Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!JGA@MIT-MC From: JGA%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Macintosh commercial Message-ID: <15934@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Tue, 24-Jan-84 23:17:00 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.15934 Posted: Tue Jan 24 23:17:00 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jan-84 11:40:45 EST Lines: 31 From: John G. Aspinall Would anyone else like to comment on the Apple Macintosh commercial shown during the third quarter of the Super Bowl? I thought it was a gripping visceral 60 seconds of SF, and extremely effective. The Boston Globe reports (not surprisingly) that it was directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner). In case you missed it, it showed a large auditorium filled with zombie-like people with shaved heads, dressed in grey. They are staring at a "Big Brother" figure displayed on a screen who is lecturing them along the lines of "we control the information...". Into the hall runs a blonde woman, dressed in bright red, with police-types chasing her. Before the police get to her, she whirls a sledgehammer around her head and hurls it through the screen. The screen explodes in a blast of light. Then the voice-over explains that Macintosh is coming etc., and 1984 won't be like '1984'. At first I thought the commercial was an ad for a new SF movie. But the one scene went on for too long - movie ads tend to cut among many scenes. My next thought was the Olympics - athletes preserving our freedom etc. But that didn't fit either - Big Brother was wired on a different track. Once the Apple name appeared, it all clicked - if the young woman is Apple, what other computer manufacturer is Big Brother? The deduction - IBM - was almost instantaneous. Did anyone else have this immediate reaction? Did Apple tap a lot of subliminal feelings or is this only the reaction of the computer sophisticates? Has SF produced an archetype? John Aspinall.