Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Applespeak 2010

In 1984, during the Super Bowl, Apple put up a commercial that ripped the doors off, originating the tradition of earth-shattering commercials on that hallowed sports occasion.

The commercial showed a great hall, filled with row after row of identical, seated clones, all watching a large screen which projected the flickering image of a dictator, bellowing Newspeak to the throng. Then, down the center aisle, an athletic man, carrying a sledge hammer, ran toward the screen. As he neared the front, he began swinging the hammer around his head. When he let it go, the hammer made a graceful arc toward the screen and smashed it to smithereens. The inmates, deprived of their sustenance, began to howl, identically.

The message was clear: Steve Jobs was way cooler than Bill Gates.

So far in the new millennium, Steve Jobs is still the coolest guy around. But I'm here to tell you that the jig is up with these 1984 metaphors.

Today, in 2010, Larry and Sergey ought to remake the commercial with the two of them running down the aisle with hammers to throw up against a big screen of Steve Jobs, bellowing Applespeak to an admiring Bog.


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