40years of 1984

It’s 40 years to the day of the launch of this ad – thought by industry vets to be the best ever made. In my training sessions with brand managers to evaluate and feedback on creative work, this tends to be the one I warm everyone up with.

During the sessions I always play the spot by mentioning the year and the brand, and then allow them to quantitatively score the work before we have a qualitative discussion about it.

Here’s a sample of the real life reactions it provoked from my sessions last year:

“This is the most iconic piece of marketing ever made”

“I’m confused – is there something about the year 1984 I am missing?”

“I learned about this case study on my marketing degree – it’s brilliant!”

“This is pretty boring - It takes too long to get to the point”

“This feels like a Superbowl ad, was it a Superbowl ad?”

“This is great - Ridley Scott directed it!”

“Why is she dressed like that? Is it for Hooters?”

Our opinion and taste in evaluating creative work is shaped directly by the context we have of it. The more context you have, the more knowledge you can use to guide your opinion. That’s why when deciding if an advert is ‘Good’, ‘Bad’’ or somewhere in the middle, yes specific knowledge is important (of the category/media/product/brand in question), but general knowledge (i.e. knowledge of the world) is just as critical.

For example Every person who doesn’t know about the book ‘1984’ scores this spot lower than everyone who does.

Everyone under the age of 45 tends to score this ad lower than those above that age.

And it’s probably fair to say that if this spot hadn’t turned the Apple brand around to help it become what it is today no one would remember it (?)

This is why making excellence boring (i.e. predictable, repeatable and scalable) requires a shared language for all team members.

Otherwise it’s just down to your age, your taste, your education and your knowledge of Hooters.