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.
chuq
--
From the house at Pooh Corner: Chuq (a Silly Old Bear)
{fortune,menlo70}!nsc!chuqui
have you hugged your Pooh today?
The difficult we gave up on yesterday, the impossible we are giving up on now.