Thursday, March 22, 2007

1984 Redux

During the 1984 Super Bowl, an unknown company called Apple aired a most unusual commercial. It was for something called a Macintosh, which was apparently a computer intended to be used at: Home (yes, those were bizarre times).

No word on whether this odd concept ever caught on.

The paid ad only aired once on commercial television, though it has since become a touchstone moment of sorts. It was one of the first--if not THE first--"Super Bowl" commercials, and the ad heralded the arrival of the personal computer age. (See the original ad)

Someone has taken that original Mac ad, tweaked it, and turned it into one of the first attack ads of the 2008 presidential campaign. It's quite good, actually. You'll note that the symbol on the front of the runner's shirt has now morphed into a circle. That circle happens to be the logo of the Barack Obama campaign, symbolizing the candidate's refreshing pledge to, um, do lots of stuff with circles or something.




The Washington Post had a piece on the above ad and what represents. At the time it was written, however, the ad's creator was known only as ParkRidge47. An odd name, yes, until one considers that Hillary Clinton was born in Park Ridge, Illinois.... In 1947.

Parkridge 47 has since been identified as a Phil de Vellis, an employee of a company working for the Obama campaign. Upon being outed, he resigned from the firm and says he made the ad entirely on his own. Neither his bosses or the Obama campaign had anything to do with it.

Meanwhile, over at Slate.com, Jacob Weisberg has prepared an interesting article comparing presidential candidates and serial killers.

0 thoughtful ramblings: