The Super Bowl ad by Apple 30 years ago that helped usher in the big budget, blockbuster TV ad during the big game, almost got killed at its inception, recalled John Sculley, former Apple CEO, speaking at a pow-wow Thursday sponsored by Zeta Interactive.
The 1984 commercial was designed to play off George Orwell’s novel 1984 and its frightening world view of the thought police and Big Brother.
When it was first previewed by the Apple board, they did not think much of it. “You’re not going to show this, are you?” Sculley recalled one board member asking.
“Yeah, we are; it’s a great ad,” Sculley replied. Besides, he pointed out, Apple had already purchased two minutes of air time.
“See if you can sell the minutes,” he said the board instructed.
“Jay Chiat sold one of the minutes, so we still had one,” recalled Sculley, “Although I heard afterwards that he did not try too hard to sell the second minute.”