Looking back on Apple's '1984' commercial

Steve Hayden had been creative director of Chiat/Day, the L.A.-based ad agency that came up with the legendary Super Bowl spot introducing the Apple Mac. Hayden, now chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather, provides some nice nuggets about what it was like producing what some consider the best TV commercial ever. From his Adweek piece:

The spot had a brush with death after [Apple marketing executive] Mike Murray and [co-founder Steve] Jobs played the spot for the Apple board of directors in the fall of 1983. When the lights came up, Murray reported that most of the board members were holding their heads in their hands, shaking them ruefully. Finally, the chairman, Mike Markula, said, "Can I get a motion to fire the ad agency?" They absolutely hated the spot to a man, and they were all men in those days, but left it to Jobs and [CEO John] Sculley whether to run it or not. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak saw the spot and offered to pay half the cost of running it out of his personal checking account.

Strangely, Jobs had questioned the buy in the first place, saying "I don't know a single person who watches the Super Bowl." Well, in the case of Jobs, maybe not so strange.