Ridley Scott's "1984" Apple Ad -The YouTube Culture & Presidential Politics
The instant popularity of an attack video posted on YouTube that mocked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton prompted plenty of talk this week about how an ordinary citizen can influence the course of a presidential campaign by tapping into the power of the Web 2.0 social media culture. But the unmasking of the filmmaker as an employee of a company on the payroll of Clinton's Democratic presidential rival, Sen. Barack Obama, raises questions about whether the more old-fashioned art of political dirty tricks was at play.
Political foul-play aside, what the ad (which has been viewed online more than 2 million times, and which closes by flashing Obama's Web address) underscored, was the power of the image of Big Brother and the original 1994 Apple ad by Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Kingdom of Heaven).
We are living in the age of the image. Images are imprinted, wrote George Steiner, the philosopher and literary critic, almost in the manner of genetic information, on our sensibility. Think of our remembrance of history and what remains most vivid? Images: images of Caesar being stabbed in the Senate Forum, Hitler's manic raging speeches, Churchill strolling jut-jawed through the ruin's of the Battle of Britain, the planes crashing into the Twin Towers. The image in the Hillary Clinton ad was a takeoff on the original Apple ad showing the forces of good (the Apple counter-culture) destroying the image of evil, Big Brother (image above) and totalitarian rule portrayed in George Orwell's novel 1984.
The commercial was broadcast during the 1984 Super Bowl XVIII. Steve Jobs' intention with the ad was to equate Big Brother with the IBM PC and a nameless female action hero, portrayed by Anya Major, with the Macintosh.
Comments on the Clinton ad keep pouring in to YouTube, some linking Obama to the video: "This was the worse thing Obama could have done," one user wrote yesterday, others praising its ingenuity, "I love that ad! Hillary Clinton is as much a part of the machine as Bush . . . Reagan." The spot has also spawned imitators, such as a five-minute mash-up video titled "Vote Smart: a warning to all women about Hillary Clinton," which has been viewed more than 230,000 times. Check out the Clinton/Obama ad below. Posted by Casey Kazan.
Great article; one of my favorite ads of all time, and why I still love Macintosh.
BTW, there's a typo:
"...and the original 1994 Apple ad by film..."
Thanks, Lynn...corrected, and thanks for the kind word! : ))
Casey.
Posted by: Lynn Riley | March 23, 2007 at 09:30 PM