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Why Apple's iconic Super Bowl ad still resonates 4 decades later
Yahoo ^ | February 10, 2024 | Dylan Croll

Posted on 02/11/2024 4:38:02 AM PST by C19fan

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Super Bowl 2024: The big business behind the big gameScroll back up to restore default view. Dylan Croll Dylan Croll·Markets Reporter Sat, February 10, 2024 at 10:10 AM EST·7 min read In this article:

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Once upon a time, believe it or not, no one particularly looked forward to Super Bowl ads.

That all changed when Washington faced Los Angeles on Jan. 22, 1984, in Tampa, Fla. Those who tuned in to the big game on CBS — and hadn’t fled to the kitchen for snacks — may have been intrigued by something completely different.

In between ads for Gillette Foamy Gel and Northwestern Mutual insurance, a dystopian scene appeared on their TV sets: A line of men wearing faded gray apparel marched mindlessly into a theater, where a bespectacled face, “Big Brother,” addressed them on a massive screen.

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Society; Sports; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: 1984; apple; ibm; superbowl
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IBM as Big Brother was the wrong target. It should have been Bill Gates. For me, the best Super Bowl ad evah.
1 posted on 02/11/2024 4:38:02 AM PST by C19fan
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To: All

Ad on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R706isyDrqI


2 posted on 02/11/2024 4:39:00 AM PST by C19fan
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To: All

Digitally restored version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErwS24cBZPc


3 posted on 02/11/2024 4:39:50 AM PST by C19fan
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To: C19fan
Trump is the blonde focused on destroying the Deep State to save America.


4 posted on 02/11/2024 5:00:58 AM PST by newfreep ("There is no race problem...just a problem race")
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To: newfreep
"Trump is the blonde focused on destroying the Deep State to save America."

1st thing I thought of, too.

BTW - who played the part of the girl and where is she now?

5 posted on 02/11/2024 5:27:03 AM PST by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again" - J. Hendrix)
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To: C19fan
> IBM as Big Brother was the wrong target. It should have been Bill Gates.

In 1984 IBM and Gates were essentially the same entity in most people's minds, and IBM was the face of the pair. Although Microsoft had been around since 1975, few people outside the hobbyist and Unix communities knew about Gates. (Yes, until MSDOS/Windows came out, Microsoft was primarily a Unix vendor; see Xenix).

OTOH, everybody knew the "IBM computer" (the Big Iron in the corporate basement) and the "IBM PC" (the latest rage in executive toys).

> For me, the best Super Bowl ad evah.

You, me, and nearly everyone else with a full set of brain cells. :-)

6 posted on 02/11/2024 5:28:01 AM PST by dayglored (Strange Women Lying In Ponds Distributing Swords! Arthur Pendragon in 2024)
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To: C19fan
For me it's...

EDS Cat Herders

Best Super Bowl ad EVAH!

7 posted on 02/11/2024 5:41:31 AM PST by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: C19fan

4 decades later Apple is part of Big Brother woke tech. Like the novel Winston Smith eventually loved Big Brother.


8 posted on 02/11/2024 6:02:14 AM PST by xp38
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To: dayglored

The problem for me is that Apple has evolved over time into the other side of the commercial - doing things like stealing IP from startups and pushing their cultural agenda on the world.


9 posted on 02/11/2024 6:03:21 AM PST by Codeflier (Don't worry....be happy )
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To: C19fan

What is a “superbowl”? Large bowl of serial?


10 posted on 02/11/2024 6:13:19 AM PST by exnavy
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To: exnavy

Cereal. Not serial.


11 posted on 02/11/2024 6:44:45 AM PST by nwrep
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To: C19fan
Doritos Ultrasound
12 posted on 02/11/2024 6:55:28 AM PST by AF_Blue (My decision-making skills closely resemble those of a squirrel when crossing a road)
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To: C19fan

I remember that bouncy ad too. Quite memorable.


13 posted on 02/11/2024 7:15:52 AM PST by Dan in Wichita
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To: C19fan

Ask any young person today what “1984” is referencing to they will not know.


14 posted on 02/11/2024 7:19:41 AM PST by CIB-173RDABN (I am not an expert in anything, and my opinion is just that, an opinion. I may be wrong.)
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To: CIB-173RDABN
Ask any young person today what “1984” is referencing to they will not know.

It's a Molly Ringwald movie, right?

15 posted on 02/11/2024 7:22:19 AM PST by Sirius Lee (Next week on The Bickersons... )
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To: C19fan

It resonates but in all the wrong ways. It birthed the whole “let’s spend a whole bunch of money making an iconic micro-movie that actually doesn’t tell anybody anything about the product, and in fact barely even names it, cause Super Bowl.” It might be the most iconic SB commercial ever, but it’s not actually a good commercial, it does nothing to SELL the product. This all peaked with the .com boom, we got a whole bunch of really cool looking commercials that at the end of which you had no idea what was being advertised or why you should care. And 90% of them didn’t exist when the next SB hit.


16 posted on 02/11/2024 7:22:26 AM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: C19fan

Side note - I grew up in the 1950s before TVs (let alone telephones) were common. Life was simpler and I will say freer. Governments did not have as much control over us simply because the technology was not availble to keep an eye out on everything we did. That is not true today. Thanks to companies like Apple. The very thing their ad says they were fighting they helped create. Irony.


17 posted on 02/11/2024 7:24:29 AM PST by CIB-173RDABN (I am not an expert in anything, and my opinion is just that, an opinion. I may be wrong.)
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To: CIB-173RDABN

yep-thats NOT an IPhone in yur pocket....thats a WePhone...


18 posted on 02/11/2024 7:26:46 AM PST by mo ("If you understand, no explanation is needed; if you don't understand, no explanation is possible)
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To: C19fan

Big Brother Dystopian society

Moreso today than ever could be imagined


19 posted on 02/11/2024 7:40:19 AM PST by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable. Even more so)
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To: C19fan

““On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984.’””

But, 2024 definitely sure feels like “1984”!


20 posted on 02/11/2024 7:56:15 AM PST by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they control you. )
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