Here we go!

Another NFL Championship is right around the corner and my beloved Buffalo Bills once again did not make it. But more on that later…

As all of you know, this year’s Big Game between Kansas City and San Francisco will be played in Las Vegas on February 11. All the hype about the game will be constant for the next 2 weeks right up until kick-off. But besides the actual game, the commercials will be a major storyline as well. How crazy is this? Not only can you place a bet on what team will win but you can also throw your money on what the first commercial will be. What a country!

Celebrating 4 Decades

On its 40th anniversary (Wait, what?), I wanted to go back and remember the commercial that changed The Big Game’s advertising forever. Here in the 21^st Century, Apple is now known for the iPhone, iTunes, and everything else in the personal tech industry but back in 1984, it was launching its new Macintosh personal computer which was going to change the world.

I looked up some interesting facts about the commercial that I never knew. (thanks to Business Insider for the assist!)

Check them out below as well as the link to the ad for those who don’t remember it or haven’t seen it yet.

Fun Facts

• It was directed by Ridley Scott who went on to direct Hollywood classics like Gladiator, Alien, Blade Runner and the recently released Napoleon just to name a few.
• The original plan called for the heroine in the ad to hurl a baseball bat — not a sledgehammer — at the Big Brother figure on the screen. However, Scott argued that a sledgehammer was “much more international,” and would be much more effective at breaking a screen in reality.
• Up until this commercial, Apple ads had cost around $50,000 to produce. The 1984 ad cost $500,000 to create. The total cost was $1,000,000 to run it on CBS.
• Apple’s board of directors saw the ad and hated it. But Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak loved the ad, and said it was “better than any science fiction trailer.”
• The only reason the commercial was able to run was because their agency, Chiat/Day was unable to sell back all the ad spots it had bought. Of the three minutes of ad time purchased, Chiat/Day was only able to sell back two, and so Apple was still responsible for filling the last 60-second spot.
• Chiat/Day estimated they received over $45MM of free advertising based on how many times the ad was replayed on local and national news programs after the ad had initially run.
• The estate of George Orwell and the television rightsholder to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four considered the commercial to be a copyright infringement and sent a cease-and-desist letter to Apple and Chiat/Day in April 1984.

Tidbits about the 1984 Big Game:

• Game was played on January 22 in Tampa Stadium in Tampa, FL. The stadium was demolished in 1999.
• Kickoff was at 4:45 pm EST (can we bring this back please?)
• Final score- Los Angeles Raiders 38 Washington Redskins 9
• MVP- Marcus Allen
• Halftime Entertainment- Salute to the Superstars of the Silver screen. At least we had Barry Manilow sing the National Anthem
• #1 song in the USA at the time: Talking in Your Sleep by The Romantics. I saw them that summer with Red Rider and Orion the Hunter. Look it up, it was a thing.
• #1 movie at the time: Terms of Endearment
• A Gallon of gas was only 95 cents