Amaya Toman You'd probably be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't know the iconic commercial 1984 promoting Apple's first Macintosh. The ad itself is sure to be instantly etched in the memory of anyone who saw it. Now, thanks to copywriter Steve Hayden, we have a great opportunity to view the original storyboard for the legendary ad.
The storyboard consists of a series of drawings that had the task of creating the most accurate idea of the planned advertising spot. This technique was first used by Disney in the thirties of the last century, today storyboards are a common and obvious part of almost any filming, starting with a few seconds of commercials and ending with feature-length images. A storyboard can include simple as well as highly detailed drawings capturing essential parts of the final image.
The storyboard for the 1984 spot consists of a total of 14 color drawings and one final one, showing the last shot of the spot. Low resolution images posted by the website Business Insider as part of a trailer for a podcast hosted by Steve Hayden.
Source: Business Insider / Steve Hayden
The 1984 advertisement was indelibly written in history. But it wasn't enough and she didn't have to see the light of day at all. Probably the only people at Apple who were excited about the idea of the spot were Steve Jobs and John Sculley. Apple's board of directors resolutely rejected the ad. But Jobs and Sculley believed in the idea wholeheartedly. They even paid for ninety seconds of airtime during the Super Bowl, which was traditionally watched by almost all of America. The ad was broadcast nationally only once, but it was broadcast by various local stations and received definitive immortality with the mass spread of the Internet.
