Sunday, January 22, 1984. 96 Million people are watching the Superbowl Final Los Angeles Raiders vs. Washington Redskins in Tampa, when early in the third quarter, a 60 second commercial changes the world.
Apple’s mindblowing allusion to Orwell’s “1984” was directed by Ridley Scott with a production budget of $900.000. It only aired one single time, but the film is indelibly imprinted in the minds of Mac users across the globe and is considered one of the most influential commercials of all time.
More than 20 years after that sledgehammer hit the screen, ARNOLD WORLDWIDE in Boston brings it back with an interesting and scary experiment: The creatives put the commercial back into an early pre-production state called “animatic”, an animated storyboard with a narrative text. And then they tested it. In a focus group, under real life circumstances. Real people recruited to evaluate the ad.
What you are about to see is what happens to strong advertising ideas every day. Ideas that are highly emotional and deeply touching. Ideas that are never going to unfold their power because they will never end up on screen.
This is why most ads suck.
This film was used as an opening video for the 2007 Hatch Awards.
Directors: Roger Baldacci & Lawson Clarke
Aug 2, 2008 at 6:37 pm
we want logo … we want logo … we want logo … we want dog commercials … we want logo …
Aug 3, 2008 at 12:08 pm
This is why the words “Focus Group” will instantly and completely kill any interest a Creative has in a project. People in focus groups forget reality and try to “outthink” each other with their comments.
Aug 3, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Very true …
Aug 4, 2008 at 7:55 am
My spirit, my passion, my love – they all have been tested to death during the last year. I will leave the advertising business.
Aug 9, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Sad but true! Is it that difficult to follow your intuition, save the money for just timewasting testings and put this money back into production?! It’s not that difficult, it just takes balls!
Aug 10, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Orwell–Scott–Apple vs. Focus Groups…
Der “1984”-Superbowl-Spot sollte bekannt sein, vielleicht auch das Focus-Group-Experiment der Arnold-Agentur. Wenn nicht: auf madvertising gibt es beides. Hier mein Kommentar. Mit Caveats.Wirklich kla……
Oct 4, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Research proves research works. Years ago Riney did a similar parody by using “tested advertising methods” to “improve” the classic “Think Small’ VW ad.
Feb 21, 2009 at 8:50 am
I love the video of apple’s commercial. Actually such a commercial would not have a big impact on the cunsumors but at that time , it was quite good.
I also think that advertiser should be creative and not only rely on focus groups
to get brilliant ideas, otherwise they are useless and don’t deserve to be recruited.
Mar 10, 2010 at 7:33 pm
wirklich sehr stark – und mutig!!!
May 16, 2010 at 9:49 pm
hello
i’m so pleased that i found this website. that topic was so insightful. thanks again i saved this blog.
are you planning to post similar posts?
Feb 19, 2011 at 4:29 pm
[…] sein, vielleicht auch das Focus Group Experiment von der Arnold Agency. Wenn nicht: drüben auf madvertising gibt es beide, und ich binde sie unten auch noch einmal ein. Plus Kommentar. Mit Caveats. […]
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