There’s a terrific piece over at Ad Age by Steve Hayden, an ad exec who used to work over at Chiat/Day, the agency responsible for what is largely considered the most iconic tech ad of all time.
Here’s the money quote for the piece,
One of the many agency heads I’ve worked with over the years said, “When it’s great, there’s no debate.” I can’t imagine a more fatuous, false statement. There was plenty of debate around “1984.” It very nearly didn’t run.
“1984” is one of those things that became brilliant to world at large in retrospect–once it actually aired and, for one minute, the world stopped and stared. Like a number of retrospectively brilliant marketing moves, however, a lot of folks in business suits just didn’t get it early on.
Hayden again,
The spot had a brush with death after Mike Murray and Jobs played the spot for the Apple board of directors in the fall of 1983. When the lights came up, Murray reported that most of the board members were holding their heads in their hands, shaking them ruefully. Finally, the chairman, Mike Markula, said, “Can I get a motion to fire the ad agency?”
Wozniak, however, apparently loved the thing so much he offered to front half of the cost of running it. Jobs also loved it. It was he and John Sculley who had the final say on airing it. Interesting sidenote, however, Jobs didn’t want to run it run it during the Super Bowl. He told Hayden, “I don’t know a single person who watches the Super Bowl.”
That’s our Steve.
Commercial after the jump.
