost $500,000 to create.
Source: Household Name
When Apple cofounder Steve Jobs first saw the ad, his reaction was, "Oh s--t. This is amazing," former Apple CEO John Sculley told Business Insider.
Source: Household Name
Meanwhile, when Apple's board of directors saw the ad, they hated it. But Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak loved the ad, and told Household Name it was "better than any science fiction trailer." When he found out the board voted the commercial down, he offered to pay $400,000 out of pocket — half of what it would cost to air the ad during the Super Bowl.
Source: Business Insider
Money was not the issue, however. But the only reason the commercial was able to run was because Chiat/Day was unable to sell back all of the Super Bowl ad spots it had bought. Of the three minutes of ad time purchased, Chiat/Day was only able to sell back two, and so Apple was still responsible for filling the last 60-second spot.
Not many people know this, but the Super Bowl was actually not the first time the 1984 Apple commercial ran on TV. It ran a few times on local television stations before the big game, but those spots didn't garner much attention.
The ad almost never ran after the ad agency showed it to focus groups before airing it. People hated the ad, and some said it reminded them of concentration camps. The ad agency decided to hide the results of the focus group instead of showing them to Apple.
Source: Business Insider
The ad was seen as a highlight of the 1984 Super Bowl, and got plenty of media attention. Chiat/Day estimates that Apple made about $45 million of free advertising from TV stations' coverage and playing of the ad.
Source: Household Name
You can watch the full ad below, and check out the "Household Name" episode wherever you get your podcasts to hear the full story.
To listen to the full "Apple 1984" episode, subscribe to Household Name on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify.
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