Toto - I don't think we're in 1984 any more...

As a metric of where society and technology are headed its always interesting to look to advertising.  While the transition from paper to video has always been interesting to me from the perspective of computers and printing I think that one of the most pivotal ads was the Apple "1984" ad (see it here).

This ad is a classic and will probably always remain so.  The reasons for this are simple yet interesting.

For one thing there is really no talking during the crucial portion of the ad - from the start to the explosion at the end.  The pictures tell the entire story: everyone understands being in "trouble" and being chased by the "authorities".  Everyone understand the representation of "conformity".  Everyone understand the emotional elements involved in "breaking out" from that conformity.

Then there was "Lemmings".  I always liked this ad and I thought it never was quite as famous as the original 1984 ad.  You see a long line of blindfolded office workers marching through desolation, each with their hand on the shoulder of the one in front.  "High Ho, High Ho, its off to work we go" whistling eerily in the background.  You see that the line ends in a cliff where each worker in turn falls into the abyss.  Again the visualization tells the story: Everyone understands mindless conformity at work.  Everyone relates to "High Ho, High Ho" as it relates to work.  Everyone understands the urban myth of lemmings falling off the cliff into the sea.

The image is selling the products: The image of "I hate to be like everyone else" and "I hate to conform".

Who would miss this?  Who would not understand what was meant.

In the days of print ads it was necessary to convey the entire concept in a single image - an image someone might only glance at for a second or two.  Maybe there was some text as well - which had to be short and sweet.  The ad had to have an impact or people would not remember it.

And, after all, remembering it was the entire point.

Fast forward twenty five or so years to today.  In yesterday's Super Bowl, was the Motorola ad ("Empower the People").  (Supposedly this ad makes fun of the Apple 1984 ad because the novel 1984 is being read on the tablet at one point.)

This by a company that produces, at least in my opinion, junk phones (I got rid of the last one I had years ago...).  The point is again one about conformity.  Only in this ad the non-conformist (at least by his clothing) is a 30-something guy wondering through the modern city trappings of the work-a-day world (subway, office building, elevator).  All the workers are wearing white hooded clothes - all with Apple (supposedly) ear-buds listening to some unknown music - all slogging through their conformist universe.  His eye is on a girl who he sends a video of flowers he creates on his Motorola tablet.

At the end we are told that its "The table to create a better world" and, below, "Android is a Google trademark."

First of all there is no real emotion here.  The ad does not portray where things might go (like 1984) nor does it portray the folly of where things are (like Lemmings).  Instead it portrays a sad picture of today's reality - 30-somethings (along with wanabees) wandering about in a digital haze, on their way to work, plugged into their music players.

Secondly, why does this guy need his tablet computer to talk to this girl?  Can't he just tap her on the shoulder and hand her the flowers instead of taking a picture of them?

Sadly, since this is how things actually are in today's hip young digital world and since the ad does not poke fun at this in any significant way we don't have any emotional motivation for liking this for this character.  This lack of empathy is further reinforced because the protagonist is dressed to conforming perfection in 30-something work wear.

(Perhaps this touches youngsters in their 30's in someway that I don't understand - though no one that age watching the ad with me seemed to be touched or to care about this ad...)

Interestingly without Motorola telling me that the protagonist is using their tablet computer I would have simply thought it was an iPad - again the message of "me to" conformity is reinforced in a bad way: as Motorola conforming to the Apple model.

I suppose that the modern ad agencies (like Anomaly who created this ad) don't understand the purpose of the original Apple ads: to thumb its nose in the face of overwhelming conformity.  Or it may be that they don't understand that they are a generation of conformists - everyone being unique - just like everyone else.

No, the point Steve Jobs made in 1984 was that he we building tools for non-conformists.  That he and his company was not a conformist.  And that you, as a purchaser of his products, could proudly display that you were also a non-conformist.

Sadly for Motorola all they did was make me think they were all about "conforming" to Apple's view of the world...