In a dystopian industrial setting, men with shaved heads listen, alienated, to the authoritarian voice of Big Brother.
An athlete comes running and throws a hammer at the character from George Orwell's novel, who is speaking on a giant screen.
A text then appears: "
On January 24, Apple Computer will present the Macintosh and you will understand why 1984 will not be like 1984.
" This one-minute short film, far from classic advertisements, announces the launch of the
Macintosh
, the first computer for personal use of the Apple brand.
We are in 1984 and the company that employs Steve Jobs wants to deconstruct the image of the computer, then reserved for professionals and businesses.
At the time, this digital object was in fact perceived as “
a technocratic and extremely centralized tool
”, contextualizes Félix Tréguer, sociologist and researcher at the CNRS specializing in digital technology, in the podcast “
A History of… the Internet
”, on France Culture.
Apple thus wants to democratize the computer by introducing it into homes.
To do this, what could be better than an advertisement that will leave its mark on people's minds... and digital history?
In order to meet this challenge, the advertising agency Chiat\Day, commissioned by Apple, hired director Ridley Scott, then known for his films
Alien
and
Blade Runner
, and allocated him a budget of $900,000.
The result is to say the least... unexpected.
Steve Jobs would later describe this commercial as “
radical
” and “
innovative
”.
Symbol of “emancipation”
And for good reason, it features real British skinned people who mechanically walk in single file towards a cinema.
The images are dark and gray predominates.
A colorful athlete then comes running.
She is dressed in fiery red shorts and a white tank top on which a Picasso-style Macintosh logo is drawn.
In her hands she holds a large hammer.
In the background, Big Brother's voice resonates.
His face appears on a giant screen and the alienated men drink in his words in silence.
Pursued by guards, the young woman played by Anya Major, model and discus thrower, finishes her race in front of the screen.
She twirls the hammer and throws it at the screen, screaming.
An explosion of white light erupts and spreads over the men sitting there, mouths agape.
It is the arrival of the Macintosh that frees them from the oppression of Big Brother.
For Julien Le Bot, journalist and researcher who has worked for years on the history and questions surrounding digital technology, this reference is well constructed.
“
The world of Big Brother represents the old vision of digital, the computer as a tool of dystopia.
The athlete running in the ad breaks this thought with his hammer.
It thus opens the way to Macintoshes, which want to be the symbol of emancipation, individual performance and self-expression
,” explains the researcher.
"Technological revolution"
The “ 1984
” advertisement
thus aims to oppose the model of science fiction films.
“
We see this clearly in the visual universe of the ad which contrasts the liberticidal grayness of the regime with an athlete carrying promises and freedom
,” analyzes Julien Le Bot.
To understand clearly, the specialist recalls that this type of film has a big place in Silicon Valley.
“
All engineers feed on science fiction films
,” says the researcher.
Ridley Scott was also chosen as director for his films of the same genre -
Alien
and
Blade Runner
.
But a revolution took place during the 1980s in the San Francisco Bay.
“
With the appearance of the personal computer, a technological revolution emerges: engineers oppose the dystopian and liberticidal scenarios proposed by science fiction.
They say “No, we are aware of the risks of the future and we want to build a brighter future
,” he says.
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This reversal of the imagination around the computer can also be explained by the period.
“
At the end of the Second World War and until the 1970s, society was afraid of digital technology because it was associated with atomic weapons.
Civilization is afraid of it.
Apple engineers therefore deconstructed this image to make it a democratic tool
,” illustrates Julien Le Bot.
Continuity sign
It is also this same story, “
almost naive, (...) that the technology giants want to sell us today: a purely beneficial and optimistic technology.
With browsers that offer access to knowledge, social networks or artificial intelligence
,” observes the researcher.
The computer puts itself at the service of humans, far from the image of men alienated by machines, represented in advertising.
This image would also be an attack on IBM, Apple's main competitor.
To stand out, Steve Jobs wanted to create a computer that was simpler and cheaper than IBM.
Although this advertisement is rich in references, it was not initially unanimous among Apple's board of directors.
“
Who wants to look for another (advertising) agency?
», would have launched Mike Markkula, co-founder of Apple Computer.
The spot ultimately aired during the first Super Bowl commercial break on January 22, 1984. It was estimated that more than 90 million viewers saw the spot.
And the result is a success: Apple's telephone switchboards were stormed to find out what this Macintosh is.
The short film has also won several awards.
He notably won the Grand Prize at the 31st Cannes International Advertising Festival in 1984.
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This event has more broadly marked the history of digital marketing.
Although "
1984
" was never broadcast after the Super Bowl, its notable appearance on television is now known as "
event marketing
," says Ted Friedman, a former technology market analyst and IT practitioner. , in his book
Electric Dreams
.
This term refers to “
high-visibility advertising that garners mountains of additional free advertising
.”
This advertising ultimately achieved the most important thing for Apple: “
It brought consumers into stores,”
writes Ted Friedman
.
Apple's sales in the first 100 days after the Macintosh's release exceeded their already high expectations and launched the Mac as a product and icon.
»