Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 524 The Greatest Commercial

It has to be said that the two styles of innovation and sophistication are so conflicting at Apple that even John Sculley, who has always been the most supportive of Jobs, is skeptical.

The creative source of the commercial "1984" is the novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four", the author of which is George Orwell—George Orwell is a famous British writer, journalist and social critic.

Due to his early experience, George Orwell sympathized with the bottom of the society, and his writing always pays attention to the life of the bottom of society.

His two masterpieces "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" were written in 1944 and 1948 respectively. They can be regarded as classic anti-totalitarian political satire novels in the world literary world, and their influence has already surpassed the literary world.

The novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" tells a suffocating and terrifying future totalitarian society in which the pursuit of power is the ultimate goal.Because the work is considered dangerous and inflammatory, it has been banned in many countries.

Thoughtcrime—criminal thought, newspeak—new language, Big Brother—Big Brother, doublethink—double thinking and other words created by George Orwell in it were included in the English dictionary; and derived from his name New words such as "Orwellism" and "Orwellian" have even become common vocabulary in daily life.

It can be seen from this that George Orwell and his works had a huge influence on English-speaking countries.

Undoubtedly, Jobs and the three creative staff of Chiat/Day advertising company found what they wanted from the novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" respectively, and they resonated with each other, and then came up with this unconventional advertisement. An unprecedented $75.

In addition to making a lot of money, Jobs also carefully selected the director of the advertisement, and finally found Ridley Scott——Ridley Scott.

This person became famous ten years later in the original time and space, "Gladiator" - "Gladiator", "Black Hawk Down" - "Black Hawk Project", "American Gangster" - "American Gangster", "Prometheus" - "Prometheus", and "The Martian" - "The Martian", etc., are all his works.

At this stage, although Ridley Scott’s ability to attract money in business is far inferior to Spielberg’s, his performance is quite good. In 1979, he directed the sci-fi horror film "Alien" - "Alien" , with a filming budget of only 1100 million US dollars, but the box office exceeded 1 million US dollars.

As a result, Ridley Scott gained the trust of the producer, and then became the director of "Blade Runner" - "Blade Runner", with a shooting budget of 2800 million US dollars.

It is worth mentioning that in the previous upsurge of Xiangjiang films entering Hollywood, not only Zou Wenhuai was ambitious, but Run Run Shaw also made a move. He was one of the main investors of "Blade Runner".

But the tragedy is that after "Blade Runner" was fully released in 1982 theaters on June 6, 25, the box office in the first week was extremely disappointing, with only 1290 million US dollars, and was directly eliminated by "ET" and other movies. Other science fiction films were crushed to pieces, and the final total box office was only 615 million US dollars.

It can be said that Run Run Shaw and Zou Wenhuai's attempts to Hollywood this time have all failed, and they have suffered a lot. After all, after converting these US dollars into Hong Kong dollars, it may be enough for Xiangjiang to make a movie for a year, otherwise they will lose money. The two who vomited blood would not feel unpredictable to Tang Huan, who was doing well in Hollywood, and then compromised in every possible way.

Although "Blade Runner" failed at the box office and the audience generally didn't buy it, its profound content had a huge impact, and it belongs to another model that was interpreted in various ways in the Internet era in the original time and space, and was praised as a god.

The dystopian color of this film directed by Ridley Scott is similar to the content of the novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four".

Jobs took a fancy to this point of Ridley Scott, and Ridley Scott did not disappoint Jobs.

In order to achieve the best effect, Ridley Scott deliberately found dozens of real bald heads to shoot, and the heroine was played by a female discus thrower.

In the end, the costly commercial "1984" was shot in London.

But it got a lot of bad reviews from Apple's top management, so that most people thought it was the worst commercial they had ever seen.

After Markkula was stunned for a while, the first thing he said was, "Who wants to find another advertising company?"

Seeing this situation, CEO John Sculley became more and more hopeless, and then asked Chiat/Day to sell off the two Super Bowl commercials that had already been bought, which were 60 seconds long and 30 seconds long. Jobs was outraged by this.

At this stage, the relationship between John Sculley and Jobs is very good. He didn't want to cause a gap in the friendship between the two parties, so as a compromise, John Sculley decided that Bill, who was in charge of marketing, would Campbell - Bill Campbell to figure out what to do.

In fact, Chiat/Day did not follow John Sculley's instructions completely. They resisted passively, that is, they only sold the 30-second commercial slot, and the 60-second commercial slot was sold. He didn't look for a buyer at all, and the excuse Li Keluo gave was "can't sell it".

Bill Campbell, who didn't know what was going on, saw that the 60-second commercial was in his hands, so he bit the bullet and decided to give it a go, playing the commercial "1984" on the Super Bowl.

All kinds of peace and mud, and finally let Jobs win in chaos, is simply the biggest feature of Apple at the moment, and Markkula can only do nothing.

……

Tang Huan thought for a while, and finally agreed to Markkula's invitation, just in time to meet Jack Trammell, the founder of Commodore who failed in the company's political struggle.

Putting down the phone, Tang Huan suddenly remembered something again, so he contacted Mikhail Cogan and asked, "I remember, it seems that the Oakland Raiders entered the Super Bowl this year?"

"That's right." Mikhail Cogan laughed triumphantly, "After winning the Vince Lambardy Cup in 1981, the Oakland Raiders hope to win the Super Bowl again this year against the Washington Redskins. Do you want to watch the battle live?"

"Which stadium will it be held in?" Tang Huan asked enthusiastically. Gein, the Oakland Raiders really brought him a lot of surprises. Since it was acquired by him, this is the second time it has appeared in the Super Bowl. It seems that the San Francisco 49ers have become the duo of the San Francisco Bay Area.

"Tampa Stadium, in Tampa on the west coast of Florida——Tampa." Mikhail Cogan added specifically, "It's winter over there, and the climate here is very pleasant."

"I didn't go there on purpose. It's too far away. I have to go halfway around the earth. I'd better watch live TV in San Francisco." Tang Huan declined with a smile.

……

On January 1984, 1, the 22 National Football League Finals - No.1983 Super Bowl was held at Tampa Stadium in Tampa. The two sides were the American League champion Oakland Raiders and the National League champion Washington Redskins. The audience exceeds 18 million people.

Tang Huan invited Jack Trammell to watch the game together.

At the beginning of the third quarter, the dominant Oakland Raiders hit the bottom and scored.

However, there was no instant rebroadcast of the score on television.On the contrary, the screen suddenly went black for two seconds strangely, and then turned into a commercial screen in metallic gray tones. The indifferent industrial environment background rendered by it makes people involuntarily think of the dystopian atmosphere of "Blade Runner" , looks a bit like a scene from a sci-fi movie.

A procession of bald heads marches to creepy music while Big Brother gives a manipulative speech on the big screen.

Meanwhile, a young woman in a plain white vest emblazoned with a Macintosh computer, with a hammer in her hand, is on the run in the Orwellian Thought Police.

While the team was seated, enthralled by Big Brother, the woman ran to the big screen.

As Big Brother declares "We must win!", the heroine's hammer shatters the screen and everything disappears in a burst of light and smoke.

At the end of the ad, the narrator reads calmly: "On January 1, Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh computer. You will understand why 24 will not become 1984."

Obviously, according to Jobs's analogy, the "Big Brother" in the commercial refers to IBM, which rules the computer world, and Apple is similar to the heroine, the rebel who intends to defeat the "Big Brother" world.

Tang Huan laughed, "It is estimated that this advertisement costing 75 US dollars has scared many people."

"As long as it can create a sensational effect, it is a good advertisement." Jack Trammell commented concisely and directly to the core.

This is indeed the case. Apple's unusual advertisement has attracted the attention of the media. Even the Oakland Raiders beat the Washington Redskins with a score of 38:9 and won the third Super League in history. The edge of the bowl champion has also been eclipsed a lot.

That night, all the major TV networks and 50 local TV stations in the United States broadcast news about this ad, which produced a viral marketing effect that only existed in the Internet age.

……

On January 1984, 1, the MAC conference was held at the same time as Apple's annual shareholder meeting in the Flint Auditorium of De Anza Community College, which can accommodate 24 people.

Due to the sensational effect caused by the advertisements on the previous Super Bowl, various media flocked here, together with a group of colleagues invited by Apple’s big hero posts—including Tang Huan, Gates, Mitchell Kapoor, etc. Insiders also came to join in, and immediately packed the Flint Auditorium.

Today Jobs is wearing a blue double-breasted blazer over a crisp white shirt and a light green bow tie.It can be seen that he has put a lot of thought into dressing up.

"This is the biggest moment of my life," Jobs said candidly, backstage waiting for the event to begin. "I'm really nervous. You're probably the only one who knows how I feel about this launch."

John Sculley grabbed Jobs' hand, held it for a moment, and finally whispered "good luck."

With the blessings of good friends, Jobs took the stage first as the chairman of Apple, announcing the official start of the shareholder meeting.

In order to maintain his counterculture persona, the billionaire chairman adopted a unique way of opening the meeting by reading the lyrics of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" by Bob Dylan.

Then, John Sculley took the stage to report on Apple's revenue.

But with his dry speech, the audience grew restless.After all, those who come here are looking forward to the release of MAC, not boring financial data.

In the end, John Sculley concluded with a personal statement, "The most important thing to me in the past time at Apple is the opportunity to develop a friendship with Steve Jobs,"

John Sculley emphasized: "The tacit understanding we have established between us means a lot to me."

Tang Huan, who saw this scene in the audience, couldn't help but secretly sighed. John Sculley and Jobs did get along well now, but I'm afraid this friendship built by personal charm could not stand the test of interests at all.

Soon, Jobs took the stage again and the lights dimmed.

"In 1958, IBM missed an opportunity to acquire a fledgling company. This small company invented a new technology called xerography. Two years later, Xerox was born, and IBM has since regretted it."

Amidst occasional laughter from the audience, Jobs recounted a series of IBM's mistakes, then changed the tone, sped up the tempo, and talked about the current situation.

"IBM has always wanted to own everything. Over the past few decades, it has dominated the computer world. Today, IBM also wants to dominate and control the future and enter the personal computer field."

"It is undeniable that Fangyuan Computer has broken through IBM's monopoly, allowing small and medium-sized enterprises and even some professionals to benefit from the convenience brought by microcomputer technology."

"But it's not enough. MAC will carry out this change more thoroughly, let personal computers enter every family, and enable everyone to discover their potential through technology."

"We will not let IBM control the entire information age! George Orwell's description of 1984 will not come true!"

(End of this chapter)