1984 Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Happy 28th Birthday, Macintosh!

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jan 24th, 2012)

It's hard to believe that 28 years have passed since the Macintosh was introduced by a young, bowtie-clad Steve Jobs, on January 24, 1984. It was Apple's annual stockholder meeting and Jobs (and his Macintosh crew) were going to unveil the Macintosh to the public. It was a magic moment aptly ...

Looking back at Apple's 1984 ad

by Kelly Hodgkins (Sep 12th, 2011)

Ars Technica has an excellent interview with Steven Hayden, former creative lead at advertiser Chiat/Day and one of several people behind Apple's iconic 1984 ad. Hayden sheds some light on the behind the scenes negotiations that went into this advertisement. It's well known that Apple's board ...

Apple's cheez-tastic 1984 disco promo video

by Steven Sande (Feb 25th, 2011)

For the viewing pleasure of those folks who were tuned into TUAW TV Live on Wednesday, February 16, we had a little disco inferno going. Tipped by a reader about a godawful Apple marketing film titled "We Are Apple: Leading The Way," it was so bad it just had to be good. Now we have a few more ...

Did Motorola's agency 'borrow' Super Bowl ad concept?

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 14th, 2011)

Motorola is in hot water over its Apple-inspired Super Bowl advertisement for its upcoming XOOM tablet. The video ad features a world of drones dressed in white hoodies who are eternally plugged into white earbuds. Of course, the one character breaking the trend is the one with a Motorola XOOM ...

Motorola Xoom ad 'inspired' by Apple's classic 1984 ad

by Chris Rawson (Feb 6th, 2011)

Motorola has just released a commercial for its Xoom tablet that seems to draw heavy inspiration from Apple's classic 1984 ad. In Motorola's spot, a single Xoom user roams through a sterile environment populated with hundreds of people clothed in the same monochrome, drab garments. Everyone except ...

Apple drops Consumer Reports/iPhone 4 threads down memory hole [updated]

by TJ Luoma (Jul 12th, 2010)

Update 3pm Tuesday:Wired's Epicenter blog points to at least two threads referencing the CR story that have been left intact. Perhaps an overzealous forum manager has now reined in the urge? If you were looking for a message thread on Apple's support forums pointing to Consumer Reports' article ...

7 anti-Apple cliches that need to die

by Chris Rawson (May 29th, 2010)

PC vs. Mac flamewars are older than the web itself, but it seems like the more popular/successful Apple gets, the more heated the argument gets on both sides. Almost any debate about the relative merits of one platform or another is guaranteed to degenerate into an all-out shouting match. In the ...

Half Life 2 out on Mac tomorrow

by Mike Schramm (May 25th, 2010)

The always impressive folks at Valve have released the trailer above, which will be familiar if you've ever seen a very popular Apple commercial before. And at the end, you'll also see why they've done this: Half Life 2 is coming to the Mac tomorrow, May 26, 2010. That's pretty much all we have ...

Seeing the future from the past

by Mel Martin (Dec 30th, 2008)

We'll be seeing a lot of predictions about the immediate future in the coming days. We're not immune here at TUAW and you'll likely get some predictions from your humble bloggers, but it is really interesting to look back and see how our current technology was (or was not) predicted in the past. ...

Found Footage: Steve introduces the "1984" ad

by Dave Caolo (May 22nd, 2007)

Here's a great video of Steve introducing the famous "1984" ad to a boisterous crowd (we're guessing the Macintosh team) a week before it aired during the 1984 Super Bowl. I'd say they liked it. If Steve's good at one thing, it's making a persuasive speech. Thanks, Callum! Update: Reader cuda440 ...

Follow Up: Hillary-as-Big-Brother authored on a Mac

by Erica Sadun (Mar 22nd, 2007)

"Hi. I'm Phil. I did it. And I'm proud of it...I made the 'Vote Different' ad," said Philip de Vellis on this recent Huffington Post writeup. A "proud Democrat" and Obama supporter, deVellis authored the Hillary-as-Big-Brother ad on his personal Macintosh, uploaded it to YouTube and passed the link ...

Apple '1984' ad 10th in CBS countdown

by Michael Rose (Feb 2nd, 2007)

In the realm of ridiculous rankings, what could be more trivial than "best Superbowl commercial ever?" And yet, CBS has devoted an hour tonight to this burning question. Three years ago, Apple's legendary 1984 ad ranked #4 in the fan voting; tonight it came in at #10. Starting at 9:30 ET/PT, voting ...

23 years ago we found out why 1984 wouldn't be like 1984

by Scott McNulty (Jan 22nd, 2007)

Many people call Apple's 1984 ad (this one is slightly updated), which introduced the Macintosh, as the best ad ever made. It aired 23 years ago today during Super Bowl XVIII. Head on over to Tony Long's piece for Wired to see why this iconic ad almost never saw the light of day. Here's my ...

Blast from the Past: Apple Lisa

by Erica Sadun (Dec 18th, 2006)

It's 1984. Meet the Lisa. I'm warning you now, this video is not short. It starts with a nostalgic look back by the expert who more than twenty years earlier introduced the Lisa in a televised interview. He talks about the moment in time, the technology, and his rhinoplasty. You may want to skip ...

AppleGazette lists top 10 Apple commercials

by Scott McNulty (Oct 16th, 2006)

There's nothing that warms the cockles of a blogger's heart than a good list of things. This time around AppleGazette has compiled a list of the 10 ten Apple commercials of all time. The usual suspects are there, HAL, Ellen Feiss, and Think Different. Oddly enough 1984, possibly the most famous ...