The Super Bowl is seen by so many people that any company that wants to have its name on the tip of everyone's tongue Monday morning has to spend money to buy an ad. According to
NBC News, three companies you may have noticed advertising during the big game were at the top of the App Store download charts on Monday. The three companies include Paramount+, Copilot and Temu. These were the three most downloaded free apps on the
App Store on Monday, proving just how much exposure during the Super Bowl can mean to a business.
Not only did
video streamer Paramount+ broadcast the Super Bowl, but it also advertised during the game. Temu is an e-commerce marketplace known for its incredibly low prices and consistently priced games. And Copilot is Microsoft's AI chatbot. Temu advertised during the Super Bowl last year, but this year the Chinese company aired the same ad four times. The ads contained the app's tagline “Shop like a billionaire” and offered consumers $15 million in freebies.
Apple's board hated the “1984” Macintosh ad
And speaking of Super Bowl commercials, the one that is considered the best of all time is the iconic 60-second spot created by Apple to advertise the new Macintosh computer in 1984. The commercial shows a dystopian society with a similar look . men walking through what appears to be a tunnel reminiscent of something you would see in a gerbil cage. These men have no expression and look like they are being beaten by “the man”.
Suddenly, we see a young woman wearing a sleeveless t-shirt and running shorts. She carries a large hammer in her hands and we see that she is being chased by helmeted and masked police officers. The woman runs into a room full of men who are all watching some sort of propaganda on a giant screen. The woman turns to gain momentum then throws the hammer into the screen which explodes in white light. And the words on the screen match what the announcer says in voiceover: “On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't look like '1984.”
Apple was of course referring to the book “1984” by George Orwell, which is a cautionary tale about what could happen when the government exerts too much control. The ad, which never showed the advertised product, kept Apple and the Macintosh computer talked about for weeks after the game, meaning it was a huge success.
By
CNN, the ad almost didn't air during the Super Bowl. Apple's board of directors was not happy about this. Lee Clow, an advertising executive who was one of the creators of the spot, said, “Everyone loved it until we showed it to the board.” Apple's board of directors was not happy that the Macintosh was not seen in advertising, even though Steve Jobs loved it. “Steve asked, 'I want something that will stop the world from introducing the Macintosh,'” Clow said. “We came up with the bravest thing possible.”
The “1984” commercial is not only the most famous Super Bowl commercial, but some experts call it the best commercial ever created.
The ad agency and Jobs had to scramble to get the ad aired over the objections of Jobs' hand-picked CEO, John Sculley. Apple's board of directors and Sculley wanted Apple to sell the Super Bowl airtime it had purchased. Clow recalls: “We sort of conspired not to sell [the already purchased air time] so we can run it once. We had a pretty big impact just by running it once. »
That's a huge understatement, and University of Michigan marketing professor Marcus Collins says, “In my opinion, it's the best commercial ever made.” Advertising aims to attract people's attention. It only aired once but we talk about it 40 years later because of its impact and cultural resonance. The ad also made other companies realize that when it comes to the Super Bowl, their ads need to be over-the-top to get noticed.
As for Apple, advertising marked a short-term spike since Sculley fired Steve Jobs in 1985, when sales of the Macintosh and Lisa failed to gain traction. Jobs went on to run Pixar, which led to its sale to Disney, and he also started a new company called NeXT Computers. Apple purchased NeXT in 1996, bringing Jobs back in his advisory role. He quickly returned to the CEO role and launched a series of incredibly successful products, including the translucent iMac G3, G4, iPod, iPhone and iPad before succumbing to pancreatic cancer in 2011.
