Gallery: Tech Time Warp of the Week: 30 Years of Apple Ads, 1984 to the Present
01Apple's Epic “1984” Commercial
Alligators. Albert Einstein. Big Brother. Big Blue Meanies. John Lennon. A Mac that looks like a person. A PC that looks like a dork. Wrestlers. Robots. And, yes, [Gisele Bundchen](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKIEr_iDOAU). These are just a few of the players in the 30-year odyssey that is the Apple TV commercial. From that iconic "1984" ad to those "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads of the early aughts, Apple commercials have run the gamut from wonderfully clever to down-right silly. But they all revolve around one, common theme: Apple kicks ass, and everyone else is just selling junk. In these ads, Apple represents youth, innovation, and, yes, extreme coolness. And its inherent hipness is typically pitted against the old, the uncool, the pathetic, and the downright evil. First, the enemy was IBM, but as Big Blue lost its mojo in the world of desktop computing, Apple shifted its attention to that evil empire in the Pacific Northwest: Microsoft. In a way, these ads chart the changing landscape in the tech world over last thirty years -- though we certainly see everything through Apple-colored glasses. Here, we highlight some of our favorite Apple ads (see above). Yes, we start with "1984," but we also take you on a tour of less familiar ads, including another from that same glorious year. Yes, we give you "Think Different," but there's also the one with the alligators. If we missed any of your favorites, do let us know. "1984" ------ Androgynous, drone-like humans march in unison as a Big Brother-like figure tells them it’s time to "celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives." Whatever that is, it can't be good. But then a woman with orange short shorts and an even shorter haircut appears out of nowhere, running headlong into this dystopian universe, a look of determination etched on her face and a hammer clutched in her hands. Her white tank top bears the image of some boxy computer with an apple placed strategically to one side. And yes, she chucks that hammer at Big Brother. This is Apple's "1984" ad, which aired during the Super Bowl that same year. Yes, it plays off George Orwell's *1984*. Big Brother is IBM, and the woman with the orange shorts is, you guess it, the Apple Macintosh. She is a beacon of freedom, creativity, and innovation. She is the antithesis of the mind-numbing monochromatic stuff that inhabits IBM's dystopia. She is a GUI interface. In the 1980s, you see, IBM was still the most powerful computer company on the planet, and Steve Jobs didn't like that. "IBM wants it all and it's aiming its guns on its last obstacle to industry control: Apple," Jobs said just a year earlier [at the General Meeting of the Boston Computer Society](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf-xovJYOes). "Will Big Blue dominate the entire computer industry, the entire information age? Was George Orwell right?" It was no surprise, then, that the woman in the orange shorts hurled her hammer at Big Brother, just as he was boasting that his mighty empire would prevail forever. The impact sets off some kind of nuclear blast, leaving Big Brother's brainwashed minions frozen in their colorless jumpsuits. "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984’," the ad tells us. That's a hard act to follow. But there was more to come -- much, much more.
02Steve Jobs and the BlueBusters Blast IBM, 1984
BlueBusters ----------- In 1984, Apple also put together what can only be described as a less polished attack on its Big Blue rival. But it's still a masterpiece. This was an internal Apple video meant to rally its sales staff -- not a full-blown TV ad -- and rather than playing off Orwell, it drew from another pillar of Western culture: *Ghostbusters*. In "BlueBusters," an IBM PC owner is menaced by what *WIRED*'s Robert McMillan so eloquently describes as a "[a green-slime-oozing, Borg-like](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/05/apple-blue-busters-ad/)" force that emerges from his machine, and a computer store owner is bullied by a team of be-suited, blue-faced, peanut-toting salesmen. The peanut joke makes only marginal sense, but the overall message of the film is clear: Don’t panic in the face of IBM, otherwise known as Big Blue. When IBM is "stinking up your desk" and "the big machine wants to take control," you can call the BlueBusters, otherwise known as Apple. "I ain't afraid of Big Blue," the song says, and in an homage to Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, the Mac-toting BlueBusters use their proton packs to corral that IBM PC and dump it into a trashcan (a digital trashcan of the Mac variety, naturally). Then they take back that computer store from those masked IBMers. And then they follow the masked men back to some sort of IBM shrine and destroy everything in sight. You even get a cameo from Woz. And another from Steve Jobs himself. Come to think of it, "1984" ain't got nothin' on this.
031986
The Alligators -------------- An alligator swims through murky waters. Vines dangle from above. And then, off in the distance, you see a typewriter sitting on a desk. This isn't the Everglades. It's an office with a flooding problem -- not to mention some serious animal infestation. But these are problems easily solved. All you need is an Apple Macintosh. In this 1986 ad, the Mac doesn't just operate in an office filled with water. It doesn't just frighten away the alligators. It helps you "assess the number of alligators, analyze the market prices for skins, create a new range of handbags, shoes, and wallets, print out plans for draining the swamp and have the whole project finished in time to do some really long-range thinking."
04The Power Macintosh Is Out of This World, 1994
The Mac that Runs Windows ------------------------- As it begins, it feels kinda like a Woody Allen movie. You hear something akin to '40s radio music. And a disembodied narrator begins to pontificate. But then comes the punch line. "There are over a billion stars. A billion stars, drifting through the infinite vastness of space," the voice says. "But there's only one computer that can run Windows, DOS, and Macintosh software." That would the Power Macintosh. "The future," the narrator says, "is better than you expected." And best of all, it includes DOS! The year is 1994, and this is just one of many Power Mac ads unloaded by the then Jobs-less Apple. [All the ads](https://www.google.com/search?q=Apple+Power+Mac+ad+-+The+Future&oq=Apple+Power+Mac+ad+-+The+Future&aqs=chrome..69i57.324j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8#es_sm=119&espv=210&q=Apple+Power+Mac+ad+-+The+Future&tbm=vid) include much the same radio music and the dulcet tones of that Daniel-Stern-like narrator. Most began with the words "the future," and they revolve around stuff like robots, rocketeers, space capsules, space stations, and aliens from other planets. Or so we thought. The aliens turned out to be New York accountants who just wanted "to borrow your Mac to run Windows." But you get the idea. This machine was out of this world. According to Apple.
05“Here’s to the Crazy Ones”: The Think Different Campaign, 1997-2002
Think Different --------------- Albert Einstein. Martin Luther King Jr. Pablo Picasso. They never used a Mac. They weren’t even alive when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple in 1976. But they all became Apple pitch-men in this 1997 ad. For Steve Jobs, these icons represented the same stuff that Apple did: innovation, revolution, genius. "They were the crazy ones, the rebels, the trouble makers, the ones who see things differently," says Richard Dreyfuss, a long-time Apple fan and the narrator of the ad. The ad doesn't include a single Apple product. There’s not even a mention of the company until the very end when the long list of iconic thinkers, artists, and personalities -- plus Jerry Seinfeld -- gives way to the Apple logo and two words: Think Different. The point wasn’t really to sell computers. It was to sell Apple itself. In 1997, the company was hemorrhaging money and nearing bankruptcy, and Jobs had returned to revive it. His first order of business was to convince consumers, industry naysayers, and Apple’s very own employees that the company wasn’t dead. And what better way than this beautifully produced ad that equated the struggling company with Bob Dylan and Maria Callas, John Lennon and Gandhi, Muhammad Ali and Jim Henson. It didn’t hurt that these were also personalities with whom Jobs identified. He saw himself, and Apple by extension, as a product of the counterculture, the antithesis of outfits like Microsoft, Dell and, of course, IBM. There was another version of the ad with Jobs narrating -- which you can see below -- but Jobs went with the Dreyfuss version so people wouldn’t think the campaign was about him. As if it wasn't. [#iframe: //www.youtube.com/embed/Rzu6zeLSWq8](660x495)||||||
06ipod
The iPod -------- A dude with glasses is sitting behind his Apple laptop when music starts to play. So he takes off his glasses and tries to give himself whiplash. That's what people did in 2001 when they organized songs for their iPod, Apple's brand new digital music player. Then they would stand up, unplug their iPod, put on their headphones, give themselves more whiplash, slide across the floor, dance a little, put on a jacket, dance some more, moonwalk, and do the running man. After all, the iPod was an amazing thing. It could "put 1,000 songs in your pocket." 1,000!
07surgery
I'm a Mac, I'm a PC ------------------- Poor PC is scared. It’s time to upgrade to Windows Vista, Microsoft’s latest operating system, and that's "major surgery." He needs a new graphics card and new memory and a faster processor. Mac tries to console him. But this is pretty serious stuff. He may not survive the procedure. And that means he could die wearing a hospital gown and black socks. Before departing for the operating room, he turns to his Apple buddy and grabs him by the shoulder. "Listen, Mac, if I don’t come back, I want you to have my peripherals.” As PC walks off, Mac turns to the camera and says, with his typical non-chalance: "Speaking of peripherals..." At which point a glimmering white Mac appears, with not a single peripheral in sight. It doesn't need any, you see. It's a Mac. And it's better than a PC. The ad would be funny if it wasn't so sad. We remember the days of Vista all too well. And it was an absolute nightmare. In the end, the best thing you can say about these Apple ads is that they were absolutely true.
