And Who Almost Got Fired for Doing It (Part 2)
Feb 08, 2010
So you know Apple made the Super Bowl ‘super’ with its ‘1984’ Macintosh commercial. But I bet you didn’t know that Chiat/Day – the agency behind the commercial – almost got FIRED for it!
Apple’s Steve Jobs and John Sculley were so psyched about the spot that they purchased 90-seconds of Super Bowl ad time in advance. When Apple’s board of directors finally previewed the spot, they hated it! Jobs, Sculley and Steve Wozniak continued to support the ad, although Chiat/Day did manage to resell 30 of the originally purchased 90-seconds of airtime.
The final ad only aired once on daytime television: January 22, 1984 – Super Bowl Sunday. The commercial – which was a tribute to George Orwell’s novel, “Nineteen Eighty-Four” – caused such a commotion that countless networks re-ran it afterwards. That’s publicity you can’t buy!! Today, the ad is widely held as one of the best Super Bowl commercials ever and one of the most influential commercials of all time. Ad Age even named it the Commercial of the Decade for the 1980’s.
Chiat/Day produced and ran a breakthrough commercial. And they almost got fired for it. They almost got fired for making history. Wow. I say, ‘Way to go!’ It takes guts to stick to your guns like that. If you’re gonna get fired, you might as well get fired doing it your way!!
LINK:
You Sleep When You Die – Who Made the Super Bowl Super (Part 1)
YouTube – Apple’s Macintosh Commercial
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