1984 Commercial Essay

Commercials can represent corporate images and product appeals. There is no doubt that a high-quality product is essential, but we had better not neglect that an outstanding advertisement can make the brand image and the plot easily etched in people’s minds. On January 22th in 1984, Apple Inc. aired an astonishing commercial only once, during the Super Bowl XVIII transmitted live by CBS, yet a heated discussion followed. Not only were three main networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC talking about this commercial, but over fifty channels, news, and magazines were all actively participating in discussion at that time. 1984 the commercial won the Greatest Commercial award from Advertising Age, Clio Awards, and 30 other awards. Also, it was viewed by more than 96 million people at that time. Even today, it is widely regarded as one of the greatest commercials in history, and an important watershed moment in advertising. The background of the ad is inspired by the novel 1984, written by George Orwell, where the society was enveloped in totalitarianism, and was composed of three super-states: Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania. The commercial uses the background to implicitly indicate that IBM, as the “Big Brother ” in the novel, is dominating the PC industry. Moreover, it implies that IBM is trying to monopolize the PC market by unifying people’s thoughts. …show more content…
It sharply implies the conformity of the crowd as real customers, and their astonishing expressions as real viewer’s dramatic feeling to the commercial. In the end, the only statement in the plot, “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like “1984”,” not only states Apple’s originality and non-conformity, but has a great impact on view’s emotions. No one would like to be thought of as spiritless workers, and no one would like to be mindless followers; for these reasons, they will buy