Abstract created by Good Solutions AI
In abstract:
- Macworld explores Apple’s deep Tremendous Bowl connection, from the long-lasting 1984 Macintosh industrial directed by Ridley Scott to changing into halftime present sponsor in 2023.
- Apple’s legendary Tremendous Bowl XVIII advert launched the Macintosh and revolutionized industrial promoting, although the follow-up Lemmings advert failed critically.
- Apple’s sponsorship now promotes Apple Music by way of main artists like Rihanna and Unhealthy Bunny, demonstrating the corporate’s strategic use of cultural occasions.
Computer systems and sports activities–two issues that ought to by no means be appreciated collectively, in case you settle for the high-school stereotypes about jocks versus nerds. In the present day we reside in a post-Moneyball world the place nerds with computer systems have quantified each side of athletic efficiency. However again in 1984, who would have anticipated that the massive winner of the Tremendous Bowl can be… Apple Pc?
But it surely’s true: Apple and the Tremendous Bowl have been making milestones for many years. It’s a nerds-and-jocks love story for the ages, besides today it’s extra about musicians than jocks. Let’s have a look at Apple’s lengthy historical past with the Tremendous Bowl.
The industrial period
After all, we start with probably the most well-known industrial in Tremendous Bowl historical past: Apple’s “1984” advert. It aired throughout Tremendous Bowl XVIII, through which the Los Angeles Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins 38 to 9. (That sport kicked off a run of 5 straight Tremendous Bowl blow-outs. It wasn’t an excellent Tremendous Bowl Period.)
However Apple’s advert, directed by Ridley Scott, received everybody speaking–and prolonged past the sport, with information tales discussing its shocking influence. I can’t say for positive, but it surely feels just like the cultural influence of the “1984” advert helped create your entire idea of the tentpole Tremendous Bowl industrial, high-concept and high-priced productions designed to get folks speaking outdoors the sport itself.
Nowadays, these sorts of advert campaigns are in every single place. Within the weeks earlier than the Tremendous Bowl, adverts start to seem which might be merely trailers for forthcoming Tremendous Bowl advert campaigns. Within the months afterward, these Tremendous Bowl adverts usually get chopped up into smaller bits and recycled to assist make the economics work.
Apple’s “1984” advert wasn’t like that. Whereas it was designed to tease the introduction of the unique Macintosh–and what a contemporary idea that’s, an advert that’s teasing the long run launch of an unannounced product–it was meant to face alone. Scott’s industrial, that includes grey faces in rows listening to a Massive Brother rant as a girl in colourful garments runs in gradual movement, chased by jack-booted thugs, performed on (and amplified!) Apple’s repute as a special form of firm.
It looks like Apple’s board and its CEO, John Sculley, hated the advert. Steve Jobs liked it, as a result of it was precisely his vibe: Apple as iconoclastic insurgent, altering the world by way of the discharge of a really completely different form of laptop, the Mac.
After all, the following yr, Apple blew it.
Because the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins in Tremendous Bowl XIX, Apple aired the baffling advert “Lemmings,” directed by Ridley Scott’s brother Tony. It’s received the identical discordant soundtrack, the identical grim manufacturing design…it’s very clear that the temporary was “let’s do this ‘1984’ advert once more.” The advert incorporates a bunch of blindfolded folks in enterprise apparel marching in a kind of suicidal conga line till they plunge over a cliff one after the other, all whereas whistling off-key “Excessive-Ho” from “Snow White.”
The “Lemmings” voiceover, designed to reflect the voiceover on the finish of “1984,” as a substitute introduces one thing referred to as The Macintosh Workplace. Don’t fret in case you’ve by no means heard of the Macintosh Workplace, as a result of it by no means actually shipped. Apart from, it was only a enterprise bundle consisting of Macs, a file server (that by no means materialized), and a LaserWriter.
Pause for a second and marvel at simply how badly the company fits misunderstood the facility of “1984,” which confirmed a dystopia ready to be disrupted by a revolutionary new product. They took the trimmings of that advert and as a substitute made it a few sophisticated enterprise {hardware} bundle and portrayed the potential consumers as lemmings strolling mindlessly over a cliff. A enterprise {hardware} bundle! Why! What a catastrophe!
The Apple Music period
Please pause whereas we fast-forward from the period of Joe Montana to the period of Patrick Mahomes. (Sure, I’m skipping over the “HAL” industrial that aired throughout Tremendous Bowl XXXIII in 1999.) Years later, Apple re-engaged with America’s massive sport, because the title sponsor of the Tremendous Bowl halftime present starting with Tremendous Bowl LVII in 2023. (For the report, it was a taut 38 to 35 win for Kansas Metropolis over the Philadelphia Eagles.)
Apple changed the earlier title sponsor, Pepsi, utilizing the halftime leisure showcase to hyperlink distinguished artists with its personal music streaming service. The headliner of the primary halftime was Rihanna, and it gained two Emmy awards.
Since then, the Apple Music Halftime Present has simply sped onward. In 2024, Usher headlined (and Kansas Metropolis beat the 49ers, 25 to 22 in additional time). In 2025, it was Kendrick Lamar (and the Eagles gained their revenge by beating Kansas Metropolis by 18 factors).
Which brings us to this yr. Apple’s particular halftime visitor is Puerto Rican celebrity Unhealthy Bunny, who will develop into the primary Spanish-language performer to headline a Tremendous Bowl halftime.
As you would possibly count on, Apple enjoys having its model be a serious a part of such a giant occasion, and Apple executives are continuously noticed on the sport. Final yr, CEO Tim Cook dinner and Apple Music chief Eddy Cue [frolicked within the French Quarter forward of the sport on the Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans, and two years in the past they had been in Las Vegas hanging out with, amongst different folks, Unhealthy Bunny! The plot thickens.
This yr, Apple will undoubtedly be everywhere in the occasion, as a result of the Tremendous Bowl is going down at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, solely about six miles away from Apple Park because the crow flies. The actual query is, will there be a flowery celebration at Apple Park for the NFL and music crowd? I wouldn’t put it previous Eddy Cue.
