1984(Advertisement)

1984 (Apple Advertisement)

This article is about the 1984 Apple advertisement. For the dystopian novel, see here for the year and Apple progress in 1984 AD, see here

The above image is of the most famous parts of the commercial, where Olympian Anya Major runs with an axe up to the screen and destroys it

The 1984 advertisement by Apple was a marketing attempt by Apple to sell the Macintosh 128K their top computer of the year, which later became their most iconic desktop computer, and computer in general until the release of the iPhone 2G in 2007.

The ad shows a big brother lookalike on a giant screen with people watching. Olympian Anya Major runs up with an axe, and throws it at the screen, destroying it, and freeing the people from dystopia.

The ad is based on the concept of Big Brother from the book Nineteen Eighty-Four written by Geogre Orwell. Apple originally condemned the idea internally by most workers, except for Steve Jobs. It was already produced, and upon release, it became their most iconic advertisement, and helped make 3.5 million dollars in sales for the Macintosh 128K.

The ad costs $370,000 to $900,000 to make, and was 1 minute in duration. It was originally released on 1983 December 31st as a local release, and then on 1984 January 22nd as a national broadcast.

Parodies

This is a list of notable parodies from the advertisement, taken directly from Wikipedia 1 entry from the article was not included, as it was too political. 2 entries were added from past viewing experience, the last 2 entries are from Wikipedia.

The Simpsons

Contains spoilers

In an unnamed Simpsons episode, Lisa Simpson has her first "PG-13" daydream, in which the 1984 commercial is parodied again, Lisa being big brother. Bart is later beheaded, and the screen was not destroyed.

_This section comes from personal memory. It is missing references and may be inaccurate"

Futurama

Contains spoilers

In Futurama Season 4 Episode 9 (episode: Future Stock, 53rd episode in total) Planet Express is taken over by a business man. Later in the episode, an ad is made that parodies the 1984 Apple Ad, where a package is thrown at the screen, destroying it. The people who were watching it (MOMS robot company henchmen) said "Hey! We were watching that"

Source: The Infosphere

This section comes from personal memory, backed up with some sources. It needs more sources

Valve

On May 2010, Valve released a short video announcing the release of Half-Life 2 on OS X featuring a recreation of the original commercial, with the people replaced with City 17's citizens, Big Brother with a speech from Wallace Breen and Major's character with Alyx Vance throwing a crowbar at the screen.

Fortnite

On August 13, 2020, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store after Epic Games introduced a direct payment option that circumvented Apple's 30% revenue cut policy, violating terms of service policies. In response, Epic filed a lawsuit against Apple, and created a parody of the "1984" ad called "Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite". In the ad, Big Brother is replaced by a personification of the Apple logo addressing an audience of Fortnite's default outfits, with the character Brite Bomber acting as the heroine.

Criticism

The ad was criticized early on for not being very good, but later became iconic. It still has other criticisms:

The George Orwell family estate considered sending a Cease and Desist letter to Apple Inc. but decided not to (does anyone have a source on the reason?)

The ad was criticized for being purely about marketing, and not actually freeing people from a dystopia. When Apple became bigger and more abusive, this ad was questioned again.