Ridley Scott on "1984" for Apple

Ridley Scott is probably the most oft-cited ad directors turned feature film director. Making his start in commercial as far back as the 1960s, Ridley Scott earned a reputation as one of the best ad men in England. He also earned more money than most people could spend.

The 1984 ad for Apple to mark the launch of their Macintosh computer is now widely regarded as a landmark advert: cinematic beauty marking the birth of the Mac. Only shown once at the America during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII

Using imagery conjured up from George Orwell's 1984, ad writers Steve Hayden and Lee Clow, represented the birth of the Macintosh as a means of saving humanity from "conformity". After seeing this, I think I will have to invest in a copy of Karen Stabiner's Inventing Desire: Inside Chiat/Day, which details the day to day working of the agency Chiat/Day, who were responsible for this work. Apparently, Apple initially rejected the concept, but Chiat/Day knew it would work, so they shot it out of their own pocket and sold the finished ad to Apple. Confident, eh?!

Interesting to note, that this commercial came from Ridley after he had made Alien and Blade Runner, his masterpieces.

A classic.